Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 78 - Model in Milan Italy - Whitney Birch

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

Born & raised in Lloydminster Whitney has a very unique story. After graduating from high school she moved to Toronto where she was spotted walking down the street & shortly after was on the cover of harlequin novels. Over time with many shoots & gigs she moved to Milan, Italy where she has now been for 7 years modelling full time. Whitney has now been all over the world for different designers & has played a part in some of the biggest fashion stages/shows in the world.

This is Whitney Birch. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, folks. We got another kick-ass episode for you this week. It has been one heck of a ride lately. I feel like just great guests after great guests, not that I had any issue with this in any of the previous weeks. I just feel like really falling into a stride here.

There's been a lot of great people reaching out. I've been able to track down a few last week or last Monday, this past Monday. Did Colby Armstrong, so if you miss that one, I highly suggest you go back and catch that one. He was fantastic. Such a cool dude. And, you know, today is another cool person, a little off the beaten path for myself. But I sat down, had a lot of fun, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy this one as well.

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Maybe they'll even give you one of those kick-ass hats they have. They're pretty kick-ass. Kenny Rutherford, Rutherford Appraisal Group. In these difficult times, if you're in need of any appraisal work for the bank loans, setting a fair purchase price, whether you're buying or selling any type of, of real estate, shop, homes, farms, cabins, restaurants, etc. Give Kenny a call 306, 307, 1732. He is, he's the man.

Old Kay Rutherford, he's got it going on. Factory sports, the boys over there, Terrell the Holt, Nathan Mullet, they want to help you usher in summer, which feels like maybe, maybe it's here. It's pretty nice again today. That wind, freaking suck. But anyways, if you need to get on a bike, give the boys a call. You need a new baseball glove? Give the boys a call.

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And a quick reminder of the podcast is available on YouTube now. Now here's Factory Sports Tale of the Tape. On this lady, she was born and raised in Lloydminster. She graduated from Holy Rosary. Please don't hold that against her. As you can tell, I may have graduated from the comp. She went to school to become a level two dental assistant in Toronto. Now, I'm kind of skipping, glazing over a few things,

but she's telling me she walks down the street in Toronto and gets asked to do some modeling. That's who I'm talking to. It's pretty crazy. Her first gig, her first paid gig for modeling, was the cover of one of those Harlequin romance novels. I'm not shitting you. Currently, she's with Women Management Agency and has worked all over the world,

but has been in Milan, Italy for the last seven years. Now, we're going to hop right into it because I clicked on the Zoom meeting. We started chatting, and pretty soon we're two hours in. So, enjoy this one, and without further ado. I'm saying to my buddy on the way over here, I'm like, I know jack shit about modeling, but it doesn't take away that I think it's interesting,

you're in a different country making a go of it and while by all accounts doing very well at it so yeah it's it's actually honestly i didn't think i'd be doing it either truth be told like i thought two and a half months in italy to explore italy and that's it but i started working non-stop and that was it once actually i'm going to have to restudy my dentistry once i finish this again because oh my gosh you Yeah, I never expected it either, but yeah, I'm here and it's really lovely. It's nice. But you know what?

People always say to me like, oh my gosh, like you're so lucky you got out of Lloyd. And I don't know why people say this. I mean, I guess when I first left to Toronto too, I was like, okay, yeah, finally out of like the Lloyd Minster and da-da-da. But I love Lloyd Minster. I love going back to Lloyd Minster. The people are just so cool, so nice, so friendly, so honest. Like, you don't get that. You really don't.

Like, it's insane. I love Lloyd Minster. I love going back. Yeah. So when I think when all of us graduate from Lloyd, your first instinct is to get as far away from Lloyd as humanly possible. You're like, I just, I got to go experience some of the world. And whether that's Saskatoon or whether that's, you know, Italy for people, right? just got to get out of the bubble.

And, but man, when you get away from it for a few years, it's nice to come home. And one of the things when I started the podcast, I wanted to showcase some of that, because you talk about cool people. There's a lot of people in town that have done some really incredible things that the stories just keep coming. It's crazy. Like how many people are like, have you ever thought about this person? It's like, no.

Who is Whitney Burden? I have no idea. Let's start here. Where on earth did the Not where on earth That sounds terrible But like where did the Where did modeling start for you?

Like was it something you wanted to do from a young age then? I never really thought was all-penging piano lessons. I always thought about it Because you know, I always had somewhere to go But I was always told because of my height I used to be like the tallest one of my classes Like oh you should be a modeling I always heard that my whole life.

And actually, one time, I convinced my mom, because I was like, oh, I want to try it. I convinced my mom to take me to this competition thing in Edmonton. It's really funny. Of course, she had to bring my brother. So we're there signing up and everything. And all of a sudden, the girl says to my brother, oh, you should join the competition too. And I was like, okay, fine. Also, at the same time, I thought it was cool because my brother was there with me as well.

Didn't think anything of it. but after, I think it was like a day or two of the competition, I can't remember, so long ago, he ended up getting the first place and I got fourth place. I was like, what? Like, this was my thing, and he got the first place. But so it all started then, I guess. And then, yeah, my first jobs were in Toronto, though, actually. So I took off to Toronto.

How many people, how many people are in this conference? this competition? You know what? I don't even remember. I think I was like grade six or grade seven. So I was young. I, like, I don't even, what did you do in the competition? I think you had to walk on the runway.

Like, they taught you how to walk type thing. And then, like, then you, they picked who was like the best one. And then you had to do makeup and pictures. And it's like, it was so funny because now looking back at it was like, it was, I don't know. I think it was probably a cash grad. But, you know, my brother ended up getting first. I got fourth and that was it.

So, yeah. Are you throwing your brother under the bus a bit by saying he got first? It was supposed to be my competition. I'm kidding. No, he's awesome. I love to having him there. But, yeah, he still brings it up sometimes. Well, I got first.

