“This year’s been the busiest work year of my life,” says Lulu Tenney. The model is calling from her unairconditioned room in Chinatown, where she’s sitting in the sweltering heat. As a lifelong New Yorker, she’s used to its harsh climate. Undoubtedly, it’s part of what helped her grow thick enough skin to be one of the industry’s most in-demand and hardest-working models. 

“I was born in Brooklyn, grew up there, and then went to high school in the city,” she says. However, she definitely uses her career to get out and travel. “There are some girls who, the second they finish fashion week in Paris, are on the first flight back to New York. They’re miserable to be gone.” There’s an audible smile on her face before she continues: ”Maybe it’s because they have a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. And I’m free as a bird.” A bird who travels–a lot. 

Something she’d like to see change in the industry? It’s rapidly fleetful nature. 
“Brands have to do multiple seasons a year, and nothing really has all that much longevity. Even with the campaigns or editorials I do, everything’s pretty ephemeral,” she says. That said, despite her youth, Tenney’s career is bound to be anything but short-lived.

This cover story appears in the pages of V144: now available for purchase!

Photography Inez & Vinoodh

Fashion Paul Sinclaire

Makeup Sam Visser (Art Partner)

Hair Jimmy Paul (Susan Price NYC)

Model Lulu Tenney (Lumen Creative)

Manicure Deborah Lippmann (Home Agency)

Producer John Nadzi (VLM Productions)

Production manager Michael Gleeson (VLM Productions)

Lighting director Jodokus Driessen (VLM Studio)

Digital technician Marc Kroop (VLM Studio)

Photo assistant Joe Hume (VLM Studio)

Stylist assistants Coco Knudson, Timothy Cheng, Jesse Pickel

Makeup assistants Shimu Takanori, Micka Omura

Hair assistant LaMesha Mosley

Manicure assistants Bojir Hasanov, Joelle Rodriguez

Retouching StereoHorse

Location Pier 59 Studios