Interview With Fashion Model Nicole Russin-McFarland

Hi There, my beautiful readers. Have you ever wondered what would happen if an actress, fashion model, and music composer walked into a bar together? Well, let's just say it'd be one heck of a story...

Picture provided by Nicole Russin-McFarland

https://nicoleofficial.com/

Perhaps you wondered where I disappeared to? Well, my internet went poof, then I caught a bug! Well, guess what? I’m all better now, back in action, and ready to rock the writing world! 🤘📝😄

Alright, folks, buckle up for today’s tale! Once upon a time, in a world filled with twinkling lights and bustling streets, there lived a girl named Nicole. She was like a unicorn of talent, dazzling everyone she met with her boundless creativity and infectious energy. 😮🌟🎨

Little did the world know, behind her radiant smile and glamorous façade lay a tale of resilience and determination, intertwined with the stories of others like her. 💪🏽🔥

Let me tell you, dear readers, once I also had dreams, and set out my own adventure, determined to make my mark on the world. Now, what better way to do that than through the magic of music? 🎵✨

For four enchanting years, I unleashed my inner maestro on the unsuspecting piano keys, hoping to conjure melodies that would make Mozart himself jealous. 🎹😎

Alas, my fingers seemed to have a mind of their own, stumbling across the keys like a clumsy giraffe attempting ballet. Hey, at least I unintentionally made people laugh with my actions. 😵🦒

Nah, I wasn’t bad at it. Some even said I was the best student in class. Between you and me, they just had a soft spot for me. 😏💖

Then, just when I thought I had it all figured out, life threw a curve-ball, or should we say, a knee-ball? Yep, you guessed it. I had to put my piano dreams on hold because of a pesky knee surgery. 😭🎹💉

That’s when my life ended, and I lost all creativity in me. 😔🎶

You must be joking. Isn’t writing creative? I turned my focus to other creative pursuits like making beaded jewelry, knitting, drawing and painting. The only thing I need is more hours in a day. 😁⏳🌟

And that, dear readers, brings us back to Nicole, fearless fashion model, actress, director, and music composer. She’s skilled at overcoming obstacles and pursuing dreams with strong determination.  🚧🔓💪

Both mine and Nicole's story reminds us that no matter what life throws our way, with a bit of passion and a lot of perseverance, anything is possible. 😊🔥🌈

Now come and join us as we embark on a journey into the dazzling world of Nicole, where fashion meets music in the most spectacular way imaginable. Trust me, you won’t want to miss a single moment of this magical adventure! 🌟🎹💃

Picture provided by Nicole Russin-McFarland

What is your name? How old are you?

Nicole Russin-McFarland. Age 36.

Are you on Social Media? How many followers do you have?

No, I’m done with all of that, having a public “on brand” social media presence that can never be the real you. All it’s been good in serving me well over this decade of learning is film research, on my real name or pretending to use fake names, hey at times pretending to be a man in the search of how people react to me differently. 

Women are conditioned by every profession, “Social media is how you make it.” For some time, social media was great with creating an interest in you as shock value, nothing more, if shock value is around because the over saturation removed all of that newness.

You don’t need social media to make it in any profession, and less so in entertainment. Men don’t. Why must women act as free digital reality TV show stars to “further” your career into nothingness? 

Actresses get booked by strong IMDb profiles with solid credits, websites if any and good talent representation. Fashion models get booked by strong portfolios and the best representation. 

As someone who would leave agencies that didn’t believe in me and want to book me proper work or enough of it, a good agent is really what you need. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. 

Do you want to be a working model or a mommy influencer? No hate on mommy bloggers and influencers, it’s more if you are chasing down a career as a doctor, you wouldn’t go off path into law school rather than medical school right? 

Your baby steps towards work need to be aimed where you need to go properly. Models need good portfolios. Get that together. Build it. Get a website going to showcase it. Send that out to people to hire you and keep approaching agencies every so often until you get an agent.

 

What made you decide to become a Fashion Model?

I had graduated early with my university degree. No one wanted to hire me for a regular job in media. Nor was anyone hiring me within the composing world. I was meeting lots of models in Manhattan noticing how some were runway girls and others not, and they all looked like regular people when they weren’t on camera. 

This is not to say they look ugly, more as in not one has ever looked to me like an other worldly creature of beauty. Supermodels or up and coming models all look like regularly girl next door attractive and sometimes attractive in plain ways like say, a sexy librarian cliche.

That inspired me so much to put myself forward towards anything in the entertainment career world. I applied for several agencies and switched around. 