But, you know. No, but I actually started doing it as like a fun thing when I went to Toronto. So I moved to Toronto. Yeah, sorry, you moved to Toronto after school? Yeah, I mean, when I was in junior high, I always wanted to move to Toronto because I did some dancing jobs there. So I fell in love with the big city, you know, like coming from Loy, it was like my first time really like going by myself somewhere. So I just fell in love with Toronto. So I always said after high school.

I would go to Toronto, but, you know, it took a few years after I was teaching dance and everything like that. But eventually, I went off to Toronto. It was really scary because I didn't know anybody except for one person. And literally I went with like two suitcases and that was it. Going to Toronto, that was it. Didn't even have like a, I didn't have a plan. Truthfully, now that you think about it, young, naive, whatever. but I ended up getting a job at a restaurant and yeah just as I got approached one day

you want to like what part of an agency da-da-da-da and okay try it out see what happens you know so it was like a side type thing I would do and yeah just kind of went from there doing odd jobs here and there so I got two questions that popped to mind right away one you say you say you were doing dancing. So you were in dance before that kind of toured you around everywhere, competitive dance then? Yeah. So I was with Alison Lamont School of Dance. Okay. I loved that. Amazing. I started with them when I was four. And so we used to do competitions and everything. We've been on cruise ships. Awesome. But I ended up meeting some people along the way from dancing who were like, oh, we have jobs for you in Toronto.

So say for like shows for L'Oreal or contestas, sometimes I would go to Montreal for some jobs and come back. And yeah, so it kind of just took off from there just from meeting people from all the years of dancing. And yeah, just used to teach it. And that was it. Kind of stuck in Lloyd for a bit. The next question I got to know is you say they approached you in Toronto. So what? You were just waiting at table and all of a sudden some guys like, hey, you, I think you can.

could model. How would you come with me? Yeah, well, it is kind of like that. I got stopped when I was walking down on Young Street in Toronto. Oh shit. You got stopped walking down a street? Yeah, it does happen. Oh my gosh, even in Milan all the time. People like, oh, like we started a new agency and I'm like, no, no, I'm good. Like, I don't need any. But yeah, it was really strange. At first, I don't know, but it was really, everyone knew the name of this agency, so it wasn't like a scam type thing. I did do my, you know, my investigation, but yeah, it was, it was, it was, yeah, I didn't think anything of it. But they offered me some, some cool jobs. So I figured why not on the side of working at a restaurant. So, that's cool.

So what was your first modeling gig, shoot? I don't know what you call it. Wow. My first one in Toronto was, do you know those books? Like, I think when you go to like Superstore and whatever, they're like Harlequin romance novels. With like a jackd dude on the front and it's all about making love, essentially. Yeah, like the stealthy look going on and stuff. Yeah, like, yeah, that was it.

That was a couple of things. So you're telling me somewhere. Do you know the books it's on? Do you have any idea where those pictures went? You know why? I can't remember the names of them exactly. My mom, of course, has them. And in fact, even when I go to Newfoundland to visit my family,

the last time it was so funny. I got into bed and I looked at the nightstand to turn off the lamp and my aunt's had the harlequin books there. Yeah, yeah. It's funny. You know what, though? like the family's supportive that's for sure so it's kind of nice but but you know what the job is actually a very cool job i didn't know what to expect i remember the first time i went there

and literally you walk in and there's so many different sets like each it's like a huge warehouse but like different sets like one say a salon one say like out in the desert like or kitchen like they have all different scenes and they literally come to you you with the picture and you already see the poses. Like, we want you to pose like this and that's it. So they, I don't even know because it's like they already had the, the shoot for the book. So why do you have to do it again?

Anyways, but so yeah, so you pose like that. They take a bunch of pictures of you. Literally you're there for an hour and you leave and that's it. Pretty good pay too. So you're like, okay, why not? It's the simplest job ever. So yeah, that was my first job. Yeah, the books are probably still circulating somewhere.

That's a crazy story to get stopped on the street in Toronto. Not like, that's a big city, A, B, to get stopped on it, then to all of a sudden be a couple pictures and now you're on a cover of a book. Yeah, some of them are really funny. Some of them are cool. Of course, it's like me with like the FBI agent and, you know, he's like protecting me. One of them, yeah, we're like part of a family picture.

Yeah, it's quite priceless, actually. So you're, once you're in Toronto, are you going to school there then as well? Or you just moved to Toronto to just move to Toronto? Just move to Toronto. I knew I wanted to take a break and go to get out of Lloyd and see what the, world has to offer and yeah so I started school probably after three or four years I was living in Toronto as I okay I have to figure out what I want to do because you know can't work in a restaurant forever although this restaurant oh my gosh now it's closed but if it was open I think I would fly

all the way back to Toronto to work there it was the coolest place ever it was the best place And basically everyone that worked there, you're all family now. We all still keep in touch with each other. And it was just, you worked on an open rooftop patio. And it was cool. It was like just hanging out with your friends all day long. Anyways, I was like, okay, I have to figure out something with my life. I'm more of like an artsy person.

So I've never been the type to really see myself behind a computer typing. It's just, I don't know. I think I'd go a little crazy. So I came across dentistry. So I went into school to be a level two dental assistant. And yeah, I went and did that for a little bit and completed everything. But shortly after I took off to Italy. Let's go to Toronto.

Okay. So you're there. You're living there for how many years did you say? Nearly six years I was there. Six years in Toronto. Yeah. So you enjoyed it. It went by fast.

It really did. I was there to work and met some people along the way. It was a really cool city. It was a really hard city, though, at first, because, like I said, I didn't know anybody. And I think it's still the biggest blizzard that year that Toronto had. Like, the snow was crazy. It was a rough time living there.

Like, I remember, like, literally one time to my first apartment, I finally found literally because there was a traffic jam from the blizzard. having to carry my groceries uphill in a snowstorm. Like, it was a rough situation being in Toronto, but it turned out to be a really cool place. And like I said, I have a lot of lifelong friends there. Like the bond is so strong just from like working at that restaurant. So, but yeah, I decided it's time to go to school.

