Incredible Women Of 2024: Model Alva Claire
Next in our Incredible Women of 2024 series – in which we celebrate the trailblazers whose talent, energy and impact are defining the year – is model ALVA CLAIRE. Here, she speaks to CHLOE STREET about her unforgettable runway breakthrough, overcoming embarrassment, and finding freedom in fashion
For most models, fame is something that comes gradually. The campaigns they front and the shows they walk in become bigger and bigger until, eventually, their name is known in fashion circles everywhere – and for the lucky few, among non-fashion folk, too. But for British model Alva Claire, fame came when she hit the runway (her first ever) alongside Cara Delevingne, Slick Woods, and Bella and Gigi Hadid for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show in September 2019, wearing nothing but yellow lingerie.
Held in New York’s 19,000-seater Barclay’s Center arena, and televized on Amazon Prime, the show was more akin to a rock concert than any traditional runway – quite the debut. “Doing that show was like Popeye eating his tin of spinach,” says Alva Claire McKenzie (who, professionally, goes by just her forenames), with a glowing smile. “Walking out in my underwear in front of that many people – I felt I could do anything after that.”
And, certainly, what followed is a catalogue of major wins: a year later she walked in the Versace SS21 show, alongside Jill Kortleve and Precious Lee, in a starfish-print yellow plissé slip dress. She’s since starred on the covers of Elle UK and Vogue Thailand, and has walked for everyone from Nina Ricci to 16Arlington and Burberry. She’s fronted campaigns for Ivy Park and Calvin Klein, and even designed a collaborative collection with emerging Danish label OpéraSport.
And yet, hers is no overnight success story. Claire had been a model for a decade when Fenty called – having signed with a curve-model agency at the age of 18. “I didn’t really work,” says the 32-year-old, who remembers the odd job with British fast-fashion online retailer Asos as her only bookings. “The industry was not what it is today. I just didn’t have the same opportunities… People would always say, ‘There’s something about you’, but they didn’t know where to place me.”
“It finally made sense that I could live in different spaces within fashion as a model and that it wouldn’t be about my size
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For Claire, though, who would save up her pocket money as a teen to buy Vogue, fashion was always the plan. She completed a foundation year at London College of Fashion before interning for the online styling team at Browns, a British designer-fashion boutique, and assisting stylists. She was always fascinated by the alchemy of what happens on set. “I had this sense of wanting to be in the thick of it,” says Claire, whose background in assisting means she’s resolutely kind and smiley to everyone on set. “I felt a much greater sense of purpose when I spent all day taping the bottom of shoes, or lugging a suitcase of McQueen dresses across town on the tube, than I did when I was studying.”
A turning point came at the age of 25, when she decided to quit her job as a personal shopper and up sticks to New York, where the industry was changing faster than in London. “Models of different sizes and different backgrounds were able to have careers there… It finally made sense that I could live in different spaces within fashion as a model and that it wouldn’t be about my size.” Moving into model accommodation on the other side of the world with a group of girls, mostly seven or eight years younger, was a formative experience: “It was great to scare myself,” says Claire, who found that the shakeup crystallized her ambition. “I realized I wanted to put the time in because I wanted to do this; I wanted to be a model. I think saying the words and committing to it is part of the reason things started to happen… I went all-in.”
She credits her arty parents for her strong sense of self. “It was always like, ‘Whatever you want to do, you just need to stand by it and be committed’,” says Claire, recalling her mother probing her to interrogate how a piece of art made her feel on gallery visits as a child. “They gave me the tools to think creatively, and the strength to go into an environment and, even if people were not like me, know I was still going to be OK.”
These are skills she uses daily when translating a brief or interpreting a brand’s vision – or the emotions a stylist wants to convey. “It’s my favorite thing about being on set,” says Claire. Having been shy as a child, she finds freedom in playing a character. “I’ve worked really hard over the years to push myself and not be embarrassed. I really believe modeling is an art form. You’re inspiring people and you’re also bringing collections alive; making people feel things.”
Next up, she’s focused on further honing her craft but also being kinder to herself in 2024 – that doesn’t mean any slowing of the pace, though: “The moment I achieve a goal, I’m looking for the next one. In this career, your work is never done.”