This was long before social media was big when it was much harder to be a model, and if you became one you weren’t a supermodel but some kind of working model part time. Nowadays, everyone online claims to be a model, and there isn’t room for everyone to have jobs. Much of it is done online.

Is fashion important to you? Why?

I would love to say we are all free of judgement on what we look like. Reality is harsh on everyone. People love pinning you down as a stereotype. We have no choice but looking the best we can when we go out.

What are your successes and how did you achieve them?

Ask me when I’ve won an Oscar.

Picture provided by Nicole Russin-McFarland

What’s something you might want to do in the future?

Beyond the given work goals everyone has, mine are huge, I am always super jealous of how some men I really love, in film and music, sit down for interviews and get asked about their work. If personal life stuff, it gets phrased really well. People respect them. You see how differently most female guests or interviewees get treated.

I’ve been in that situation where people interview or profile big studio people, indie men of film and music are like the next big thing. It gets to me, and I get handed stupid questions, diminished, people refuse to acknowledge that I am a working composer for film and commercial usage because I’m female, so I have to then contact the editors, like, “Why are all of these people beside me called actors and producers but I’m called Nicole the YouTuber or Nicole the influencer? I’m a working composer? 

Can we fix that sexism?” You’ll have men with one or two IMDb credits get defined as serious artistes. Any woman online is reduced to nothing. 

It makes you feel really bad that after seeing how someone gushes over details of film music or whatever project it is with someone and does a marvellous job, you get questions that are like, “So you do this? Yeah?” Treating you like you’re stupid. Some women get a free pass if they “look” intellectual, whatever that means because as a part time glasses human, you would think I pass for that.

This is why some years ago, there was a red carpet trend of “Ask Her More.” Women stand there without people knowing how to react around us as men get asked about their work and respected. 

People need to be aware of doing this. Or things are only “good” if someone else does them. Ryan Adams released a cover album of 1989, and suddenly, it was “good.” Taylor Swift co-wrote it. When she sang her original album, it was “cheerleader pop.” That’s how women get treated. Daily.

Is the name of the brand important to you when you model clothing?

I’m going to answer this in reply to if I were approached at any age to model because now we have Billie Eilish and others of all ages doing justice to modelling power brands. Yeah, if I’m aware of what it is, I am conscious about the materials used. You can never really know the truth about how anything is made. We go by what the brand says.

I’m a big fan of Pharrell Williams since I was watching his work on TRL with The Neptunes, and I feel like if anyone leads the way on combining great style with innovation for safety and the environment, it’s going to be him with his new job at Louis Vuitton. 

I actually got so happy when I first read that he got the creative director position, wow. An American self made man who shows that great fashion ideas aren’t always born in fashion school. Like his new cowboy as high fashion collection. I was really blown away by how sharp that looked. 

Saw it recently in the newspaper. I can see him bringing forward lab grown animal leather, vegan leather, and making it look crazily good, approachable so luxury fashion isn’t visually only for a small crowd of people, way better materials, future thinking.

So yeah, my dream gig would be modeling a first ever Louis Vuitton vegan collection, or the world’s first ever high brow lab grown leather collection, under the vision of Mr. Williams!

Describe your personal style of clothing?

I’m a normal person like anyone else, so it varies. Athleisure is great. I like dressing up if I do in something timeless that I could have worn in the 1950’s or 1960’s. I grew up with music videos, so hip hop culture and pop music always got me with whatever Beyoncé had on in music videos. 

Lots of urban fashion is timeless in itself, maybe some is tired but with effort, you could take one item off from lots of Beyoncé looks from her youth and make it new again. 

Cottagecore and 19 century Little House on the Prairie looks are great. I love looking to women of country music for fashion inspiration and makeup. They love their long hair and bold makeup looks like the women of hip hop do. But don’t be surprised if on a day off, I have no makeup on for that clean look.

I don’t get rid of any of my bags, coats, basics that work. All I do is update the items. Shoes wear out and are the exception.

One of my first assignments as a younger person was with the goal of someday being in action movies, and then seeking modelling work, learning how to walk and run in heels as second nature. I’ve gotten excellent at learning how to have a shoe person adapt my shoes based on what I learned with that. 

Ideally, I like my shoes to have rubber skids as soles, the right padding, a good shape, because I want to be able to look good as I do anything in life. People go by what shoes look like first, and I’m all about appearance and functionality. Can I run in them? Sold!

 

How did you find your personal style? Do you have a signature look? 

I love the golden age of Hollywood vibe as my top go to, I guess you could say it’s James Bond if he had a sister in the same profession, and she wanted to be classic. 

