來欣賞這位大器晚成的模特

On Jan. 8, 2018, photographer Janis Wilkins returned home from an afternoon yoga class to find her Washington Heights apartment building engulfed in flames.

2018年1月8日，攝影師Janis Wilkins下午結束瑜伽課回到家中，發(fā)現(xiàn)她的華盛頓高地公寓樓被大火吞噬。

The seven-alarm fire — caused by a faulty toaster in a neighboring unit — destroyed her rented home of 15 years. It also displaced the 63-year-old photographer for more than a year, which she spent at Hotel 17 near Union Square.

鄰近一個單位的烤面包機出了問題，引發(fā)了7起火災，燒毀了她租了15年的房子。這也讓這位63歲的攝影師流離失所了一年多，她在聯(lián)合廣場附近的17號酒店度過了這段時間。

Though the fire took away so much — and she unfortunately did not have renter’s insurance — in a Big Apple twist of fate, it sparked a glamorous new modeling career for Wilkins.

雖然大火奪走了那么多，并且很不幸，她沒有租房人保險，在命運的大轉折中，它為威爾金斯點燃了一個迷人的新的模特生涯。

A few months later, she was walking near 15th Street and Third Avenue wearing yoga clothes and — in a change — not trying to hide the white roots invading her long honey-blond mane.

幾個月后，她穿著瑜伽服在第15街和第3大道附近散步，不同的是，她并沒有試圖去掩蓋那頭白色的頭發(fā)。

“I was dying my hair [at the time],” she recalled. “But it was a hot day, and I said, ‘I am going to let my white hair fly.’ ”

她回憶說：“當時我正準備染發(fā)。但那天很熱，我想，我要讓我的白發(fā)自由飛揚。”

Suddenly, she felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Daniel Peddle, a well-respected casting director who discovered Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence.

突然，她感到有人輕拍她的肩膀。丹尼爾·佩德爾是一位備受尊敬的選角導演，他發(fā)現(xiàn)了奧斯卡影后詹妮弗·勞倫斯。

“He said, ‘I’m casting [an advertising campaign for lingerie company] ThirdLove and we want women with different ages and different bodies,’” said Wilkins, who had never modeled before. “I wasn’t looking for it, but I said, ‘Sure!’ ”

“他說，‘我要為內(nèi)衣公司ThirdLove選角，我們想要不同年齡和身材的女性，’”從來沒有當過模特的威爾金斯說。“我從沒想過，但我回答，‘當然!’”

At the casting, potential models were asked just one question: Why do you like your body?

在選角時，這位潛在模特只被問到一個問題：你為什么喜歡你的身體?

“I said that I love my body because I am healthy,” Wilkins remembered. She landed the gig, appearing in both the brand’s commercial and in its campaign.

威爾金斯回憶說：“我說我愛我的身體是因為我很健康。”。她得到了這個機會，出現(xiàn)在該品牌的商業(yè)廣告和廣告活動中。

Almost two months later, “I was driving down Broadway at night, right by the [Ed Sullivan Theater at 53rd Street] and we hit a traffic light. My friend goes, ‘Look!’ — and there was a five-story billboard on the theater. And there was my image.”

大約兩個月后，“我晚上開車去百老匯，正好經(jīng)過53街的埃德·沙利文劇院，我們遇到了一個紅綠燈。我的朋友說，‘看!——劇院里有一個五層樓高的廣告牌。這就是我的形象。”

This past January, she walked in her first-ever New York Fashion Week show, for the edgy brand Deveaux.

今年1月，她在紐約時裝周(New York Fashion Week)上首次亮相，為前衛(wèi)品牌德芙(Deveaux)走秀。

Wilkins, who’s not married and has no kids, briefly attended art school, lived on a commune in California, spent a year in Brazil and then programmed computers on Wall Street in the early 1990s before becoming a photographer.

威爾金斯沒有結婚，也沒有孩子，曾短暫上過藝術學校，住在加州的一個公社，在巴西呆了一年，然后在20世紀90年代初在華爾街編程，后來成為一名攝影師。

Now, she’s signed to Muse, a major modeling agency.

現(xiàn)在，她簽約了一家大型模特經(jīng)紀公司Muse。