If you've been documenting the diversity on the runways, you're aware that models who defy the status quo are in and homogenous whitewashed runways are slowly on their way out. Non-models and models-with-a-cause dominated the headlines last week, but one in particular got his start this Fashion Week because he was clocking his 9-to-5 when he was scouted just a few days before the show.
Sophon Aur, 33, was taking out the trash earlier this week at the Hudson Hotel, where he works, when Libertine designer Johnson Hartig spotted him and cast him on the spot. A Libertine pop-up showroom was taking place at the hotel when their paths crossed. Hartig went up to Aur and asked "What are you doing tomorrow night?" After returning to the pop-up shop with Aur in tow, he asked to see Aur's walk.
"They told me to just walk, look straight, and don't go too fast or too slow. So that's what I did. It's like when someone asks you to go to a party, you go to the party," Aur told us.
Of course, models are scouted unconventionally all the time (see: 14-year-old Sofia Mechetner who was picked by Raf Simons when saw her in one of his Dior stores; and Grace Hartzel, who was discovered at a Cheesecake Factory) but it's rare for a male model in his 30s already living in the fashion capital of the U.S. to get the same Cinderella treatment.
It's too soon to tell if there's a future in modeling for the industry's newest face, but the potential is undeniable. Aur's on board, too: "I'd love to continue modeling. Everyone at the Hudson has been so supportive. Now, I just need an agent." Well, you heard the man!