FASHION

Supermodel Pat Cleveland on How She’s Survived Five Decades in Fashion, From Studio 54 to the Me Too Movement

“I make everybody stronger, by raising the bar, by being stronger,” says the iconic supermodel. “You set the bar for yourself first.”


When Pat Cleveland was 14 years old, a woman stopped her on the street to ask about her look. Cleveland, then an art student, had designed her own garments: a miniskirt (“pre-Twiggy,” she insisted, but just as mod) and a poplin raincoat, her hair pulled into a high, braided ponytail. That woman was an editor at Vogue; she invited Cleveland upstairs to show her designs.

“Good clothes opened doors,” Cleveland told me recently during a W photoshoot in New York. It was an early winter afternoon, the last vestiges of a recent nor’easter finally receding from the sidewalks, and Cleveland sat curled in a velvet corner booth in the lobby of the Gramercy Park Hotel; a David LaChapelle portrait of Eminem, nude except for some strategically placed dynamite, loomed overhead.

Pat Cleveland by Antonio Lopez [from a new exhibition at Danziger Gallery in New York.](https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/antonio-lopez-photography-instamatics-jerry-hall-karl-lagerfeld)

Photo by Antonio Lopez.

It has been 51 years since she signed with Ford Models, 53 since that fateful Vogue encounter on the streets. Over five decades, Cleveland became a favorite of artists, designers, and photographers including Steven Meisel, Halston, Antonio Lopez, and Karl Lagerfeld; she even went on to found a modeling agency in the mid ’90s. Still, much has changed in that time: The advent of social media has transformed how models acquire work, how fashion is broadcast to a wider audience, how that audience is able to access and consume what designers present, and Cleveland has had to keep pace with those developments. “I’m not this new generation, but I’m living in it, too,” Cleveland said. “I’m in it with them—I’m swimming through all these numbers and how many numbers do you have and how many people like you and staying on your Instagram.” (Plus, she noted, there was a quieter analogue transition: Where runway presentations were once documented with pen and ink, now photography and live-streams are the norm.)

Cleveland spread her hands across the velvet banquette as she described her relationship to the Internet. “Everything is instant and next,” she said. “We’re rushing past all this velvet, and are we actually feeling it? Are we touching the velvet? Are we not touching the velvet? I mean, I’m having a sensuous time just sitting here and feeling the stuff. Feel it,” she instructed me. I obliged.

Anna and Pat Cleveland dancing at Marc Jacobs’s [party at the Tunnel in 2015](https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/marc-jacobs-fashion-week-party/all). Photo by Sherly Rabbani.

It probably doesn’t hurt that Cleveland has a 29-year-old daughter to bridge the divide between generations. Anna Cleveland quickly established herself as a sought-after model in her own right—she’s a regular presence on the runways at Moschino and Jean Paul Gaultier, and her other credits include Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, and Haider Ackermann. When we spoke, Pat Cleveland had just returned from Amsterdam, where she had participated in a show alongside her daughter; they have also appeared in campaigns for Marc Jacobs and Lanvin together. How much, I asked Cleveland, does she think her daughter’s experience in the industry resembles her own, given the changes in technology, society, and culture in the intervening 50 years?

“The celebrity girls coming in, it’s a different kind of thing,” she said. That transition—from career models to a wider array of women modeling on runways and in campaigns and editorials—has, slowly, accompanied a greater emphasis on inclusion, whether of age, race, gender identity, nationality, or body size.

“They always used to make the girls look so sticky, skinny, and tired, make them feel pitiful,” Cleveland added. “Now, some of them are blossoming, coming back to life, because they’re realizing, ‘Yeah, I’m female, and I can look any way I want.”

This emphasis on inclusion has also benefited Cleveland, along with a contingent of previous generations’ supermodels, including Amber Valletta, Guinevere Van Seenus, Iman, and Cindy Crawford, all of whom have been enjoying something of a renaissance lately. Cleveland also proposed that newer designers are fascinated by the experiences of models of previous generations, whose careers and personal lives brought them in contact with, as was Cleveland’s case, the likes of Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol.

“You become like a storyteller,” she said. “They want to know, ‘Were you really there?’”

