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Photography by Porus Vimadalal. Styling by Lucia Perna. Creative direction by George Antonopoulos. Art direction by Danielle Campbell. Hair and makeup, Susana Hong for P1M.ca/Armani Beauty. Hair and makeup assistants, Arielle Park, Kaila Baker, Romy Zack and Sierra Elliott. Manicures, Leeanne Colley for P1M.ca/Tips Nail Bar. Fashion assistant, Pouyan Reisdanaee. Photography assistants, Arash Jahromi and Saishi Xu. Top, $2,485, and earrings, $780, Balenciaga.
After years of avoiding cameras, this newly minted model discovered they could set her free.
When she was first approached to do a lingerie campaign, her instinct was to balk. “Inside I’m like, ‘Are you nuts?’” she recalls. “It was top of the charts outside my comfort zone, but I found myself saying I’d consider it.” The more she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with a good enough reason not to do it. “Why not? Why am I not allowed to do this?” she asked herself. The experience turned out to be “so natural and fun” and encouraged her to continue pushing herself.
With silky grey hair that softly frames her face, Mitchell is an unconventional model by traditional standards. But the recent opening up of the industry to a broader swath of races, genders, ages and body types has allowed her to fill a void in the modelling world—something she’s proud to be able to do.
“Twenty years ago, women would come up to me and tell me to dye my hair; now, young girls come up to me and say they love my grey hair.”
“If I can in some way be a positive role model for anyone, including myself, I’m down,” she says. “Twenty years ago, women would come up to me and tell me to dye my hair; now, young girls come up to me and say they love my grey hair.”
How does she, as someone who was never comfortable in front of the camera and suffered from low self-esteem all her life, deal with working in an industry centred around image? “When I was younger, I’d be so critical of myself,” she says. “But I’m trying to be nicer to myself now, and I’m getting much better at it. I’ve definitely loosened up—or let go. I think that’s one of the gifts of aging: letting go of preconceived notions of how people expect you to be and not caring what people think.”
Mitchell hopes to carry on her new career for years to come. “I love the opportunities and experiences that modelling offers me and will continue as long as it fuels my energy and ignites my spirit,” she says. “It’s such a privilege. I’m down to promote expansive views on how we look at women, our environment and the radiance and power within us all.”
See the rest of this issue’s cover profiles here.
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