So I was doing that and studying away. And I remember one time at lunch hour I got a call, in my agency. And they were like, oh, you know, there's a modeling agency in Milan, they're really interested in you, can you go? I was so excited because I was like, wow, like what an opportunity to see the world,

but then reality sits in. And I was like, I'm still in school, I have exams coming up, there's absolutely no way I can just take off. So of course I explained to them, sorry, can't do it. But if they're still interested in a couple months, then absolutely, it'd be really awesome. So I did the school thing. Then I, yeah, I packed up and left to Milan what I thought was going to be two and a half months.

And it ended up being almost seven years. End of May is seven years. Wow. Yeah. So you're six years in Toronto. Are you doing modeling gigs like once a month, once every day? Blue Moon. Like is it something that kind of became a part-time job as well? As well, yeah, because I mean, in Toronto there's a lot of catalog work as well that you can

end up doing. So you can do, okay, there's like the novels. You can also do say the catalogs, you know, I was going to say sellers, but sellers is closed. But say like super store like Joe fresh and everything like you see, you flip through those. There's a lot of catalogs. work there is the well there was not anymore the Toronto Fashion Week so that kept really kept us really busy so there was a lot of gigs actually but there was a lot of gigs but also Toronto isn't like a fashion capital say like New York or Paris London Milan those are the main places so Milan is like right up there with New York then yeah yeah of course actually for the fashion weeks um the Washington week always starts in New York, then it goes to London, and then Milan, and then Paris.

It's always those four all the time. Oh, okay, okay. What's, so. Absolutely. As I said before, as I told you before we started, this guy doesn't know anything about anything to do with modeling. So this is all new. When you're in Toronto or even Milan or wherever, what is like, I assume you do shows where you're walking the stage, that kind of thing. Yeah.

What is it like in the old back, like is it absolute a hectic in the background? Are you putting on like 10 different outfits or is it just like, you know, you got one and you roll out and walk the aisle and way you come back? It's really insane. So when you first get to the backstage, you have to find your rack that has your clothes and it has your picture and everything. And you'll have some people waiting there to dress you. Also, you've already just finished your hair and makeup and whatnot. So you get into your first outfit. Take your positions.

Everything is calm. You see the monitor of the people sitting down outside and you wait for them. There's like the paparazzi there to take pictures of the people also. in the audience, so that takes a while, and you're like, come on, let's get going. So then you go. First outfit, you walk, they tell you when to go, but then as you're walking back from the runway and you turn that corner, as nice as you're looking, walking off, you have to bolt as fast as you can.

You are running as crazy as you can to get back to your rack. You're stripping off everything. You have people, say if your hair was up, you have people taking your hair, down, fixing your makeup. You have people putting on the shoes for you. You're trying to do something with your body and maneuver yourself to try and help them. And in the meantime, you have somebody yelling being like, Whitney, Whitney, we need Whitney, and she's up next. And then you have to do it all again a bunch of times. But it gets to be, it's almost like a workout actually. It's really cool, though. It's cool. It's cool. The first time you experienced, you, uh,

your first one, if you put yourself back into your first one, was it, I have to assume that had to have been intimidating is all hell. Yeah, it's, it's a bit crazy with just everybody surrounding you and literally like, you know what sometimes it's easier for you to just put like your own shoe on, router than somebody else doing it? And you're like, just let me do it. But the other people, they're putting the shoe on, but then you can't bend down to somebody's trying to throw this jacket on you and it's it's insane and everyone's just trying to do their job because you know i've also seen shows where it doesn't work and all of a sudden the the runway is blank and nobody's on there and the people are like okay what's going on but it's really really crazy

but it's a lot of fun as i said and the reward is cool what's the what's the biggest runway you've ever walked down or i don't mean biggest i mean biggest like show you ever walked out. Well, actually, the biggest shows that I've done have been, I just did like Milan Fashion Week now, but the biggest and the best ones I've ever done were in Dubai for the Dubai Fashion Week. It was just such a cool experience being in Dubai with like, it was an outside set and it went on for a week and there's just so many designers so many people from all over the world there was just celebrities from from everywhere like it was just such a crazy and like if you know devise it's like

such a rich city they don't like do anything little basically so it was just like the most glamorous coolest runway shows i've ever done but yeah like there's a lot of runway shows I've done over the years. Actually, it's so funny though, when it comes to modeling, a lot of people, of course, they ask about pictures and they ask about runway and stuff, but there's so many more elements to modeling than just basically the pictures in the runway are the very end product of fashion. There's always like the beginning stages of actually making the clothes. There's also the showrooms where you have clients from all over the world and they come. to see you see these outfits to purchase these outfits or they have maybe a celebrity they have

to dress and so basically when even when you have people come for the showrooms it's like you're doing another mini fashion show again for them for people from all over the world there's so many aspects people don't realize when it comes to fashion even me i had no idea until until i came to to milan when you first roll into milan you're i don't even know you just you get a call you go yeah all right i'll pack a bag way we go you said you thought you're only going for a couple months right like say you roll in what do they have you like what are you walking into like hey here's a place to stay or are you like nope i got to go find that too like kind of lead us through the process of this I wish, and anybody who wants to pursue this or do this,

I wish I would have investigated perhaps maybe more, been a little bit more responsible because literally I packed up my stuff and I knew somebody was meeting me at the airport and they arranged like a model apartment to take me to. But literally, I remember after like this long flight, to get there. I get off the plane. I'm walking and just looking around. I'm like, who is this person I'm supposed to me? I knew his name was Marco, but I didn't know what he looked like, nothing. All of a sudden, this guy comes, walks up to me, and he goes, with me. And I'm like, Marco. He goes,

see, she, she, see, like, yes, yes. Okay, I go with him. He doesn't know a word of English. So, looking back, I'm like, okay. It's a bit stupid. Things could have turned bad. Thank goodness they didn't. But he ended up driving me around, like a billion streets. It seemed like I was going forever in this car. I mean, Milan has a lot of tiny streets, and they turned every curve.

