'I used to play lacrosse and tennis in high school and really like sports in general. I still exercise because I think my body is addicted to it. During Fashion Week I don't have time obviously, but normally I like to run. When I was in Paris for the Chanel show last season, I actually brought my brother and we went on a run around Paris because that’s the most efficient way to see the city. We looped around the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I still play tennis and squash—I play against a wall in the park by the FDR, but I don’t have anyone to play with! I think I’m going to join the New York Athletic Club...it’s kind of like a country club. Apparently there're a bunch of old white guys who go there and they want more young people to join, and I’m a girl and I’m 18, so the rate is really low. What I really need is someone to sponsor me. My dad is like, 'Oh, play golf and get a scholarship for college!' But I can’t do it, it’s torture [Laughs]. Just carrying all that stuff around in 90 degrees, just, no. I do love the competitive aspect of sports though. It’s a good place to get it out of your system.
I was scouted while I was walking around New York blindly while visiting a friend. We went to the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market and an agent approached me and gave me her card. My mom thought I should contact them, so I later sent her this really long, random email, like 'Thank you for your interest, blah, blah, blah…' And my agent got back to me in one minute—I was so surprised! She asked when I could send pictures, so I sent them right away. They were so bad, and she was like, 'When can you come here?' I did some test shoots, of course, and then the first thing I booked was a Proenza Schouler exclusive and a Prada exclusive. That was pretty nice! But I was just really confused because no one really told me that they were really good shows. [Laughs] I really didn’t even know what Prada was! I had seen The Devil Wears Prada [Laughs]. When I went for the fitting, I was sitting there just sweating so much...I also couldn’t walk in the shoes at all. They were those huge wooden shoes, so the night before, someone said, 'Just go on the streets with your casting shoes and just walk for hours.' I basically walked around my house everyday for an hour in heels for months after that.
I actually have a very basic moisturizer that I carry around with me in my bag— First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Face Moisturizer. Some production person gave me Lucas’ Pawpaw Ointment when I was sick, I don’t know why…It was really nice and now I use it on my lips and also when I'm getting a sunburn. Then I have Hand Sanitizer and Japanese Eye Drops from Rohto Z! that are like Altoids for your eyes—you can only buy them in Japan because I don’t think they use ingredients that are legal here or something. That’s my beauty routine! I also carry an eye[lash] curler because my eyelashes are so long that they get really tangled and they get caught on each other, so sometimes I just do that to get them out of the corners and stuff, make it less uncomfortable.
Oh, so I have this new unibrow, but oh man, I used to pluck the shit out of my brows. I have so many [hairs] and they’re like invisible, but I look back at photos and I’m just cringing so hard. I really just cleaned out the area in between them completely, and also I don’t know how I did it. That’s one thing I’m actually really grateful for modeling, when you do shoots they pluck them really fast for you [Laughs]. I came back from summer break and they were horrible, they shape your face, but yeah…I only got them waxed once because I hated that. I was just ignoring them. I’ve heard that threading is horrible! I just use tweezers. A lot of them said that when you do the eyebrows, make sure that you pluck in the direction that the hairs grow.
Growing up, I was never into makeup because my mom wasn’t into it either—but my grandmother loves makeup. She used to work for Mary Kay and she’s just writhing when I say that I left all my Dior makeup at the show, she’s like, “Are you kidding me?” I just always forget. I started wearing concealer this winter because people were calling my booker about it. I’m Czechoslovakian and I have deep, purple bags under my eyes because my skin is really translucent. But casting directors thought I was sick. Then you just pop on some concealer—I used some Urban Decay concealer from Sephora—and they don’t say anything. I’m really not super knowledgeable about makeup, but I feel like I would be able to do it on myself really well now that I watch makeup people. I really love them all. Personally, I really like people’s imperfections—that, to me, is really interesting. I like pimples and things like that. My cover of Dazed is one of my favorite shots—I have no makeup on in that one. I love Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she’s my daily inspo, like I love that look. [Laughs] I think she wears lipstick, but she’s really cool. There’s so many people I look up to, but not from a beauty standpoint. For me, I just respect people a lot who embrace their own strange beauty.”
—as told to ITG
Molly Bair photographed by Tom Newton.
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