Meet Lineisy Montero, the new supermodel turning fashion on its head
Lineisy Montero, the face of 2016, strolls sunny East London in the new season's best floral looks
Words by Emily Cronin
Interview and translation by Olivia Walmsley
Photographs by Quentin de Briey
Fashion by Maya Zepinic
With a face straight out of a Modigliani painting, perhaps Lineisy Montero, 20, was always going to be in the spotlight. A mere 18 months after her first catwalk show, she is one of the most sought-after models in the industry. For autumn/winter 2016, she walked in 61 shows; she has also scooped major campaigns (Prada, Givenchy, Chanel) and covers (i-D, Teen Vogue, Dazed). ‘Everyone asks for her,’ says Carine Roitfeld, who has featured Montero in CR Fashion Book. ‘She always has a big smile because she feels confident in her job, and she’s doing very well.’
‘You’ve got to seize the moment,’ Montero says, speaking Spanish on the phone from her London hotel room two days before her Telegraph Magazine shoot. ‘That’s what I’m really trying to do, as much as possible.’
Lineisy Montero Feliz grew up in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, raised by her mother and grandmother along with two younger siblings. As a child, she dreamt of working in fashion – albeit as a designer rather than a model. ‘I loved designers like Oscar de la Renta and Dolce & Gabbana, and used to look at them and think, “Wow, one day.”’ (She has since appeared in shows for both houses.)
Scouted in an amusement park at the age of 14, she waited four years before her mother would allow her to sign with an international agency. Within months she was boarding an aeroplane for the first time and flying to Milan to make her runway debut in the autumn/winter 2015 Prada show. ‘I was super-nervous,’ she says. ‘I started thinking, “What if I faint? What if I fall over?” It was all so new. The only thing I thought on the runway was, “Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me
fortalece [I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me].”’
Prada is a kingmaker. Just as fashion insiders view its collections as bellwethers, so too do they scrutinise its cast of models for the look that will define the season. Montero stood out, not only for her new-face status, but for her hair. She was the only one of 42 models who swished down the runway without a slick ponytail, instead maintaining her natural style, a baby afro. ‘She didn’t look like anyone else,’ says casting director Ashley Brokaw, ‘and I thought for that collection she would really stand out in a great way.’
By choosing Montero, Brokaw and designer Miuccia Prada ushered in a more inclusive runway vision. ‘The timing was just right for the fashion world to be ready to embrace a black woman with an afro,’ says Elle UK fashion features director Kenya Hunt. ‘It was a transformative moment in that it gave the rest of fashion “permission” to fully embrace black beauty in all its variations.’ Certainly, black models such as Bethann Hardison in the 1970s and Roshumba Williams in the 1980s have made natural hair their trademark, but lately many black models have used extensions and chemical processes to attain a smooth, straight look. Montero’s progress has opened the door for others to adopt more natural styles (see Amilna Estevao, who goes afro for afro with Montero in a new W shoot, and Karly Loyce in a Céline campaign). ‘I’ve noticed
a little positive change,’ Montero says. ‘Before, in
fashion shows, all the models were blonde with
straight hair, but now there are always two or three morenas [women with dark complexions] with natural hair. But there’s still a little way to go.’
Any analysis of Montero’s look must take in her almond eyes, her cheekbones that are almost a parody of perfect cheekbones, her café con leche complexion, her willowy proportions, and yes, that hair. She is beautiful, sure – but more significantly she’s look-again interesting, and in command of an ethnic ambiguity that plays well in a globalised market of luxury clients. Women in London, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Shanghai and beyond can look at Montero and relate to her, imagining themselves in that coat, that dress, those shoes.
This versatility ensures her longevity, says Amanda Bretherton, president of Next London, Montero’s British agency. ‘She has a natural ability, a work ethos like no other and a gratitude that makes clients want to work with her over and over again.’
Montero says the best part of her job is travelling – her Instagram feed contains photos of her smiling on a sunlounger in Brazil, gliding down a grand staircase in Paris and mugging with friends in backstage areas all over the world. The worst is missing her family. ‘They’re really proud of my work,’ she says – something evident in her mother Enercida Feliz’s own Instagram, a digital trophy case of her daughter’s accomplishments. Recently Feliz shared photos of the family posing with a shop-window-sized image from Montero’s Zara campaign. ‘Hopefully my mother can come along to the next fashion week,’ Montero says. ‘But who knows what will happen tomorrow? I try not to plan too much.
