Vanessa, tell us about your feelings once you got home, after being elected LOOK of the YEAR?

 

It was lovely to get congratulations from friends! One or two said they were not surprised... which surprised me! What a lovely compliment that I was not expecting!

More than anything though I felt determined to prove that I was worthy of the title!

 

What was the best thing that happened to you during your reign as LUXE Paris ambassador?

 

There have been a lot of really wonderful things that happened to me!

New experiences have come my way, like being asked to fill in as a judge at a major competition, Mr & Miss Elegance.

But the best was to have the opportunity to design for LUXE Paris!

All of this came about as a result of becoming LUXE Paris Ambassador, something I will always treasure and be grateful for.

 

What is your best advice to the participants to LOOK of the YEAR 2025?

 

My best advice to participants is to be genuinely authentically yourself!

When I first participated in LOTY in 2022 I was too caught up in what I thought I was expected to be, how I was expected to style, and I strangled myself as a result!  

Last year when I competed, I did it for the fun and the opportunity to style, threw out any expectations and made a promise to myself that I would not lose 'me'. Mika and Paris, the owners of LUXE Paris,  want a genuine relationship with their Ambassador so I have come to understand that it is vital to reveal the real you when you compete.

 

The most difficult moment during your reign?

 

The most difficult and challenging thing, but also the most amazing, is the chance to organise the second edition of We Are The World show. It will be host at Second Life 22nd Anniversary this summer, on a 3D art build I am making myself!

I am walking in the footsteps of a sadly missed and amazing model and ambassador, Jade Pono, who organised the first We Are The World show and I want to make her and LUXE Paris proud.  

 

How is it to work as a designer with LUXE Paris?

 

WOW is my first word!

To be a designer for a major established brand is something I never ever thought would happen to me!

LUXE Paris is the perfect brand for me in terms of their vision, and their emphasis on rooting designs in European Couture.  

I truly cannot thank Mika and Paris enough for this opportunity!

To see my designs in-store and on MarketPlace and to be allowed to make my own collection is so amazing!

I still fully cannot get over the WOW this is really happening!