The camera loves modelling sensation Connor
He stares moodily from glossy magazine covers and New York billboards.
But teenage modelling sensation Connor Newall has vowed he will never forget his Glasgow roots.
Resting between “shoots” in Milan and New York, the down-toearth teenager said: “I’m from Glasgow – if I ever forgot that, my mum would kick my backside!”
Plucked from the obscurity of a school corridor by an agent casting a public service film, it propelled the schoolboy into a world he never dreamed of, gracing the covers of Vogue Homme and GQ.
Connor, now 18, was 16 when he was “discovered”. He was rushing to class at Trinity High School in Renfrew when he was spotted by award-winning casting director Claire Catterson and chosen for a role in a knife crime film for the Scottish Government.
She said: “The instant I saw him, I knew he was ‘special’. He’s got a unique look and the camera loves him.”
Claire cast him in the film One Knife, Many Lives – a cause close to Connor’s heart as his cousin Andrew was killed, aged 22, in 1996, in a knife attack in Glasgow’s Hillington.
A 16-year-old boy was jailed for manslaughter.
Claire called top agent Michael O’Brien of Model Team who said: “Connor landed on planet fashion and it was like two orbits colliding. He’s the biggest thing to have come out of Scotland.
“A model is lucky to get one front cover in a career. Connor’s already had 10 and the world’s most prestigious photographers and fashion houses are clamouring for him.
“At his level now, models can earn in a week what everyone else earns in a whole year. Because of Connor’s solid upbringing, he knows the value of money and how quickly careers can end in the fashion world. He doesn’t squander what he has.”
Connor said: “I’ve never had to graft hard like my mum or dad. I get paid for modelling clothes. It almost doesn’t seem fair.”
He blushes describing Paris Hilton kissing him at an after-show party in Milan – and how he failed to recognise one of fashion’s grand dames at a London shoot.
Connor said: “I spotted this old lady sitting on her own, so I introduced myself because thought she looked lonely.
“I said, ‘Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Connor Newall’, and she goes: ‘Nice to meet you too, I’m Vivienne Westwood’. I froze for about 20 seconds before running away.”
Style icon twins Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared, who have just signed Connor up to be the face of their new classic collection, said: “Using a face like his is such a contrast. He’s not the bad boy he looks like. He’s the sweetest boy with the bad boy face.”
He’s been to China, Korea, Australia, Spain, France and Italy, but Glasgow remains his favourite city because it’s where his family are.
Dad Ritchie, 52, still frets that modelling is not a “real job”. He said: “I worry about what happens to him in another 10 years.”
Connor refuses to be concerned, saying: “I’m taking voice coaching lessons because I want to be an actor. Tom Hardy was a model before becoming a huge movie star. I’d love to be like him.”
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