Though it’s easy to interpret this trend toward inclusion as just that—a trend, quick to fade—Cleveland said she believes it’s genuine, because all of fashion is, in some sense, a trend. “Fashion is a change. We change our minds, we change our clothes,” she said. “You just have to set a trend for yourself—this is my trend, this is who I am.”

I asked her if she was ever concerned about ushering her daughter into the industry, especially considering the recent allegations of sexual misconduct that have come out against prominent photographers like Terry Richardson, Patrick Demarchelier, and Mario Testino, as well as model agents. “It’s not as bad as other places. It’s not as bad as politics or the movies,” Cleveland said. Really? I wondered. “I know, for sure. Me Too, honey,” she added, with a slight laugh. “Fashion’s probably the safest place you can be.” Still, she observed the grueling work days, sometimes as long as 16 hours, and assertive personalities that populate fashion can be taxing, and a career in modeling requires physical, as well as mental, fortitude. She has reminded her daughter of this—the necessity of taking time for herself, of obtaining some distance from her work, in order to prevent burnout. “To embellish a woman is a great thing,” she said. But, at the same time, “a plant gets to the point where it has to drop all its petals and just seed out. That’s what you have to do every few seasons if you’re in this business. You have to seed out; you have to go away and disappear for a while.” (She means this quite literally: “Get into nature, put your hands in the dirt,” she said. “That’s how I’ve survived.”)

Paul von Ravenstein, Anna Cleveland, and Pat Cleveland. Photo by Simbarashe Cha.

While she has continued modeling, Cleveland also recently began making art—primarily collage and painting—which she plans to show at a solo gallery exhibition in London next year. She is curating a show of “black American history art” by her mother, Lady Bird, and she’s recording an album. And she, Anna, and her son, Noel Van Ravenstein, a model and emerging designer, are working on an as-yet-undisclosed fashion project.

In addition to “seeding out,” this, above all, has propelled Cleveland through a half-century in fashion: a relentless drive forward, to seek out innovation, to do better. “My family’s been slaves, kings, queens, everything. I’ve had everything in my family, and I’m not letting anybody down because everybody fought so hard to be alive, just to be in America,” she said.

“I make everybody stronger, by raising the bar, by being stronger,” she added. “You set the bar for yourself first.”

Your Spring 2018 Horoscope Comes to Life

After moving from Los Angeles to New York City to pursue writing, Paloma Elsesser found herself modeling. Her big break came when makeup guru Pat McGrath chose Elsesser to appear as one of the first faces of McGrath’s new beauty line; since then, she’s become a sought-after model for the likes of Fenty x Puma and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and Eckhaus Latta. And, seeing as Elsesser counts Chrissie Miller—the designer behind the label Sophomore and the daughter of fashion’s favorite astrologist, Susan Miller—among her friends, it’s perhaps only to be expected that she take a passing interest in the movements of the stars. (Her parents are “super into it,” she noted; Elsesser herself used to follow it more closely than she does now.) “I do see how my sign manifests in many of my behaviors,” Elsesser added. “Aries, I believe, are fiercely loyal and very intense, because we’re highly emotional. We’re, I’ve noticed, very talkative, outgoing, competitive.” She paused for a beat, lowering her voice to a singsong whisper. “Oopsy.”

Paloma Elsesser at IMG wears Prada jacket, Gap t-shirt, Marina Rinaldi pants, Jennifer Fisher hoop earrings, Bond ring, and Prada shoes. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

If you were to meet model Ali Michael on a job, she might ask you to text your mom to find out the precise time and location of your birth, according to your birth certificate. “I just did it yesterday,” she said on a recent March afternoon, “and her life was changed.” Around seven years ago, Michael—a Taurus, Scorpio rising, Aquarius moon—received her full chart from an astrologer friend in Los Angeles (“very typical, very Los Angeles,” she commented), and she’s been an avid follower of the movements of celestial bodies ever since. Still, she said she tries not to attribute too much of her day-to-day to the influence of the stars; you won’t catch her, for example, bracing for the upcoming Mercury retrograde. “I don’t want to live my life based on astrology, but I think it can be useful to make yourself aware of certain tendencies you might have,” she said. “I have two polarities inside me: One is very in tune with spirituality and a greater force, and then I have the capability to be very detached and nihilistic,” she added. “Astrology is reassuring and comforting, because it’s a force that’s greater than we are.”

