The Tribune | Weekend | 07
Friday, June 25, 2021
fashion
Impromptu photo lands Bahamian model Vogue Italia feature By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net
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few off-beat, fun images of former Miss Bahamas Tarea Sturrup after a professional photo shoot turned into the picture-perfect shot for international fashion magazine Vogue Italia. Tarea, who has been focused on developing herself professionally, got the opportunity of her lifetime when she was featured in the Italian edition of the famous fashion magazine. Numerous famous faces have graced cover of the magazine,
including the likes of Demi Moore, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell. “I was hired for a branding shoot for a collaboration with a very cool local brand, Bahama Hand Prints, and Bahamian designer Theodore Ellyett. The photographer, Robyn Damianos, and I worked together a few times before and we had extra time to try some fun shots at the end of the shoot. We tossed some ideas around and she let me know she’d submitted to a few magazines, but I had no idea Vogue was on the list. When I found out, I screamed,” she said.
To be featured in Vogue magazine is every model’s dream and like a rite of passage in the fashion industry. Tarea said the feature is one accomplishment she was now unexpectedly able check off her dream to-do list. “As a girl, I always dreamed of being in magazines and Vogue was always the top of my list. To be a part of that branch of fashion and art was a major reminder to myself that I could do anything. It’s a fun credit to have and a major boost when I’m feeling burnt out,” she told Tribune Weekend. The shot that landed her the prestigious feature was not planned or strategic. It was uninhibited creativity that led to the impactful photo. “There was no theme. We went with the vibe of the day and the way I was moving during the main shoot. The clothes I wore let me be really creative with posing, so I just went for it. But of course, with a beautiful backdrop like Lyford Cay Beach, how could we go wrong?”
Gerald Rolle, founder of Choice Model Management, which manages Tarea, said being published in the magazine can open many doors for the local model. “As being not only her agency manager but personal coach/ trainer, it always makes me very happy when I’m approached both locally and internationally with opportunities such as this for Tarea or any of my models. So many doors internationally are opening for her after her Vogue spread and that’s what we like at Choice: to give our models international exposure and get them signed and working abroad,” he said. Although Tarea was blessed with the Vogue opportunity and was also recently offered a modelling gig with Atlanta World of Prom to model special occasions dresses to wholesale buyers in August, she still wants to take her career one step at a time. “I’m hoping to take my editorial career forward. As an artist, I love interesting concepts that evoke feeling. But realistically, I’m taking my modelling career a day at a time and always putting my best foot forward with every opportunity,” she said. As Tarea juggles her day job at the Ministry of Tourism, work on her art and developing her home décor brand which she expects to launch at the end of the year, she is also looking ahead to the future and more opportunities like the amazing Vogue feature.
