Spanish Fork, Utah, is a medium-sized town with roughly 44,000 residents. “It’s very much what you’d imagine,” model Colin Jones tells me before putting on a country twang: “Lotsa tumbleweeds, lotsa mountains, lotsa Mormons.” Jones is on set and dripping in Prada, a scenario she’s dreamt of ever since she was a starry-eyed second grader. Now, she can say she’s walked for McQueen, Rodarte, Valentino, and Thom Browne, among other industry titans, while maintaining that infectious, child-like excitement.

The connection between fashion and identity was always clear to Jones, especially as a young trans girl. “We had a very strict dress code at my school. Back when I was exploring my femininity, they didn’t understand where I was coming from, but I saw it as an opportunity for education,” she says as we chat near the freight elevator of the East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, photo studio. “I’m lucky because I had a supportive mom,” she continues. With the help of her family members, Jones was able to make her school’s dress code completely genderless.

“Now, everyone’s wearing makeup, everyone’s wearing skirts, and everyone’s wearing earrings. It was a win for Utah!” Or better yet, she clarifies, “a win for Spanish Fork!”

Jones’s innate proclivity towards activism is part of the reason she wanted to get into modeling in the first place. “I didn’t see a lot of trans models when I was growing up, so I wanted to be someone who opened doors and paved pathways,” she states. “Ultimately, my greatest motivation is other trans women and just women in general. The power that women hold, the sacred bonds they have, and the specialness of that are so inspirational to me. Women are so cool.” When I nod enthusiastically—like, yes, women rule—she lays her fairy-like hand on my arm and we share a girly giggle.

Aspiring to increase visibility through fashion is one thing, but actually getting yourself onto the catwalk is something else. Jones says her path to the runway was paved with cryptic dreams and shifts at Taco Bell. The summer before her senior year of high school, she got the chance to meet with a psychic as part of her mom’s birthday festivities. The psychic offered her three questions, like a genie. Jones asked about modeling: Was it in the stars? Would she be successful? Would it be worth it? The psychic told her to keep an eye on her dreams, and three months later, Jones woke up with her answer—an answer that she asked me to keep private.

Not even a week later, she was signed to a Utah modeling agency that eventually offered her the opportunity to meet with New York-based agencies so she could get more exposure—all she had to do was pay for her ticket. Jones had been saving her money from her taco-folding gig but came up short. “Those chalupa coins weren’t giving a lot. Thankfully my mom was able to come up with the rest,” she says, smiling, and the rest, she attests, was simply meant to be.

This feature appears inside the pages of V144: now available for purchase!

Photography Petros Kouiouris

Fashion Altorrin 

Makeup Kevin Cheah (Kramer + Kramer)

Hair Chika Nishiyama (87 Artists)

Model Colin Jones (Women)

Manicure Stephanie Hernandez

Photo assistants Ricardo Lara, Leiber Alvarez

Stylist assistants Roderick Reyes, Sionán Murtagh

Makeup assistant Joshua Hilario

Hair assistant Aya Yamashita

Location Loupe Studios