Meet Camilla Deterre, the Downtown Model Who Designs Restaurants on the Side

When introducing a model on the rise, it’s not uncommon to start off by listing her growing résumé. An exclusive runway stint at Proenza Schouler or Prada; a cool editorial in an artsy magazine; a fashion campaign. With Camilla Deterre, the 26 year-old New York native who has quickly become a mainstay in the downtown scene, however, it’s nearly impossible to limit it to just her fashion accomplishments—or any one category, for that matter.

“I wanted to be a fashion photographer, and I was working in a studio for three years. Then I went to work for a literary-esque magazine, and then I worked on a restaurant about a year ago, and I’ve been doing more design stuff through that,” Deterre said, listing off her past endeavors as a matter of fact.

In the age of the model-slash-[take your pick side gig], Deterre is the true definition of a multi-hyphenate. In the last few years, she has toyed with all manner of fields, all seemingly with ease and a toss of her carefully tussled tresses. Those photographers she assisted? Mario Sorrenti and Annie Leibovitz. The restaurant she designed? Mimi, a West Village hotspot that’s perpetually crowded.

So after turning some of her attention to modeling last summer, it’s not surprise that Deterre has quickly mastered that world, as well.

“When I was around 15 or 16, it was this thing where I was always being approached by agents on the street,” Deterre explained. “I would go home and my mom would be like, ‘No, not until you are 18 and then you can decide.’ When I turned 18, I was like, ‘F— that, I don’t want to be the pretty girl where that’s all that she is.’ I came back around to it when was 21, and could do things that were cool or with my friends, and really pick and choose my projects.”

Among those projects: magazine editorials and, most recently, a stint on the runway at the Topshop Unique Fall 2017 show during London Fashion Week, as well as an exclusive editorial shot by Hans Neumann in the countryside of Puglia, Italy, seen here.

“Italy was pretty amazing,” Deterre said of the shoot. “We stayed at a huge old villa with all these beautiful olive trees. We could drive twenty minutes and be at this beautiful empty beach.”

In the shots, the model wears looks from some of fashion’s most cutting-edge designers, including Off-White, Beaufille, No. 21, and ADEAM. Off-duty, Deterre describes her style as much more casual—she’s a jeans and sweater type. “I follow designers on a conversational level, but I don’t follow trends in the sense of how I dress,” she said.

Which is not to say, however that she doesn’t have her likes—Eckhaus Latta (“They’re my besties.”), Calvin Klein (“the new collection was really good”), and Prada (“Always love it, which is kind of lame of me.”)—and dislikes (“I’m not that crazy about what London has to offer right now.”).

“I’m not so much of a shopper, which is a little weird considering I work in this industry,” she noted. “I have an issue buying new things. I have a bit of an eBay addiction. I just bought a Polaroid box for my camera. I’m usually pretty happy with most of my purchases. I just got a pretty cool camera.”

When not modeling, Deterre spends her free time in Lower Manhattan, not far from where she grew up, listing independent bookstore McNally Jackson and healthy eatery Dimes as frequent haunts, as well as “doing yoga and chain smoking cigarettes.”

Though, ‘free time’ seems to be an anomaly for the perpetually on-the-go New Yorker. In addition to a reinvigorated interest in photography, Deterre is working on two upcoming restaurant projects, as well as her own line of housewares.

“The hope would be to do furniture, but now it is things that exist on surfaces—cups, candles, a textile, things like that,” she said. “Everything is recycled or reused, and it’s completely all on my own, which is probably detrimental. There is no one to be like, ‘Okay, let’s move forward.’”

If her current record is any indication, expect it to be a success.

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