And I was like, where am I going? All of a sudden, we pull up to this building. Milan, it's so funny. The streets, you're walking, and it looks like there's these huge door. and you open them and it's like a whole other world in there of like a billion different apartments or houses or whatever but really when you're on the street you just think it's okay that's street and I'm going but so he pulls up to this big brick wall with this huge door he's like okay um you want to go for lunch he only

says this I'm like okay like to meet my roommates because he said oh girls are there okay so I go put my stuff in the place. It was a model apartment. You basically, you walk in, you see like this army caught with like, it was so horrible. Oh my gosh, it was so horrible. They came back about it. My roommates were awesome because I lived with one girl from Israel and then three other girls from Serbia. So it was me and another girl in a room and then three other girls in another room. And we all got along, which was awesome because I've heard horror stories about modeling arrangements but yeah it was it was like these army cuts and like the grossest like it was horrible and like

the cleaning lady I used to go downstairs and she kept her supplies for some reason in our apartment and she would just be eating her breakfast like on our sofa and we're like what are you doing here like and they charge like an arm and a leg like each person like we calculated between five of us and what we paid for a month we could have had like a beautiful flat like right beside Duomo in the center of Milan like they kind of ripped you off anyways it was a huge shock for me I remember walking in though and I was like I really just have to do my two and a half months and I'm heading back to Toronto that's it it was crazy the first few days in Milan were insane they were really really tough because I recommend before you go anywhere to kind of investigate the culture the way that they

live, maybe learn a few things rather. I only knew Chow when I went there and I thought Chow meant goodbye, not even hello. So the first few days were very interesting now that I look back. Yeah, it was, I had a lot of people yelling at me and when you first arrive at the agency, they gave you a map and like a list of places you have to be. And it's so bad because, you know, in Canada, like the street signs are like on a pole at the end of the room. road so like you know you're wondering what street you're on you can just like look down and you see what the sign says in italy the signs are up against the wall so you literally have to walk to the end of the street and take a look up on the side of the building of what street you're on so i remember

walking around so many people being like oh do you know where this is or this is and they'd be like bolt and i was like what the heck does bow mean like would you even know like what do you think bow means if you ask somebody something and they said bolt and shrugged their shoulders what what would you think? I don't know. It was pretty tricky. Now I haven't mastered, but it was pretty tricky. When you first arrive and you were riding around the guy's taxi, getting driven and you're just kind of driving, where am I? At any point are you going, oh, that might have been a bad decision. Like was your temperature rising maybe slightly? Well, I mean, I don't know.

I think I was just so fascinated with like the architecture and the buildings. And like I was just like looking out the window. But it's also being Canadian, it's also super strange to get in somebody's vehicle and just like sit there. You can't have a conversation or be like, what's this? What's this? You know? So you have to like, it was the awkwardest conversation because he didn't know. English. I think he only knew those few phrases because I learned after that for the agency I was

with, like the main guy, his name is Marco, but the agency I was with, he was the driver for the girls. So he was actually for that agency. So it was his job. So it wasn't scary in the end, but I was like, I wish. You know all the details in the end. It wasn't scary. Yeah. If I had my time back, I'd be a little, yeah. If I had a daughter that I'd be like, yeah, okay, no, you're going to come back to home. All I have vivid images of is you've seen the Liam Neeson movie taken, I assume. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, where the girl that's a brunette, you know, young girl goes to, I think it's Paris, gets off the airplane in the airport, and a guy comes up and starts talking to him. I'm just like, oh, my God. Oh my God, this sounds eerily similar. Thank you. That's not the case.

Yeah, thank goodness. I mean, yeah. I think he probably was told after that he asked to say his name instead of just being like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. But then after, like I said, he took me for lunch to meet, like my roommates, and I was so happy to meet them and they're stolen. How was sleeping on an army cot for a couple months?

Oh, my gosh. It was insane. I mean it was it was really fun though at the same time because I've always like I lived by myself in Toronto right downtown brand new condo so it was really funny going from that so all of a sudden having like four other girls living with and it was yeah we all had to like share a fridge everyone was respectful though of like whose food was whose because I hear like girls they steal other girls food and steal cell phones and clothes and stuff like that we didn't have any of that so we got we all that we all respected each other I feel so it was cool what uh when did you know you're

going to stay longer in two and a half months oh gosh um well so when I left Toronto I had my condo I was renting my condo I'm not I was renting my condo and I was renting my condo and And they, I got my friend to Sublette, my condo. And so she was living there. I put some of my things in tote bags. And that was it. I moved it over to my other friend's house and da-da-da. But after two and a half months, I figured out a way to stay in Milan.

So I left after six months and I went back to Toronto and I sold all my things. and got rid of my apartment and I was like, okay, I'm just going to go forth. And that was it. I knew that I would give it a shot in Milan and keep working all the time. Yeah, that were charged in again. I had to plug in my phone. Multitasking. I know.

Just that talented. What you were, in the little questionnaire, you'd mentioned one of your first shoots was in Tuscany. Yeah, that was really cool. It was really a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. It was literally in this forest for, I got hired for like a magazine here in Milan. So there was a bunch of photographers, the most elaborate set I'd ever seen at that time. And yeah, we spent like about two days doing different shoots and there's so many people and that was one of my first jobs that I did in Milan. Also, I remember now, I also got booked for a Chevrolet job. Can you imagine? I got a book for a Chevrolet job in Italy. It was just like the funniest thing, but it was so weird because

I had to go to Lake Como and be on a boat for this job for Chevrolet. It was really the strangest job, but in the end, it all made sense because it was, they made a like a commercial of like these tourists going around and they were on Lake Como and they were. And they were on like Como and this boat. And then in the end, you had to, like, drive through, like, the, the winding roads in the mountains back to Milan. And I remember it was, like, four in the morning. We finished the shoot. And we were in front of the Duomo. And there was a bunch of, like, Chevrolet vehicles. And we set off all these fireworks at, like, four in the morning. Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty cool job. The first two that I did when I arrived in Milan, so.

So you've been on runways. on the front of romance novels. Now you're saying you've been in Chevrolet commercials. What else have you been in that we don't know about? Oh, gosh. There's been a bunch of magazines. I mean, the most popular one that you might know of or maybe your wife knows of is glamour magazine.

Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, you probably have some of that on your coffee table. And no, then there's some like Italian magazines, also some in Dubai that I've been in. I do a lot of fittings, actually. It's a huge job in Milan is fittings. You're probably wondering what that is, aren't you? You're staring at me going, he has no idea what I'm talking about. You, ma'am, would be correct.

What are you talking about? So, a fitting is, my main clients actually is Mark, Jacobs. So they come from all the way from New York because they love the quality of Italian material here. So they travel all the way. And they come for about two, three weeks before the New York Fashion Week. Mark Jacobs is always like the last show of the last day. So it's honestly the craziest job I've ever done. It's so intense. You don't sleep. It's basically a lot of just going around all over Italy. Seriously, you go all the way to the north to different places. You go all the way to the south. You go Rome. You go everywhere to all these factories to do fitting.

So what a fitting is, is basically you see scraps of material. For example, you see Mark Jacobs has a sketch that he does of what he wants on the runway. So they have an idea of what he wants. They bring it in. So it's scraps of material and they're pinning and poking and everything like that. And you're standing there and what works with what and what material would be good for this. And, you know, he's there as well and say, okay, yeah, I like this. But he's so busy during that time too. Because there's all different departments to try and get this fashion week going. So there's a billion outfits.

They're all fitted to me. And then basically either the day of or the night before going to New York, they, or the fashion show, sorry, they fly all the way to New York with this, and I actually get to see the finished product just moments before they leave, and then you get to see it on the models and New York and everything.

So everything you see for the Mark Jacobs Fashion Week, it was all fitted to me, to my body, if that makes sense. It's kind of a process, that's a crazy process, because it starts with nothing, and then they bring like a sample, and then I have to try it on, and then they make adjustments

to that and then they have to you know there's all these huge machines you're in huge factories and it's just like it's so crazy that you get to see clothes from everything like Alexander McQueen Gucci Chanel fendie you get to see them all just being made it's really really crazy you're telling me that for like a two three week period they come down you work You don't sleep. They pin things all over you to create what they want for this fashion runway show. Then they take that product, which you see for just a brief tiny moment, and the next time you see it is on all the models in the runway show in New York.

Yes. See, you're better at explaining this than I am. That is exactly. No, I'm just making sure I got that right. That is almost mind-blowing. True. No, but he's really insane. Like him, I mean, there's lots of other people too, but he's really like makes everything last minute because even the day before they take their flight, he's even adding more pieces because he gets inspired by something. Who knows, right?

And he wants this in the show and you have to make it happen. It's really, really crazy. But it's really cool because, I mean, like I said, all the stuff, whether it's tights or body suits or t-shirts or t-shirts. or pants or sweaters, even socks, hats. They get, like, they're all made on me. And then you see them all the way in New York. How many outfits are they doing in that time period on you? A lot.

A lot. And then they also make, like, say it was a t-shirt in red, but they also wanted in purple, in blue, and in black. So in the end, the numbers are atrocious. It's really crazy. And yeah, it's really cool, though, to see it from start to finish the whole process. How on earth did you get that job? It's just luck?

Or were you in the right time and spot? From my agency, of course, they always propose girls to the clients and who they might think. And, yeah, I mean, there's like a package that they send to their clients, and they ended up liking me. And, I mean, I've worked with them now for, gosh, six years. So they always come a couple times a year. And yeah, that's it. It's really, it's cool. And we get along so good, me and the girls. So it's really difficult, though, because sometimes you go to bed at, say, three in the morning. And they're like, okay, we have to be up at six because we have to drive three hours to be at another location. There's a lot of driving.

Basically, we always say that Mark should just let us fly everywhere because the amount of time we spend on the road just driving is really crazy and i must have missed one part then because what so you're driving all over italy what happens at the next destination they just have different type of clothing there yeah it's all different factories they all say one one person deals with um cashmere one person deals with like knit material one person does um embroidery sequins stuff like this they all have like a different job there's one factory just in Florence that's specifically for socks and so yeah I have to even just put on socks and it's funny you have a sock day yeah sometimes I do yeah it's funny too and it's like either like the body suit day or like the panty day that gets to be a little little interesting

they have to get the measurements right so yeah not much personal stress face. I'm curious, I guess, then, at what point do you become comfortable with that part? Do you ever become comfortable with that part? Yeah, I mean, it gets to be your job. I mean, also, the clients have to respect you. I mean, of course, for me, if there's men coming into the room, like, no, then I cover up, right? Like, everyone is really professional.

And, yeah, it's, it's, honestly, I haven't had any issues with it. I remember one time we were changing and there was some guys, but this other model was like, can we have some privacy? And he left, no problem. Now, there's never been really an issue. They're all really good for it, I must admit. What, uh, what's your favorite day then? You got your sock day, you got your shirt day.

What day on the trip are you like, oh, yeah. Yeah, here we go. We're going to have fun on X. You know what? Honestly, it's not a day, but it's a moment because sometimes it gets to be so crazy that say you're at a factory and by chance they'll have to maybe order pizza in, although sometimes the pizzas like from that area originated like and it's insanely amazing that pizza. But, you know, after a full day in a factory, you'd like to go to a restaurant or something. So my favorite moments of that is when the factories are all busy working, like, their machines, and they have to get the product being made so they don't need a model during that time. So we can kind of all leave and go to the restaurant and have some wine and say when we're in Bruges, I like have some truffles.

And, you know, I always try to pick the food from the specific area in Italy. That's my favorite time, honestly, or like the hotels, because honestly the hotels we stay in, they look like palaces. They're so old. I mean, I have had like a few, I think, ghost stories. I mean, for sure there wasn't ghosts. It was just me being paranoid. But because they're so old.

No, it's true. They've made into hotels. And I like really small like hotels, but yeah, sometimes they give me like these rooms. And honestly, you could fit like a family of four in there for like their summer holiday. And they'd have more than enough room. It's too big. So, yeah. That's my favorite time is like to check out the hotels.

