When Rianne Van Rompaey was 17, and her agent requested her about her desires, she didn’t maintain again: {a magazine} cowl, a Hollywood film. “And perhaps after that,” she recollects answering, “I’ll begin a restaurant.” Although her response had a hoop of teenage naïveté to it, the Dutch mannequin, now 26, has checked journal covers off her listing and is working towards the Hollywood half, taking appearing lessons and looking for the precise mission.
Once I meet her at her company in Amsterdam, you’d by no means have the ability to inform, from her low-key demeanor, that she’s recent from Chanel’s couture runway. In her dwelling base, she’s blissfully removed from the style business bubble. (“Dutch folks, bless them,” she quips. “I’m in my pajamas on my bike daily.”) After virtually 9 years within the business, “I’ve relaxed into it,” she tells me. “I’ve realized that my physique doesn’t should look a sure means, and my face doesn’t should look a sure means. I don’t should be excellent. That made me take pleasure in it a lot extra.”
That wasn’t at all times the case. At 18, she was handpicked by Nicolas Ghesquière to stroll his extremely anticipated debut present for Louis Vuitton. “I went from this highschool child to being on prime of the business inside sooner or later, mainly,” she recollects. “It’s an unimaginable and weird strategy to begin your grown-up life.” After feeling considerably misplaced at first, she now adores the way in which she will get to stretch her appearing muscle tissue on set. “Placing on these characters can also be a strategy to shield myself,” she says. “As a result of it’s a job the place it at all times feels such as you’re solely ever pretty much as good as your final shoot or present.” Her dream position? Somebody who just isn’t stunning. “As a mannequin,” she says, “I’ve been enjoying the position of the beautiful lady for thus lengthy. I might like to play elements the place I’m falling aside, bodily and emotionally.”
Having traveled the world for work, Van Rompaey acknowledges her privileged place. She seems to be on the refugee disaster dominating the information and finds one component lacking: empathy. She is working with the Dutch group VluchtelingenWerk Nederland (Refugee Work Netherlands) to fulfill refugees and hearken to their tales. She explains how, one story at a time, she desires to make the world slightly bit kinder. Then she pauses, laughs, and jokes: “And that is how I’m going to save lots of the world. Then I’ll open up that restaurant.”
Lead picture: High, Loewe. Slipdress, $95, bodysuit, $60, bra, $45, NKDYOU (worn all through). Pasties (worn all through), Neva Nude, $25. Choker (worn all through), Isaac Manevitz for Ben-Amun.
Hair: Didier Malige at Artwork Companion; make-up: Fulvia Farolfi for Chanel;
mannequin: Rianne Van Rompaey at DNA Fashions; producer: John Nadhazi at VLM Productions.
This text seems within the October 2022 concern of ELLE.
Noëlle de Leeuw is a contract author based mostly in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her work has beforehand been printed in titles as Harper’s Bazaar Netherlands and Food52. When Noëlle isn’t writing, she could be discovered cooking pasta for mates or rewatching her favourite romcoms for the umpteenth time.
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