New York State of Mind

Morgan Handbury in the
Paramount Hotel lounge

The lure of the world's richest modelling market brought Morgan Handbury back to Manhattan last September, and she still thinks it's an honour to be working there. As she tells the story, living in New York isn't as difficult as constantly travelling and living out of a suitcase. But it is "so lonely."

"When you first come here you're poor and everyone is so fake. People only want to be friends if you can give them something."

"It's easy for models to party here, but you're only popular until a whole new group of girls come in, and then you're done. You either can do it or you can't. I've seen girls crack."

For Morgan to find success in New York this time, finding the right agency was obviously important, so she set aside one week to visit all the agencies in person. "I went into Supreme during fashion week, and Roman [Young] said 'we really like you but no one takes new models during fashion week. We want to wait.' I really liked them, but I thought I would end up with New York Models - they're edgy but also commercial - they're a good agency."

"But Roman called me that night and said 'We've been talking about you all day and we'd like you to join.' I like that they thought about it. They didn't just say 'sign a contract - we need another girl.' A lot of agencies will take a lot of girls and make money off charges, and make money off this and that. I didn't want to be with a big agency - I wanted something more like B&M. I wanted something in New York's top five, which Supreme is."

Her decision seems to be paying off. She's busier now than she ever has been. In trying to arrange our interview, I first reached her in San Francisco where she was running to catch a flight back to New York for another booking. The week before she was in San Jose - for a few hours - before flying back to New York for a booking. In addition to the Buffalo Jeans campaign she's done Abercrombie & Fitch, US Glamour Magazine and Nylon Magazine to name but a few.

"Oh my God… lately I've been so happy to have any weekends off." Weekend off? Even on the Saturday we met to talk about modelling, she delayed our chat so she could get to the gym. "In New York you can work everyday, especially when you're a new model because you do tests on the weekend even though you've been working all week."

Now, although she would like to slow down, the opportunities keep her going. "It's stupid but I've just started to make good money. Until now it was good travel and good fun, but now that I'm making good money it's hard to imagine leaving the business."

"The thing with New York is the rent is really expensive - you can't even believe it - but everything else is cheap if you know how to do it. You buy your food from a deli, get a $20 metro card that lasts a week - and as a model you make that back in a day with all your castings. You don't need a car, so you don't worry about gas or insurance."

"Now that I'm here I'm really appreciating it because there's great shopping, great restaurants, great subways… I would never have a family and settle here, but for now I'm making American dollars. You have to live poor here for a while, to really appreciate it when you start to get money.

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