For the 4th Annual Sunday with The Magazine lecture series, the New York Times brought together a few fashion faces for a lecture series, with topics ranging from modeling to Michelle Obama to the idea of being famous in today’s world.
Tyra Banks chatted with Lynn Hirschberg for over an hour, recounting her life in fashion from how she got her start to her plans for the future, which include feature films, publishing books, and moving into the younger market, as well as the land of nonmedia, ranging from real estate to retail. Tyra also has huge plans to do a complete overhaul of her talk show, in place for September.
During the hour, she took the audience through her teenage years as a commercial model, to her first moments in Paris, to realizing her body was changing, to the first Victoria’s Secret photo shoot, to her place in the industry today.
On her awkwardness at a young age:
“I was on every sports team there could be in elementary school. But I was on the bench. I was awkward as hell. In basketball, they’d put me in for the tip-off, then be like, ‘Okay, you’re done!’ People would stare at me because I was odd looking. I used to look like an antelope because my eyes are so far apart!”
On moving to Paris right after high school and being homesick:
“I got off the plane, went to my agency, and they sent me out on go-sees. I was in overalls, Timberlands, and a T-shirt…. My mother said, ‘You will not let them win.’ I told her, ‘You need to quit your job and move here.’ At that point I was making $30,000 a year, but I told her, ‘We can do this,’ so she quit.”
On spotting Cindy Crawford backstage shooting House of Style and creating the Tyra brand:
“We were on Corso Magenta and my mother had the list from the agency of all the things I needed to change. She said, ‘We’re going to go to the pizzeria and order a pizza.’ Over that pizza we figured out how I could be Cindy Crawford.”
On expressing her television desires:
“I was doing an interview with VideoFashion and I just said, ‘I’m going to quit modeling when I’m 23 or 25 and I’m going to have my own show. I don’t know what it will be about, but I will!’”
On working nonstop:
“I didn’t understand a workday, or weekends, or why people were excited about Fridays and depressed on Sunday nights. I’d be flying to a shoot on a Sunday night!”
And as for that interview with then Senator, now President Obama, Tyra was beyond nervous:
“The Obama mania was just starting. It was the most nervous I’ve ever been before an interview. My body was vibrating! Afterward I went into the control room and had to take Mylanta because my stomach was burning!”
On the importance of learning how to smile with your eyes:
“Every model must do this. It sells magazine covers and perfume.”