Ali Michael at NEXT wears Rodarte dress, bracelets, and boots, and headband from New York Vintage. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

Mayowa Nicholas and Samile Bermannelli had met in passing on the fashion week circuit in seasons past, but it wasn’t until a recent March afternoon that the two Geminis discovered that they were, in fact, astrological twins: They were both born on May 22, 1998. (Bermannelli has a pair of tattoos to mark the day—on one arm, the Gemini symbol, and on the other, the number 22.) And by the end of their three hours together on set, they were finishing each other’s sentences as they outlined their shared star sign’s mercurial nature. “I hate when people say we are two-faced,” Bermannelli said. After all, it’s not that the twins are inherently duplicitous; instead, their moods change quickly, and the self the Gemini projects is not always the same as the self she keeps private. “We Geminis get irritated quickly,” Nicholas explained. But then, “we can switch, like, ‘we need to be happy now,’” she added. Bermannelli agreed. “Why do we understand each other?” Nicholas asked. Because, well, they’re Geminis.

Samile Bermannelli at Elite Model Management NYC wears Versace gown, Jennifer Fisher hoop earrings, Manolo Blanik shoes. Mayowa Nicholas at The Society Management wears Versace jumpsuit, Jennifer Fisher hoop earrings, Gianvito Rossi shoes. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

“I’m a moon goddess,” supermodel—and Cancer—Pat Cleveland said as she took a seat in the lobby lounge of the Gramercy Park Hotel. Her sign is a famously nurturing and empathetic one: “No matter what, you’re going to be a mother to somebody,” she explained. Astrology is something that has fascinated Cleveland for a long time. An emerging model in the ’70s, she recalled an era when acquaintances would introduce themselves with their star sign: “When I first met my husband,” she recalled, “I said, ‘Oh, I’m a Cancerian.’” It turned out that Paul van Ravenstein—her husband of more than 30 years, with whom she has two children—Anna Cleveland and Noel van Ravenstein, both models—was also a Cancer. It’s fortunate, then, that Cancers are especially compatible signs. But, born June 23, Cleveland also teeters on the edge of Gemini, with a moon in Libra, and she quickly reeled off qualities she drew from each sign: a facility with words, thanks to Gemini; a penchant for comfort and familiarity, thanks to Cancer; and an eye for aesthetics, thanks to Libra. She first began exploring astrology as a teenager growing up in New York City, where she would make pilgrimages to the occult specialist Weiser Bookshop on Lexington Avenue. “Astrology is so ancient,” she said. “The forbidden knowledge—it’s forbidden to know so much about somebody, like I know about you right now.” She looked at me intensely. “Every person becomes like an exciting book to read.”

Pat Cleveland at The Model Scoop wears Nili Lotan, Giles scarf, Manolo Blahnik shoes, Cartier hoop earrings, bracelet, and ring. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

Belarusian model Sasha Kichigina, a self-professed woman of science, once put considerable effort into debunking astrology—even calling up a friend’s astrologer just to mislead her; naturally, as a result, the astrologer was “wrong 95 percent of the time,” Kichigina said recently. But at the same time, she considers herself “the Leo-est Leo you can find.” (Her lion-like head of tousled curls, just one of the characteristics that have made her a regular on the runway at Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, and Jeremy Scott, also bears mentioning.) Outgoing by nature, Kichigina shares Leo’s fondness for the spotlight and seizing control of a situation—yet, she admitted, she’s something of an introvert. “Because there’s a weird desire to be the center of attention, you force yourself to be an extrovert,” the 19-year-old model said. “Leo says, ‘Go, communicate, socialize,’ and inner Sasha says, ‘No, no, I don’t want to be born on the 15th of August.’”

