I remember the first time I saw the 67-year-old model Ingmari Lamy, a woman who has graced the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in her 20s and walked for some of the biggest names in the industry in her 60s. I had just shown my first collection at Stockholm Fashion Week and I was backstage putting the clothes back on the hangers, trying to calm down, breathing through the adrenaline rush that is the aftermath of a runway show. I saw her across this huge room cluttered with people running back and forth and I completely stopped in my tracks, mesmerized by this otherworldly woman. With her long white hair softly framing her kind face, she had an aura of complete calm. I remember thinking, “That is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, who is she?”. Since then our paths have crossed every now and then, including a spontaneous collaborative photo session in between a dentist appointment and a Paris-bound flight (that's how she rolls!) and over the years we became friends. Now, two years to the day after my first encounter with Ingmari, I caught up with her in the middle of another Stockholm Fashion Week, over some lunch and tea in a frostbitten city.
Lina Michal: Hi Ingmari, I’m so glad to see you again! For those who don’t know you, could you tell us how you got started as a model?
Ingmari Lamy: When I was 19 I went to Paris with my boyfriend and we ended up one night at a private nightclub. We talked to this man in the line outside and he invited us to sit at his table, I can’t remember his name... When I was on the dancefloor he and my boyfriend made plans for the next day. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were going to take me to a modeling agency. So the next day this man came by and the three of us went to the agency, and I had but walked through the door when a photographer booked me for the next day. We entered the next room, and there was another photographer, who booked me for the following week for a shoot with Harper’s & Queen. That photographer was Bob Richardson.
That’s insane! Well, while we’re on the subject of photographers, you’ve worked with some of the fashion industry’s biggest names: Sarah Moon, David Bailey, Irving Penn, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Guy Bourdin and many more. Can you think of an extra memorable shoot?
That first one with Bob Richardson was unbelievable, he was very charismatic and special. He guided the models, whether they were doing their first shoot with him or had worked with him before. He kind of manifested what he wanted out of the picture. So my first shoot with him for Harper’s & Queen had a lot of leather clothes, and he did the poses and showed me exactly how he wanted me to pose. And then he said: “...and now cry.”
Wow.
It was really cool. Another memorable occasion came later. You know, back then the collections were shot late at night, taken to the shooting locations in special cars so no one would see them. They were kept a secret until the magazines came out half a year later. That’s
Lina Michal: Hi Ingmari, I’m so glad to see you again! For those who don’t know you, could you tell us how you got started as a model?
Ingmari Lamy: When I was 19 I went to Paris with my boyfriend and we ended up one night at a private nightclub. We talked to this man in the line outside and he invited us to sit at his table, I can’t remember his name... When I was on the dancefloor he and my boyfriend made plans for the next day. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were going to take me to a modeling agency. So the next day this man came by and the three of us went to the agency, and I had but walked through the door when a photographer booked me for the next day. We entered the next room, and there was another photographer, who booked me for the following week for a shoot with Harper’s & Queen. That photographer was Bob Richardson.
That’s insane! Well, while we’re on the subject of photographers, you’ve worked with some of the fashion industry’s biggest names: Sarah Moon, David Bailey, Irving Penn, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Guy Bourdin and many more. Can you think of an extra memorable shoot?
That first one with Bob Richardson was unbelievable, he was very charismatic and special. He guided the models, whether they were doing their first shoot with him or had worked with him before. He kind of manifested what he wanted out of the picture. So my first shoot with him for Harper’s & Queen had a lot of leather clothes, and he did the poses and showed me exactly how he wanted me to pose. And then he said: “...and now cry.”
Wow.
It was really cool. Another memorable occasion came later. You know, back then the collections were shot late at night, taken to the shooting locations in special cars so no one would see them. They were kept a secret until the magazines came out half a year later. That’s