FREEZE FRAME: Harriet Rose John
Harriet Rose John returns to Kent an internationally-published model but continues to remain chilled
“You’ve definitely done this before.”
“Yeah, a few times.”
Our shoot with Faker Supply turned out to be a double surprise. Not only did we find out the ‘have a go’ beginnings of the brand but we also met Harriet Rose John. Brought along to the shoot by Max Carpenter of Faker Supply, Harriet, you could say, has some modelling experience.
“For the last three years, I’ve been living in Paris,” she says. “I’ve done two big French campaigns including one for luxury shirt brand Alain Figaret, and lots of other things.”
What sort of other things, I hear you all ask.
“I’ve been in French Vogue. A famous photographer called David Sims used me for a shoot and put me up for it.”
Yes, that’s the David Sims who has been responsible for creating images for brands such as Alexander
McQueen and Calvin Klein in some of the world’s most recognised magazines.
“I did one in British Elle magazine but shot in Paris. That was a last-minute, crazy shoot. I got a call saying ‘Where are you? Can you go to this shoot?’, but my little brother had come over to Paris to see me so I had to take him on the shoot with me.”
Harriet is the most down-to-earth high-end international model we have ever met. So much so, she did our shoot for her friend and a packet of crisps down the pub!
“Right now, I’m working at Makcari’s Ice Cream Parlour in Herne Bay,” she says. “I like coming back to that. It’s nice to have some normality.”
While the lengths Makcari’s goes to create good ice cream – they ship in the cream from Italy and make all the flavours on-site – is a lovely story, it would be remiss of us not to dig a little deeper about the modelling.
“I’ve been modelling since the age of 14,” explains Harriet. “I got scouted on a school trip [Canterbury High
School] to the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham. It was a textiles class trip, and all of a sudden this lady came up to me, held my arm and asked if I had ever thought of modelling.
“My friends were all like ‘Yeah, OK Harriet, tall, lanky, skinny with ears that stick out. She told me to come and have my picture taken and that was it.”
Taken from Harriet’s Instagram: @harrietrosearchives_
Harriet’s mother agency is based in London – Select Model Management – but after some success in the French market she decided to make the leap and move over to the one of the fashion capitals of the world.
“Out of all of the markets, it just so happens that I work best in Paris, and as it is my favourite city ever anyway I just decided to pack up and move there for a couple of years.”
There are more snippets about working with hair stylist Guido Palau, stylist Joe McKenna, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and many, many more.
“My favourite shoot? Well, French Vogue is one of the biggest you can get, but my favourite ever was a location shoot… probably one I went to down in Devon, shot by Laura Jane Coulson for i-D magazine. We were down there for the weekend and we did a shoot in the middle of a boot fair. There’s far less pressure and more fun on those sorts of location shoots.”
While a shoot with Evening Standard’s ES Magazine was next on the cards (at the time of writing), furthering her education is also on the agenda for Harriet. For someone working within the highest echelons of their industry to be so humble and unassuming is refreshing. So does a move back to Kent signal the end of her modelling days?
“Not at all, I’ve just got to get all of my sorbets in check first.”