Paris, New York, Milan... Govan! Connor’s a star
HE was destined to follow in the footsteps of his father working in the shipyards or in the British Army like his brother.
But Scottish teenager Connor Newall defied all expectations to find himself striding the world’s catwalks as an internationally renowned male model.
The 18-year-old’s rise from the streets of Glasgow to the hallowed halls of high fashion is documented in a BBC special tomorrow night.
The teenager is seen flitting between fashion assignments in Europe, the US and Asia, and visiting his family home in Glasgow.
He also talks about being starstruck as he suddenly finds himself mixing with A-list celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Ringo Starr.
With his blond hair, blue eyes and angular features, he was spotted at the age of 16 by a casting agent visiting her old school, Trinity High in Renfrew, where Connor was a pupil. Two years on, he has been on the catwalks in Milan, New York and Paris, where he has modelled for Gucci, as well as appearing in Vogue magazine. But Connor still stays true to his roots and heads back to Scotland every chance he gets to see his mother, who works as a home help, and his father, a shipyard worker in Govan, as well as his brother and two sisters. During the documentary, part of BBC One’s Our Lives series, one woman exclaims: ‘I’ve never seen anyone who looks like him.’ And modelling isn’t his only talent. In 2015, Connor starred in a video commissioned by the Scottish Government to fight knife crime. It features Connor as a young schoolboy egged on by his friends to engage in a knife fight with another boy. It was a case of art imitating life after Connor’s own cousin, Andrew Newall, 22, died from a single stab wound after a confrontation with 16-year-old Lee Crawford in Glasgow in 1996.