And sometimes when the factories are busy, we get to go to the spas or, you know, the pools. Like there's perks to it. There's a lot of hard work, but there's a lot of perks too. You can't just kind of slide by a ghost story and then laugh it off and go, I was, I'm interested.

You got my curiosity peaked. Well, oh gosh. Okay. One time we went to this place, it was, where was it even? I think it was in Perugia. And literally it's like this old castle, but they had long, dark, creepy hallways and just pictures all over. Even like Princess Diana was there. You see like for staying in there. It was cool. So me and the girls, because we're also friends, we, because we, we should be friends by this point. We've been working together for a billion years. We're all

like hanging out, having our tea at the end of the night, talking about tomorrow what we have to do. And honest to God, on the side, there was like a tea cup, the girl laid it, and it moved on the nightstand. And I looked, and the other girl looked who was like beside me and we're like, did you just see that? Oh my gosh, yes. And I was like, no. So that night, it was so funny. We actually, because there wasn't enough rooms in this castle because it was booked up, me and this girl, we shared a room. and even to go like shower and the bathroom or whatever we left the door open and we were like

snuggled together and like the middle of the bed that night were too scared it was horrifying and just also because the hallways are so dark and yeah it's a bit scary sometimes when I'm in the room like yeah I have to call my mom I do I call my mom sometimes and it gets to be a bit scary but they're so beautiful and I know like anybody would be super excited to be there but sometimes when the room too big and you're by yourself and you know like how old they are even like you know musilini yeah yeah so i've stayed in his childhood home really turned his childhood home into a hotel yeah we can have our own rooms there but i have to admit i actually like we all request to like stay with each other because yeah it's a bit scary but it's cool it's history you know it's just it's just a teacup

moving on the nightstand, not a big deal. No, I guess so. I think I'm just a big baby, truthfully. I don't know. You know, I always say I don't believe, like, in ghosts, but then I'm like, okay, if I say that, though, then a ghost will want to, like, prove itself, right? So I don't know what to say.

Nah, I don't know. What's one of the coolest, coolest, what's one of the, like, yeah, maybe the coolest experience you've had modeling, like, where you're like, You're at some castle. You talk about castles or you talk about Dubai. You walk in and you're like, you know, I'm a small town, I'm like Minster girl and I'm walking into wherever. Where is the moment that just sticks out that you're like, holy man? That is a good question. I've had so many great moments. I really enjoy going to Paris. And, you know, know, just walking around the streets there, even after a long day of work, it's like, this is

really cool. Like, I'm so, a lot of people, they plan a long time for these trips and me being so fortunate living in Italy, it's really close to Paris. So I can just go there for work, like, a few times a month. And it's just, it's really beautiful. I'm like, holy, also because Paris is gorgeous, like, even just for the eyes. It's really insane. It's cool.

the craziest thing though I don't know I think it's a bit funny but maybe you'll appreciate it the funniest story I have you know Kanye West obviously yeah so I remember going to a casting and it was the weirdest situation because they said listen everybody no phones no nothing if you see you taking pictures you'll be kicked out right away but the casting was like really hush Tosh. Nobody knew who it was for. So I remember going in and all of a sudden this guy turns around and it's Kanye West. So I was like, what is going on here? I know I figured out it was for a music video and I mean, I'm tall and lanky and, you know, I'm not really like a Kanye West type of person. So I remember. I actually, he was watching because every,

girl had to go one at a time and like you know these girls were you know they had curves and like the big booty and stuff like that something at that moment i was like oh i wish i had like a big booty but yeah i walked for him i shredded my stuff the best i could i was like this is the funniest thing i've ever done to try and be like one of those puny west girls in the music video to get this job he was nice though he was really short but he was really nice though like how short we talking Oh gosh, he was like, I think up to my... Wait a second. How tall are you?

I'm, okay. I am almost 5'10. Okay. So I'm 5'9 and 3 quarters, but I'm actually considered short for modeling, if you can consider that. It's funny. Like, sometimes at castings,

you have to stand all together, and literally it's like, okay, tall, tall, tall, tall, tall, and then there's me, and then tall, tall, tall, tall, tell, tell, because everyone's like 5-11, 6 foot, you know, with me, I'm almost 5-10. I try and stand really tall and like lift on my heels a little bit. Yeah.

How tall then is Kanye West? Like we talk in like 5-6? That short? Are you just saying 5-8? He's like, oh gosh, it was a long time ago and I was in heels. So maybe I should give it a bit more. So I mean, I would have said like 5-4, 5-5, but. because I was in heels, I'll say five, six.

But he was short. He was really short. I'm looking it up right now. Kanye West. Do it. He'll be like six foot one. You're a liar. meters to feet.

Let's see here. Let's see. Five foot six and a bit. Almost five foot seven. He's like my height. So I'm, you know, I, yeah, I'm short. I just won't stand beside twin heels. ever see you in Lloyd. Hey, I married, you know, I, I remember when Tom Cruise married,

was it Nicole Kidman? And she was taller. I remember reading a quote of them, something along the lines of it takes a confident man to marry a taller woman. I married, I married, my wife Melissa is a volleyball player. She's 5'10. When she puts on heels, I look like I'm itty-bitty. It doesn't bother me. Life goes on. I have an, I have an, I have an of you question for you. Did she wear heels on your wedding day? Nope. Oh, I was hoping you'd say yes. No. Actually, this girl I know in Toronto, it's funny. She's, um, do you remember in, um, for the, what was it, the Golden Globe? She was like the Evian girl, the water girl. She got really famed. Yep. So I know her from Toronto. And it was really funny because her, when she got married,

She wore the highest high heels, and her husband is so short. So their wedding pictures literally, like his head is up to her shoulder. But it's so cool. I was like, yes, that is awesome, the confidence we all need. So. You know, when we go, when she gets dolled up for a night, she wears heels. I don't know. But on her wedding day, I think she probably knew how the pictures would look and decided

Sean was going to wear some shoes with a little bit of a heel in it and I was going to wear flats, right? DeKai and just try and balance it out a little bit. That's sweet. That's love, right? A bit of compromise, make things work. The Evian girl. What did she do with that success?