James Bond always looks amazing. You don’t remember what he’s wearing. He doesn’t hide his body or wear things too tightly. You know he’s in shape. But why? What is he wearing? You don’t remember the clothes. You remember him. With the right 1950’s and 1960’s fashion, I can nail that down. James Bond is always dressed up or casually, either way, but looking good.

My obsession with fit and how I feel inside is a result of people getting things wrong for me all of my earlier life. My mom and occasionally other people have before picked out clothes based on their body types and body pluses or negatives when they were younger. My body type is completely different. Disastrous fit. Styles that made me feel uncomfortable. 

All of my gifted clothes that I didn’t have much input in are pretty much gone. Some of my clothes right now could have a better fit, and maybe I’ll get it done with my DIY alterations, but I now if someone wants to graciously gift me new clothes like my mom, she’ll give me a budget for my birthday if any, and I’ll look on the website knowing exactly my sizes and how things fit me. I’m never wrong.

The other thing I love if I have the freedom to? Wearing a mix of casual and dressy, something I could wear if I were in my wildest dreams to go on an expensive rock star world tour. I don’t know. 

Whenever I’ve been in clothes that people picked out for me to wear for “normal job” job seeking as a very young person, I appreciated the efforts and it was all, “Who am I fooling? I have the costume on and am not being treated nicely by these people who aren’t hiring me anyway!” It feels all wrong. So when I’m not in my less is more James Bond’s sister style, I love that more music star look and getting to have fun. Eyeliner! Thigh high boots! All of it. Started doing this when I was about 15.

Do you have an influence on other people’s clothing style?

That would be super flattering. Right now, all I’ve achieved with inspiring others is showing them how good socks feel all year. People have bought cozy socks because of me! I guess maybe some people have experimented more with bright eyeliners because of me.

Picture provided by Nicole Russin-McFarland

 

What are in your eyes the best trends at the moment?

I really like that “mob wife” trending on social media hashtag look. I don’t personally browse social media these days, so I learned about it probably from Cosmopolitan UK or one of those big global magazines I read. Now that is a fun look. Of course, please do it with faux fur. I love how big and bold it is.

Y2K being popular again is super fun because I was a really young person during that time. Everything I did is being done differently in tribute to it.

The big eyebrows thing being over makes me happy. Because that was going on when I decided to quit pursuing any modelling gigs in my late 20’s. People insisted to me, I had dyed inky jet black hair at the time, I needed bold brows. That’s great when my real eyebrows are like a calico cat with white hair mixed since I was 18. Lighter brow dye is easier on me and looks less harsh with eye makeup.

What are in your eyes the worst trends at the moment?

I am not a fan of people shaving off all of their eyebrows or things like eyeball tattoos.

What kind of fashion advice would you give us?

Dress modestly with a good fit to not hide you are female but not reveal all when you want to be respected for business. I cannot say that enough. 

Equality is whatever men are doing. So men in swimming trunks at the beach, yeah, go work that tiny bikini if you have the body confidence for it! 

Meeting men at work when you want to be hired for something important or want financing? Yeah, men don’t wear the swimming trunks there. They wear head to toe clothes. Bring your best dressed top and skirt, or a dress with a nice blazer.

Who is your style icon and why?

Men are my greatest style icons because the most well dressed or coolest dressed men like fictional film characters of James Bond and John Wick, or real guys like David Beckham, have such good fit. Lots of that fit is done before any tailoring because men’s clothing is meant to look that way. 

I take whatever they do and do the girl version of it. I don’t want a square, cropped, old lady jacket that makes me look fat. I want a stylish blazer that fits me over where it should, worn with an action movie starlet dress!

The other thing about being inspired by men’s fashion is that when worn by women, it’s done to be really tomboyish in fit or vibe. I don’t want that. I want the world to see I am quite content with being female and having my body confidence with it, all I want is that lovely fit and classic look. That you aren’t focused on my clothes, it’s all me you remember. 

Basically, I want to look like I’m ready for a wind machine and my action movie run in heels! It reflects in the end with how you perform with work and your personal life.

Is there something else you would like to share with us?

I’m a really super passionate composer. Hire me for your next film score!

Nicole Russin-McFarland

film score composer and actress

imdb.me/nicole

nicoleofficial.com

A huge shoutout to Nicole for being absolutely amazing and providing such thorough answers in this interview! I gave your music a listen, and I must say, I was thoroughly impressed! 😲😍

Hey there, lovely readers! If you find yourself with a spare moment, make sure to swing by and take a peek at the fabulous fashion models I had the pleasure of chatting with, all dressed to the nines, right here on this page!

https://seadbeady.blogspot.com/p/fashion-model-interview.html

Hope you like my blog.....Until next time.....Have a nice day 

Renata (Seadbeady) 

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