Sasha Kichigina at Elite wears Dior top, pants and shoes, Pologeorgis jacket, David Webb earrings and rings. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

Since she first emerged into the fashion consciousness in 2015—when she walked no fewer than 74 shows during a single season—Estonian model Alexandra Elizabeth Ljadov, a proud Virgo, has dipped into every facet of modeling, working both behind and in front of the camera on various video and editorial projects. She recently art-directed a surreal new video for rapper and Mr. Robot actor Joey Bada$$, and she has begun scripting her own short film, a psychological thriller set in the fashion world. (Nicolas Winding Refn, watch your back.) “I love acting and obviously, I love attention, hello,” she said, giggling. As her sign might indicate, she’s able to navigate these various projects thanks to a steadfast, organized nature, especially when it comes to her creative endeavors. “If I commit to something, I’m there,” she said. “I’m going to come through.”

Alexandra Elizabeth at The Society wears Simone Rocha dress and barrettes, Dior shoes. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

Libra, the sign of the scales, is astrology’s great diplomat, an arbiter of harmony, “no light without dark and vice versa,” explained Dutch model Julia van Os recently. It was late morning at the Beekman Hotel in Manhattan’s Financial District, and her Boston terrier, Sid, tugged at her leash as she considered the air sign’s nature. “We love beauty and order, which is all very true,” van Os added. (She also admitted to a bit of a perfectionist streak, as well as a need to balance her social obligations with time to herself.) Van Os first emerged as one of the most sought-after models of the Fall 2015 season, during which she walked more than 40 shows; she has since appeared in campaigns for brands including Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen and walked for the likes of Balmain, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, and Brandon Maxwell. She first found her interest in astrology whetted by a book she discovered in her grandmother’s home. “I was like, ‘I don’t really believe it’—but it makes so much sense,” she admitted, upon reading the details of her own chart. “It makes sense that everything in this world is a balance between different elements.”

Julia Van Os at Women wears Dundas dress, Swarovski earrings, Tiffany & Co. ring. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

It was just a year and a half ago that South Sudanese–Australian model Duckie Thot met Kanye West at a casting in New York City, resulting in her first runway gig—walking the now-infamous Yeezy Season 4 show on Roosevelt Island. Since then, Thot has established herself as one of the industry’s most formidable young models, earning a coveted role as one of the faces of Fenty Beauty and starring as the titular Alice in Tim Walker’s Alice in Wonderland–inspired Pirelli calendar. It’s not hard to see why she’s become a close collaborator of both Rihanna and Pat McGrath, endowed as she is with boundless energy and an outsize personality, which she credits to her Scorpio nature: “We’re loud, we’re cute, we’re sensitive,” she explained on a recent spring afternoon. “We’re creative little bums.” Plus, she added, “we’re quite raunchy in bed, apparently.” Apparently? “No comment! No comment,” she squealed, bounding up from her chair. “I’m not answering that question. That is a secret one.”

Duckie Thot at NY Model Management wears Dilara Findikoglu gown, Lonely Hearts bra, Araks brief (worn underneath), Chrome Hearts bracelets, Chrome Hearts ring on right hand, Chrome Hearts bracelets, Chrome Hearts, Bonheur Jewelry, and John Hardy rings on left hand. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

Wearing a crystal-encrusted grill across her incisors, transparent sunglasses whose lenses were dusted with glitter (perhaps not the most practical, but cool as hell), and a fluffy, cropped bomber jacket, Jazzelle Zanaughtti—the model who is also known by her Instagram handle, @uglyworldwide—strode into a sprawling suite at the Beekman Hotel on a recent March morning. Zanaughtti is a Sagittarius, the extroverted, adventurous fire sign—though she hardly keeps apprised of the migrations of constellations. “I barely know my own,” she admitted. Nevertheless, she listed a litany of Sagittarian traits with which she identifies. “Free-spirited, likes to travel,” she said. “Adventurous, rebellious, intense.” Instead of following the stars, Zanaughtti prefers to take her spirituality with sage and Palo Santo, with which she smudges her apartment each morning. As Mercury prepares to enter a retrograde period, it’s never too soon to start banishing negativity. The ritual, in addition to its cleansing properties, has another benefit: relieving the smell of cigarette smoke inside the flat.

