The Model Turning Her Back on Fashion

Dutch top model Kiki Boreel was living the glam life, working for fashion’s biggest names. Until she realised that she no longer wanted people to buy what she was being paid to sell.

It’s a story many a young teen dreams of – becoming a top fashion model, strutting down Parisian catwalks, living it up in London and Milan, and being whisked away for photoshoots in exotic locations at the drop of a hat, bag, designer bikini or any other fashion ‘must-have’.

The dream was real for Dutch model Kiki Boreel. Scouted at the age of 14, in the space of just a few years, she was working with fashion’s biggest brands: Off-White, Chanel, Bulgari and Ralph Lauren. There was a Marie Claire cover and editorials for Vogue and Elle. “I was literally living that beautiful glamorous model life, travelling or abroad most of the time. It was very careless, very free,” Kiki says, smiling half-wistfully at the recollection.

Call of conscience

It’s almost as if she’s describing someone else’s life. And in a way, she is, after making a conscious decision to turn her back on influential (and high-paying) industry clients. “I was asked for a new campaign and I thought yes, I can do that and then I almost started crying at the thought of having to shoot for that fast fashion brand. So I called my agent and told her I couldn’t do it.”

That was at the start of 2019. But it’s only been a year since Kiki has felt confident enough to go public with her decision. What sparked the change in mindset?

“It didn’t happen overnight,” she explains, describing a growing feeling of unease at what she was doing and her role in the whole – an industry she was increasingly questioning. “After a while it’s a bit empty,” she says. By this time she was also working for commercial megabrands like Mango and Zara, and doing e-commerce jobs for web shops. She saw at first hand how fast fashion was getting even faster. “When I started I would shoot 20 looks a day… that became 50 to 60 looks a day.”