It’s Friday afternoon at the end of a long shoot and an even longer fashion month, so you’d forgive model Pooja Mor, 28, for being exhausted.
But if Mor is tired she doesn’t show it: dressed in an oversized jumper, black trousers and a puffer jacket, she greets me with a wide smile, still wearing rainbow eyeshadow from the shoot. ‘It was a blast, we had so much fun,’ she says politely, curling up in an armchair.
Well-spoken and reserved, Mor exudes the kind of quiet determination that has seen her booked for major shows, from Dolce & Gabbana, Jil Sander and Lemaire to Erdem and Preen by Thornton Bregazzi. Recently Mor has dedicated herself to the shows, undaunted by the coronavirus outbreak, snapping photos behind the scenes at New York Fashion Week for her blog (she carries her camera everywhere). ‘Of course, people were talking about it and taking precautions,’ she says. ‘But it was super busy, with back-to-back fittings. I’m a very introverted person so I stayed in, recuperating and hanging with my friends. I was like, I need to get this done, then I can rest!’
Born to a ‘very traditional’ family in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, Mor followed in the footsteps of her father and brother by studying engineering at university in Gujarat. ‘I was always so intimidated by anything beautiful,’ she says. ‘I was probably a geek or a tomboy because I didn’t really think about how I looked.’ But when Mor helped to organise a beauty pageant, her friends called her on to the stage. ‘They were just teasing me,’ she recounts, shyly. ‘The anchor asked me what talent I was performing and I said, “I’ll just do a catwalk.”’ That chance opportunity led to participation in Delhi and Mumbai Fashion Week, with her brother’s support at the beginning. ‘I didn’t tell my parents until later because they wouldn’t have liked it,’ she says. ‘But I felt like I had the confidence to do it. Now they see that I’m so happy doing what I do and they see that you can make a career out of it.’
And what a career it has been so far: since she was handpicked for Nicholas Ghesquiere’s Louis Vuitton cruise show in May 2015, Mor has been on countless runways and been shot by photographers including Steven Meisel, Annie Leibovitz and Peter Lindbergh. In 2019 she was named Vogue India’s Young Achiever of the Year. But Mor keeps her feet firmly on the ground, meditating (‘when you’re strong here,’ she says, tapping her head, ‘it helps you halfway to handling any situation’) and retaining her parents’ traditional views. ‘The real things that keep me going are the values I was brought up with,’ she says, ‘because I always want my parents to feel proud when they see my work.’ As for being one of the few Indian models who has crossed over into the mainstream, she tells me that she feels ‘responsible. I hope I set a good example, but I’m sure it’s all meant to be, that I’m supposed to do this, to open up these doors.’
While she’s in London, she’s keen to visit second-hand shops, telling me she loves the vintage leopard print trousers she wore on the shoot, and showing me her unusual, heart-shaped earrings. ‘The stylist let me wear them [on the shoot] because they’re from an antiques shop in Paris — I got them two days ago when I finished the shows.’ In a few days, she will head home to Brooklyn — ‘it’s much calmer than Manhattan, you can hear kids playing, you see old people on the street.’
After a well-deserved rest, what does she want to do next? ‘I’d love to write a book,’ she says, thoughtfully. ‘Maybe a children’s book, like a beautiful fairy tale. I feel like stories have power.’ From where we’re standing, Mor’s most powerful story might just be her own.