Jazzelle Zanaughtti at NY Model Management wears Junya Watanabe dress and necklace, Capezio bodysuit, Kat Kim and Jennifer Fisher earrings, Lynn Ban rings. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

Hunter Schafer, who has walked for the likes of Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, and Helmut Lang by Shayne Oliver, doesn’t put much stock in astrology (“I don’t believe in entities that aren’t physical,” she said), nor does she consider herself much of a Capricorn—evidencing a groundedness that, coincidentally, might be her most Capricorn trait. (By contrast, she does not relate to the sign’s apparent penchant for discipline and order: “I’m told,” she said, “that I need to pay attention to a moon sign or something.”) Still, her tenaciousness and motivation show through in her every project. In addition to a modeling career on the ascent, this fall she’s heading to London’s storied fashion institution, Central Saint Martins, to study design—and, since 2016, she’s been embroiled in a lawsuit, alongside the American Civil Liberties Union, against North Carolina for the state’s so-called “bathroom bill.” So, as for that Capricornian combativeness, “I’ll fight who I want to,” she said. “Who I need to.”

Hunter Schafer at Elite wears Tom Ford suit jacket, skirt, shoes, De Beers earrings and necklace. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Beekman Hotel, Dishful.

In October 2017, Dutch model Betsy Teske, an Aquarian, made headlines when, during the Paris Fashion Week Spring 2018 shows, she became the first plus-size model (or, as she describes herself, “curvy model”) to walk for Alexander McQueen. Just a few months later, designer Sarah Burton asked her back—this time, for the Fall 2018 season, during which she appeared along with the likes of Stella Tennant and Liya Kebede. She may not follow astrology particularly closely, but she certainly identifies with her Aquarian traits: “The definition of Aquarius is me,” she said, unspooling a whole list of characteristics. “Honest, open, creative, insecure—that’s true,” she added. The sign is also a reliably intellectual one. As her career has gained momentum, Teske, an aspiring lawyer attending law school in her native Netherlands, has put her education on a brief hiatus, but she plans to return to the books before long. “It’s a hard thing to say about yourself,” she said, “but actually, intellectual, yeah.”

Betsy Teske at Muse Management wears Calvin Klein 205W39NYC dress and shoes, Tom Ford glasses. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

The 12th sign in the zodiac, Pisces is, according to model and astrology aficionada Rachel Hilbert, “all the signs in one,” she explained recently. It’s particularly known as the artistic, shy sign, content to spend time alone—but Hilbert, a one-time Victoria’s Secret Pink spokesmodel who began learning about astrology in her early teens, poring over books at a bookstore in the New York suburb where she grew up, relates more to her rising-Gemini side. On a recent early spring afternoon, just a few days before her birthday (March 14), she perched on a chair in the Gramercy Park Hotel’s lobby lounge, a David LaChapelle portrait of Eminem looming overhead. Hilbert, endowed with Gemini’s outgoing, gregarious nature, spoke in rapid-fire sentences, outlining the contours of astrology with overwhelming enthusiasm. An avid follower of not only astrology, but also tarot and psychic readings, she may not read her horoscope every day, but she certainly consults it when confronted with important life decisions—“all the time, even though I shouldn’t at all”—and whenever a full moon or Mercury retrograde looms in the cosmos. (Mercury enters a retrograde period again on March 22.) “I never sign any contracts; I never make any big decisions; I never make any money decisions, because I get too psyched out,” she said. During the lunar eclipse in January, she did acupuncture and sound healing: “That’s the kind of stuff I love,” she said.

Rachel Hilbert at The Lions wears Alexander McQueen dress, necklace, belt and boots. Directed by Cycy Sanders; styled by Simon Robins at CLM; hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Frankie Boyd at Streeters using Tom Ford Beauty; manicures by Eri Handa for Chanel at MAM-NYC; set design by Bette Adams at MHS Artists. Director of photography: Peter Mylachaski; gaffer: Brad Reeb; gaffer assistant: Ben Peck; second camera: Jason Amendolara; production assistant: Eddie Tyler; fashion assistants: Rasaan Wyzard, Jonathan Coker. Special thanks to the Gramercy Park Hotel, Dishful.

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