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.