Rising Model Tess McMillan Needs To Be On Your Radar

I really, really wanted it,” Tess McMillan recalls of being an outsider looking in at the modelling industry a year ago. “But all I could think was, is it realistic? Is it something I can actually do?”

What started off as a longshot became a viable career because the Texas-born 17-year-old made it happen herself. She found a fashion photographer she could relate to on Instagram – Heather Hazzan – and asked her to share her portraits with New York agencies. Muse Management came calling, and McMillan says “she fell in love… the agents just had this energy”.

Her first job was promotional work for J. C. Penney’s Dallas outpost, shortly followed by an editorial in Barneys' in-house magazine, The Window. She felt like she’d hit the jackpot. “Growing up you see movies like The Devil Wears Prada, and you think, 'Gosh, people in the fashion industry are going to be super cold and mean'. But everyone has been so nice and welcoming.”

Now 18, McMillan has got passport stamps from Berlin (by way of Zalando) and London (courtesy of British Vogue’s Botticelli-esque September shoot styled by Poppy Kain and shot by Charlotte Wales). She has taken up permanent residence in Brooklyn after a brief stint in a “nun-hostel type situation” on the Upper East Side. “I’m not Catholic, but it was cheap accommodation for working women,” she explains. “I’d take the elevator up to my room after a modelling job and be surrounded by nuns standing in awkward silence.”

The last-minute lifestyle and sporadic scheduling suits her, as she admits to being “the kind of person who doesn’t tend to plan their life very well – I’m not a fan of routine.” Shows are not something she has considered (yet), because she gets stage fright. “It’s something I would need to get over in order to do runway,” she shares. “And I just love print modelling so much because it’s nice to see the finished product.”

A two-year acting course at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts will help iron out any nerves about performing in front of an audience. But don’t expect McMillan to promote her budding stage and cinema career. “I have a love/hate relationship with social media,” she sighs. “I like sharing things that are going on, but I get easily overwhelmed by it. I prefer to keep my Instagram personal.”

When asked who she looks up to in the industry, her answer is indicative of her down-to-earth attitude. The photographer who shot her Models.comportfolio - Franco Schicke - asked her for coffee beforehand in order to build up her confidence, and his manners shot him to the top of her role model list. And creatives, including the "amazing" team at British Vogue, are what will keep her boarding a plane to London at a moment’s notice despite her looming school schedule. “I just had the best time,” she says with a touch of that Texan twang coming through.

Browse the "Age of Opulence" shoot, with McMillan in richly coloured silks, cascading frills and stately silhouettes, and it's clear that behind her cherubic face, there is a model and actress with ambition. Prepare to see Tess McMillan everywhere.