For the last several years, Paloma Elsesser hasn’t just played the game, she’s changed it. After starting her career modelling for make-up legend Pat McGrath, Paloma has ascended the fashion industry, campaign after campaign, catwalk after catwalk, creating the space and telling the story for women who didn’t fit the mould and with it, breaking boundaries.
In 2023, she became the first curve model to receive the coveted Model of the Year at the Fashion Awards, but it didn’t come without controversy. When Internet naysayers undermined her win, Elsesser took a step away from social media for a moment of clarity.
She’s now back, with renewed energy and purpose — collaborating with long-time supporters Ganni on a seven-piece collection (first teased by Elsesser on the SS24 runway) that comes in a fully extended size range of EU 32-52, underpinning Elsesser’s stance of representation and body inclusivity across the board. The collection also marks the model’s foray into different creative industries as she continues to redefine what it means to be a supermodel.
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Lynette Nylander: You hosted the Fashion Scholarship Fund gala last night and it was pretty star-studded. Tracee Ellis Ross, Spike Lee, Vera Wang were all there, but I actually want to start with what you were wearing last night, because it was so good!
Paloma Elsesser: I was in Vaquera last night.
LN: How did you choose that look? Who chose it?
PE: My stylist, Aly Cooper. I work with the iconic fashion editor (and Bazaar’s Style Director At Large) Carlos Nazario, and I work with Aly as well — they’re now working together on other projects that we’ll be doing all together. So last night was kind of a reflection of both Aly and my interests, and then obviously the beauty and fun of fashion.
LN: I feel you've never been confined by what you 'should' wear. I know that you said the vintage expert Gabriel Held told you he thought about vintage fashion in a completely new way with you, because you’re able to alter and manipulate how bodies like yours dress. I want you to talk a little bit about that because I think it's really interesting.
PE: As a young kid, I didn't understand fashion as a business, as an industry, but I loved clothes and style. I was always really obsessed with and curious about manipulating what I wanted to wear to befit my style. I didn't grow up with a lot of financial privilege and at the time I didn't feel bodily privilege, being in a bigger body, surrounded by a lot of thin people. So if I wanted to wear Limited Too, I had to figure out how to get the top, but get the pants from the boys section.
I've been doing that for a long time, but you can ask any of my oldest friends: I never felt that I had to subscribe to what bigger bodies 'should' wear. It just has never been the way that I've oriented. I too respond to trends. I too respond to the zeitgeist, and have the same interests and ideas as thinner-bodied people, but I just make them work for my body.
I remember being in the fourth grade and being obsessed with Siouxsie and the Banshees and not really seeing a chunky brown girl emulating their style. But then I was like, 'Oh, I want to dress punk.' I could go to the adult section, because I was bigger, at this really iconic store on Melrose called Redballs. It's not open anymore, but it had fuzzy raver stuff and punk stuff and goth stuff. It was this amazing storefront on Melrose that was covered in these shiny silver balls.
LN: Yeah, I am Googling it. It looks amazing.
PE: Yeah, it was. And then I would force my dad to take me to Sportie LA, which was down the street. I saw boys wearing Etnies and would think ‘I want to wear those.’ I think now as an adult who understands fashion as a business and also has an appreciation for archive and for a lot of things that generally weren't designed, quote-unquote, 'for me' or my body type, I'm like, 'Okay, well, I'll make it as such.'
LN: That leads me perfectly to your collaboration with Ganni. How did you meet Ditte Reffstrup, their creative director, and how did the collaboration come to be?
PE: I met Ditte in 2020. I had closed their show. We have a funny backstory because I was violently ill. I was throwing up in line up, but still just went out there and did it. It was a nice origin story for us. If you've had the privilege of getting to know the Ganni team, which I know you have, they're very real. They're fun, they're cool, they're honest. After that they were interested in the collaboration and making a really special moment.
For me, it was an absolute no-brainer. I think my relationship with Ganni and all of the internal team — Alexandra, Ditte, everyone — has been great and they've shown me such warmth. I also think that from a business lens, they're also a brand that has been doing extended sizing. It's not as if I'm launching their first foray into this, which I also think is really organic and honest.
We have similar worldviews, similar values, and similar perspectives. I think it's really easy and natural to partner with a brand like that. That's why when the idea was brought up, I was like, 'Absolutely, yes.' They're like, 'How do we make this? Then, you can wear it on the runway and it'll be the first tease.' It’s been such a joyful process.
LN: Scandinavian style — I do think those girls have it so together. It's always good. There are no badly dressed people in Copenhagen that I've seen. Do you agree?
PE: I think what I see, again, really embodies the essence of what I love about style. People really make things their own. There's a fearlessness and sense of fun. Life is very textured, and I think that clothes should be a salve to the texture, and in Copenhagen, not only is the quality of life there great, but the clothes show that their quality of life is fabulous.
LN: Who have you long looked to for style influence?
PE: So many people. I think I used to feel really overwhelmed with, like, 'Oh my God, who am I going to be today?' Now it's more fun. I'm inspired by my friends and just inspired by a fearlessness in dressing. I love when people take something and interpret it as their own. It's always inspiring to me, adding a bit of quirk to things, a bit of a twist, a bit of subversion.
LN: Let's talk a little bit about the collection. What was the intention behind it?
PE: I used to go to Copenhagen when I first started modelling and I worked with e-comm for a plus size brand. I had a little coin, and I remember going to the Ganni store that was not that far from where the hotel was always, and being like, 'Oh, this brand is so cute.' I loved that they didn't sacrifice quality in exchange for having the brand feel more accessible. Obviously, it's not cheap by any means, but it’s at a more accessible price point.
I also felt like Ganni really captured the essence of girlhood or personhood that I allied with. I want to be able to go to the office, then to dinner, then go to a party, and then maybe if I take off the jacket, I can go to a rave. I want to be able to do all these things in one day. I feel like the Ganni girl, or the Ganni person, is really that. So, the SKUs in the collection are meant to mirror all of those thoughts around who she is, how she lives her life. There's ease, there's sexiness, there's mystery, there's toughness. There's all of these people that we get to be in our multitudes. Also, it was about reflecting on how the Ganni girl is becoming a Ganni woman. That's something that I really wanted to lean into and the team is really excited about.
LN: It seems like an evolution of your platform, in a way. So much of being a model is being a vessel for someone else's thoughts and creativity, but I feel like in the last couple of years you've really stood on your own and brought your own creative perspective to the forefront. I want to talk about whether you feel you align with that, if you feel that that's important. Is there more that you want to do?
PE: I think there's actually something very powerful in doing something I've never done before. During this whole week of the eclipse and stepping into new roles and new powers and things I've been abstinent from. I think that I always knew or hoped that modelling would provide a platform. I never dreamt of being a model, period, but once I knew that this was the path I was going on, I wondered how I was going to be able to bring in all of the things that I value into this incredibly privileged and rarefied job.
I'm still a human and it's scary and I have imposter syndrome, but I've built self-esteem through estimable acts both internally and externally. So, I think these next chapters are really just about extending the tenets of why I do what I do, why I model. It's just to form connections and create a little bit of space for interest. I'm obviously not for everyone, but everyone's not for me. So, I'm excited to expand what that conversation looks like for me through writing, consultancy stuff, obviously modelling, and being a bit more of a collaborator in image and design! It's scary being a boss.
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