How Model Lulu Tenney Prepares to Walk for Dior Couture

[lighthearted music]

[record scratches]

Oh, this is Michelle Lee,

casting director extraordinaire.

[Michelle] [laughs] Hi, Vogue.

[upbeat music]

Hello, Vogue.

We are in Paris in the Marais.

It is very early at 7:00 am.

Come with me. We're gonna go to the Dior Couture show.

My name is Lulu Tenney from Brooklyn, New York,

and I am temporarily living in Paris.

I have a life here, it feels,

which is crazy to think about,

but like, I feel kind of settled in Paris at this point.

Mm. [lips smack] Delicious.

I would've unpacked for you guys

but the airline lost all my luggage.

I kind of came to terms with it.

I was like, you know what?

Stuff, who needs it? I'll be a minimalist.

Let's try it on. Let me know what you think.

I don't have a full-length mirror.

So I've really just been guessing.

[upbeat music]

Hello.

[speaking in foreign language]

These are some of the things that I just bring

with me when I'm traveling from New York.

And it just kind of reminds me of a life

outside of where I am,

because you get homesick and you miss familiarity.

And being away a lot,

you kind of forget that there's anything else.

The first experience I had as a model was a funny story

because I was in New York, upstate,

at my sleepaway camp that I had been going to for 10 years.

And I got kind of like a telegram,

like a modern-day telegram.

And then I got it.

And it was like,

We have to pull you out of camp a couple days early

because this person named Steven Meisel

wants to shoot you for Italian Vogue cover.

And I was like, Damn it!

I'm gonna miss, like, the closing campfire!

My first instinct was sadness that I was missing that.

And then my dad picked me up early.

We drove straight down to the city.

It's a massive studio and it was just so grand.

And like, I walk in and like,

Steven's smoking a cigarette behind the camera.

He asks me

to request a song for when we're shooting.

So I requested, She's Not There.

And that was just like that for me

was the first fashion moment I ever had,

him cranking that in the studio.

And that, I think that's the moment we got the cover.

It was really exciting.

This is me, baby Lulu, age 15.

Okay. It is 8:00 am.

Call time is 7:00 am.

So we're a little bit late. We should go.

[upbeat music]

[lighthearted music]

Look at the light right now.

What?

[door thuds]

Dior was my first show I ever did in Paris.

I had been exclusive for Calvin Klein

for two and a half years, three years, in New York.

And then my first season kind of doing the whole rounds,

doing Milan, Paris.

Yeah. This is my first show here.

And I was so excited about it because it's, you know,

it's Dior, it's like a pretty huge deal.

The goal is to act, honestly,

and I've been doing more of it recently.

I mean, I was doing it like, at my high school,

three or four hours a day.

It was a really intensive school.

I mean, it's the school like, not to name-drop,

like Timothee Chalamet, you know, Jennifer Aniston,

Al Pacino,

Nicki Minaj.

Like, there's a really cool alumni list.

We're here. Let's go.

[upbeat music]

Getting some extensions.

Yeah, it can be really crazy

sometimes just doing the whole modeling thing

'cause your days are just like jam-packed sometimes.

And today, I'm doing the Dior show at 2:30,

and then I'm going straight to rehearsal

by the Eiffel Tower, getting on a motorbike to get there.

You guys will catch me.

It's gonna be wild.

But for the most part, it's normal life

with a abnormal job.

[upbeat music]

These are the shoes.

Here I am.

Before I walk,

I try to not be really affected by the environment

'cause usually there's a lot of people

and it's kind of stressful if you let it be.

So I think it's all about kind of finding a walk

that feels natural and good for you,

relaxed and genuine,

I suppose.

And then also mixed in with what the designer wants.

So I think for this dress that I'm gonna be wearing,

I feel very poised and elegant and mature,

but I know that Maria Grazia

also likes a very powerful, strong walk.

So maybe I do something like this.

So, walking,

eye aligned forward, relaxed, strong,

you know, not too mad,

happy, calm energy.

And then over here, that,

that's the camera that you look at

that has the Vogue runway picture.

So this is the most important part of the walk.

This is the picture that's gonna be everywhere.

This is the picture that people see

from the Dior Couture show.

So nail that.

Get out of there.

How was that?

This is the final look.

[upbeat music]

[piano music]

[people cheering] [hands clapping]

And that's a wrap on Dior Couture 2022.

[upbeat rock music]

Oh, yeah, let's go.

Bye, guys.

Vogue, thank you so much for coming with me today

to the Dior Couture show in Paris.

[speaking in foreign language]

I wish people know that I can do this trick with my ear.