FROM REFUGEE TO THE RUNWAY
City teen at home in fashion world
She was too tall, too skinny and sported a gap between her front teeth.
“Also, because I’m south Sudanese dark, they made fun of the colour of my skin, too,” Nya Gatbel says with a laugh. “Kids are so mean.”
Nearly a decade after she was that nine-year-old girl who towered over her elementary school classmates, the now five-foot-11 Calgarian can afford to laugh at the memory of her childhood torment.
While it’s hard to imagine Gatbel ever being the “ugly duckling ” she describes, the now 17-year-old — she’ll celebrate her 18th birthday next week — is, as the old saying goes, having the last laugh.
Gatbel has recently returned from Europe, where she made her debut as a runway model in both Paris and Milan, wearing the newest looks from such acclaimed fashion houses as Comme de Garcons, Guy Laroche and Giorgio Armani.
Not bad for a kid who only a few months ago was just another Grade 12 student at John G. Diefenbaker high school in the city’s northwest. Still, when you meet the charming teenager in person, it’s a no-brainer to imagine the gamine-like refugee from Ethiopia as the rising fashion world star she is today.
“Nya will be going to the haute couture shows in Paris in June,” says her agent, Antonija Klotz, who started her boutique modelling agency, The Nobles Management, in 2015 and signed Gatbel as a client just five months ago.
“To go from never modelling straight to haute couture, well, it’s pretty much unheard of.”
Klotz says that when it comes to star quality, Gatbel has everything that show casting agents are looking for — and much, much more. “First, she’s so graceful and statuesque,” she says, “and then, when she speaks, she’s so articulate for her age. You just want to know her story.”
Gatbel’s story is indeed one that is as captivating as her stunning beauty. She came to Canada with her parents and two elder siblings as an infant in 2002, the family among the many waves of refugees from the war-torn east African country.
Her parents split up a few years later and mom Nyakat took on the overwhelming task of raising her five children on her own.
“I am who I am because of my mother,” says Gatbel with a beaming smile at her mom, who on this day has accompanied her daughter to her interview in Calgary’s East Village.
“She’s taught all her kids about the importance of having a strong moral compass, to be kind, to be respectful and to always keep smiling.”
While she was well aware that her ugly duckling self-image wasn’t the way many others saw her — she was first approached by a modelling scout at a downtown CTrain at age 13 — Gatbel didn’t spend her teen years dreaming of the model’s life.
That is, until her sister Nayabuoy, who was first scouted by one of Klotz’s colleagues, introduced the two. “She said, ‘I really think you should meet my sister,’ ” says Klotz.
It was with her optimistic attitude that Gatbel set off last month to test the waters of Milan Fashion Week.
“Some of the other girls told me they’d go to 40 castings in one season and might not end up with a booking for a single show,” she says. “So I didn’t go in with high expectations. I thought, ‘If I get to walk a show, that would be amazing. If not, then it is what it is.’ ”
She not only got to walk the shows, but was invited to attend Paris Fashion Week right after. “My plane ticket back to Calgary was for March 1,” she says with a laugh. “I had to change the ticket.”
Mom Nyakat was apprehensive about sending her teenage daughter to Europe, she readily admits. “I’m very happy she’s having this experience,” she says in her native language, Nuer, her daughter translating for her. “She can never wake up early, so I didn’t know how she’d do it all without someone there to get her going.”
Her daughter laughs heartily. “I went in with my eyes wide open,” she says, “but my experiences so far have all been positive, from the international agents to the other models I met and roomed with.”
Gatbel knows that the working lifespan of a runway model is a short one and is already thinking ahead to another career aspiration: becoming a makeup artist.
For now, though, she’s happy to go on this new, unexpected adventure, one that will likely include a few years of international travel.
She’s also thrilled to play a role in the changing perceptions of beauty in the fashion world, one that is increasingly embracing diversity.
“When I was a kid, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in the fashion magazines,” she says.
“Things are shifting, on the runway and everywhere else,” says Gatbel, who hears from her many fans on social media about how she is inspiring them. “I like the idea of being a role model. Plus, being a model is super fun.”