Did she wake up the next morning and was like, what the heck just happened? It was bombarded. Yeah, she got a lot of gigs from it, actually. She was really busy with it. It was good for her, but, I mean, she's always been busy working in Toronto, and, you know, she's always done a lot of photo shoots. So I guess it was just a bit of a boost. I think it was like the young and the restless she was on then too after.

But, yeah, she did get quite a few gigs after for that one. Do you, in your career, do you do work events like that? Hmm, I have done work events like that. I can't remember now off the top of my head. I remember, I can't remember exactly. It was like a lot of it was in Toronto too that I used to do that stuff. In Milan, no, not so, so much. They don't really, no, I don't really remember so well.

Sorry. No, I was just curious. You know, you mentioned, well, her in particular, I remember that. I remember blowing up everywhere. And, you know, she was just kind of behind the scenes. And then you mentioned Young and the Restless. I was curious, have you ever done any work,

be it while? And even Kanye West auditioning for it. Have you done some? Oh, in that sense. In that sense, like video, movies, TV shows, a guest appearance, anything like that? When, you know what? It was like, I can't, I'm so bad.

I can't even remember, like, the name of the band. This is how horrible I am. But I remember in Toronto, I was in a few music videos there that they had hired me for. Obviously, it wasn't anything like, you know, really crazy big. But yeah, no. Just a few times in Toronto. You can't remember who the band was? No.

You know, I know his name was Greg Vitale, and he was the main singer. But I can't remember the band name. I can't remember. I think it was like, was it wallflower, wildflower, something flower. that you're doing your investigating them well i'm going to try and find it i don't know i'm curious it's you know like uh i just i had i had tanner noveling on um oh probably about a month ago and me and him got talking and one of the things i first saw him in was uh was a music video right so i i'm like you know music videos are yes there's lots but i'm sitting here

little old Lloydminster I ain't on no music videos I ever get asked to be I probably put the frame on the wall and be like hey I was on a music video one day oh I've been in a in a few coffee advertisements a little few coffee yeah commercials and stuff like that they have here in italy so a few gigs here and there but I don't know I'm not really that that much of an actress so yeah you've never thought about doing it then Oh gosh, I remember when I was in in Toronto, they said, oh, yeah, you look really good like, movement and stuff like that, but they're like, you better get on it because you're only getting older and blah, blah, blah.

So they're like, you have to do it in your young and build your book and everything. And you know why? I never went to L.A. I headed to the fashion world, I guess, over on this side. So that was it. Let's talk some food because you'd sent in your questionnaire that you, Well, A, you're sitting in, like, over there, you eat some of the freshest, best food known to man. So good, yeah.

But, well, we're going to start with the cheese. You got to tell the people about the cheese. Like, I sat there and stared at that, and I'm going, okay, let's hear the story. So let's talk about some cheese. My brother gives me a hard time about this one. actually. Yeah, he's like, if you can eat that, you can eat anything. And you know what, and he's right. I can't even argue that one. So every summer, well, three summers, the past three ones. It was supposed to be also this summer, but unfortunately with the COVID going on,

who knows what that's going to be like, because I also heard we can go on vacation, but you'll probably still have to wear the mask on the beach with the humidity. Come on. Anyways, we'll have to see, but there's an island off of Italy, and it's called Sardinia, and we absolutely love going there. It's just, there's desert everywhere, and it's just the craziest thing. We're driving down these desert roads, all of a sudden it just opens up to, like, this bluest, warmest, like, tropical water, and it's so seethru. Like, it's really, really, really insane. So there's a bunch of islands there, and also a lot of them you need to get to them by boat,

because it's almost like little scoops in like the island. I don't know if that makes sense, but you have to get to that from the boat. Anyways, we go to this island, like this little, yeah, private island thing that has like just locals there, so it's not a lot of tourists. Anyways, if you're not from Sardinia or you don't know anybody from Sardinia, they're a bit like, okay, you're just like a tourist, you know. Somehow, I don't know why these people thought we were cool when we were there,

so they'd befriended us and we were nice with them. So every day we'd be at the beach and, you know, you get thirsty or hungry, so you go to like this little hut and have beer and have like this awesome, these awesome sandwiches that they make like this little old woman. She lives there all year around and she just is there making sandwiches all the time. Anyways. So the locals, they said, okay, like tomorrow like lunch is on us. And we'll bring some of our homemade stuff. And okay, very good. So next day arrives. They set up this own, like, private little area for us. So, you know, we have, like, homemade wine, and they bring all this meat and cheese that they've done all themselves. It's incredible. They say, okay, you need to try this. They have, like, it looks like an ice cream container,

and they lift off the lid, and you see this, like, white, I don't know, like this huge piece of, like, cheese. But it's kind of scooped out. and you're like, oh, okay, wow, that's really cool. But then you see these things moving, and you're like, okay, what the hell is that? And it's worms. It's worms. So, yeah, you see like these white little things moving, but they're worms, but also at the same time, they were made with the cheese.

I don't know. The whole process is a bit crazy, but you have, I don't remember it fully, but the way that they wrap it and everything, it makes it kind of like, the whole thing. The worms grow in it. So it's not like they just arrive because it's old dirty cheese. Like they're actually part of the cheese. It actually tastes like blue cheese. I tried it.

But it really like gets to your head because you see these things jumping. They actually jump. And like by the end when you're done, you see like these worms jumping off the table. And like you look at like say the pavement or whatever around and you see like these worms still jumping. And you're like, okay. That's a bit gross. But it's actually illegal, obviously illegal to. serve it at the restaurant, but you can make it yourself and they eat it there.

Now, when I butcher the pronunciation of this, you can correct me. Casa Marzou. Casa Marzou. That's what it's called, too. That's what it's called. So you did your investigation, Casa Madzu. Yeah. It's this.

So you did do you investigate. Yeah. So you see the picture? Have you seen the pictures? I've seen the pictures. I'm going, you know what? I tell my kids all the time. You got to try, you got to experience things.

