“I am from a little town in the northeast of France. I had a very simple childhood; my life was a little boring. So, after seventeen years, I left my family to go to Paris—I moved with my boyfriend and after one year, I began modeling. I’m twenty years old now. My family and my boyfriend all pushed me to begin modeling because they thought it would be good for me, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I loved studying, especially reading—reading is probably my biggest passion. But then, all of my priorities changed when I met Inez [van Lamsweerde]. Inez and Vinoodh [Matadin] had seen me in Treats magazine. It was my first job, when I was 18. I was naked…. It was strange because I was very comfortable doing that—compared to when I’m with my family and my boyfriend, where I’m very conservative. With that photographer, it was easy. I’m not the same person when I’m shooting… Anyway, I shot for Treats and three months later, Inez saw me and called my agency in New York. Meeting Inez and Vinoodh was the beginning of real modeling for me. Inez is so nice very maternal—like my mother in modeling. She’s helped me to progress a lot.

I’m about 5’7”, which is really small compared to the other girls. When they have castings for the shows, I feel like E.T. because I’m very different. My body is different. My face is different. My body is very small—when I try on clothes, they fall off… It can be very difficult for me, sometimes, when you’re doing castings all day, every day, by the end of the day, you feel less confident. Even though Inez has given me a lot of confidence, I’m still not that confident. I know that people think I’m beautiful, but when I look at my face, I’m not very nice to myself. I think a lot of women are like that. When I see other girls, I always think that they’re better than me. Maybe one day I'll be super confident, but in the meantime, no. I always appreciated my eyebrows, though.

In terms of my style, I like black, but my favorite color is navy. At the moment, I don’t have all of the money to buy everything I want. [Laughs] I love Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester, and I wear a lot of vintage things. But really, I take care of two things: my skin and my hair. My hair, I take care of with very basic things, like oils. I love Leonor Greyl Huile de Palme. It’s nice but very expensive, so sometimes I change and use something like Kiehl’s Olive Fruit Oil Cream. I put it on at night when my hair is dry, and then the next morning, I wash it out like a mask.

For my skin, I wash my makeup off every night with Bioderma Créaline. Expensive cosmetics are not very good for my skin—they don’t smell very good to me, either. The best ones are cheap and simple, and you can find them in the pharmacy. I love La Roche-Posay Toleriane Cleanser, and that’s it. I don’t wear a lot of makeup usually, but when I go out, I’ll put on black pencil and lip gloss on my eyes, to have a kind of ‘crying’ effect. No color on my lips, just a nude or something like that. My favorite lipstick is Dior Addict in #343 Spring Bal, or the Clarins ‘Eclat Minute’ Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. It’s subtle.”

—as told to ITG

[1-6] Loulou Robert, wearing an Elizabeth and James coat, Zara dress, and Alexander Wang boots, photographed by Emily Weiss in New York; [7] Vogue Paris November 2012 by Inez & Vinoodh; [8-10] Images from Inez & Vinoodh; [11-12] Treats! magazine Issue 2 by David Bellemere.