So chances are if I was over there and they showed it to me, I'd be like, I really want nothing to do with that, but I'm going to try it to say I did it. I try every once, but this one was like, I mean, in the end I still ate quite a bit of it, but I chose like, oops of where I would scoop it from because I would pick the spot where, like, you couldn't see the worms for sure they were probably still in there but like when they tried

giving it to me they gave me like the biggest pieces with like it looked like thousands of worms well there's probably like two but i was like no so so as you're eating the cheese and you can feel a little squiggly just moving around like was it was it like was it tasty was it good it tasted like blue cheese it wasn't bad like yeah i mean that was two summers ago so the last summer. I even, I went for some more, actually. Well, also, you don't want to be like, yeah, rude or like a bit of a princess. I'm like, okay, fine. But it was good. It tastes like blue cheese. If you like blue cheese, yeah, give it a go. If you ever go to Sardinia. It tasted so good you went back for a second helping.

Yeah, well, yeah. Or maybe I had too much of the homemade wine. Who knows? What's the best food you've had over there? Like, what is something that is just like, oh my goodness. and there probably is too many to count. But what is one of the things that just is unreal? I love. Actually, I just made it the other day too. It's so simple, but it's so fresh and tasty. Last Friday, I made ragu from scratch.

It was really good. But I love Miyuki. I actually made that from scratch too. Do you know, do you know, mioki? Yes. With the potatoes and stuff. It's so simple, but it's just so. So I'm going to assume that the stuff we have over here is not even remotely close to the stuff you get over there.

Well, you know, it's it changes a bit of what I eat now. When I go to Canada, I mean, I don't want to sound like a brat, but you get really used to the freshness of the food. Like even their tomatoes that they have here, I could just eat them like grapes. Like, they're just so sweet and so flavorful. And I remember, like, um, our family friends, they came here and they were obsessed with the Kiwis. They kept, like, buying Kiwis and nonstop when they were here because they're like, we can't get this in Lloyd.

It was really cute. But even fresh pasta all the time. And you see, like, everyone, everyone makes everything themselves. Like, there's no such thing as like Eminem's, you know? Like, that would be, nobody would step foot in there because they'd be, like, too embarrassed in case someone ever saw them, I guess. No, everything is really good. Even the pizzas are fantastic. I've discovered, I don't know if you guys have it in Canada, for sure you do, but my new found love is pizza that has slices of pear on it and like blue cheese. It's just, the combination

is so good. Italians really know what they're doing. You're saying, what are you talking here? like a pepperoni pizza with pears on it? A pep and pear? They call like a white pizza. So it's not like tomato sauce. It's just like white. But they have, I don't know how to explain. They're just magical here.

I'm telling you, like these pizza makers, they, I don't know. You have to have the touch. They're just so good. They're really amazing. You talk about food. I mean, anytime we live in an area where you can't grow food rear around, like it's impossible. And so we have a lot of stuff that is.

frozen and canned and everything and you lose well you talk about the flavor when you have fresh things right off the tree and can do that every single day that's amazing i'll be amazed if you ever come back over this way no my gosh but can i tell you cannot beat an alberta steak oh my god alberta beef is amazing you can't beat it like sometimes that's something though i have to admit They do cook meat nice, but I'm like the flavor is really good, but if it was made with like Alberta beef, it would be perfect. I'm an Alberta girl at the end of the day. I like that stuff.

Well, any guy just listening to this right now just fell in love with you because the fact that you mentioned Alberta beef, absolutely. There is nothing quite like Alberta, Saskatchewan. The meat industry here is fantastic. I mean, I'm partial. I grew up on a farm. so we get fresh beef all the time. You know what?

My brother is the best because right when I get off the plane, basically within the first night or two, he has the barbecue going, even if it's wintertime. Like, it's freaking like snowbank out there. And he's going out there to try and make his sister proud and like it makes the steak with like the corn on the cob and the baked potato.

There's nothing better than barbecue in the wintertime. You got to, can't let the weather dictate how you live your life. see what I mean? Like, Alberta people are just so strong. That cold, I don't think I could do that anymore. I'm such a sucker for the cold now. Not used to it.

You're living in a place that is, you know, is one of the, there's a reason why, you know, civilizations started or centered around that area in particular, right? Like, I mean, it's a place that is, well, It's on the bucket list where you're at. Oh, well, you know, whenever you're here, let me know. It's really cool. You're in your wife and family.

It's a really cool spot. I mean, who knows with COVID when people can start flying again. Let's talk a little bit about COVID over there because, I mean, oh, first off, if we do come, we'll gladly give you three children. I'll take the wife out. I love kids. That's cool. I mean, I have a dog, so maybe my dog, like, can introduce. retain them now.

Let's talk about COVID down there because I mean from our where we sit, you know, for the months that were going on, the country that became all the talk was Italy and how, I don't know, just the lockdown that went, you know, countrywide. And I mean, you live right or are living right through the middle of it, you know, the heart of it. What was it like as everything was progressing? It was really insane. It seems like so long ago the beginning of it, but I mean, it was around, I remember February 22nd, basically is when we knew things were starting to get a bit serious, you know? But because they said, like, there was this virus coming and everybody was just like, oh, you know, it'll pass, like not such a big thing. It's nothing that everyone's just making a big deal out of it, but in the end, you know.

but no it ended up being this huge friggin thing and like it just won't go away i don't know what the numbers are today here but like i don't know it's like basically it's insane it's really insane i remember the first few nights because we have a dog now we rescued a dog so i take him out for walks it was just so eerie there was no sound of anything it would be dark outside you could like drop a pin nobody would be out on the street, no cars. And I live on a busy main road. It was the craziest thing. And walking and you see all the stores are closed when normally it's packed with cars. And, you know, here, you have to wear the mask. And you must wear the gloves. If whether you agree with it or not, you must wear it. So what happens if you don't wear it? The police can stop you and they can give you a ticket. It's like, especially when you go to the grocery stores, if you have to wait.

outside and align because there can only be a few and I think I think I think Lloydminster maybe actually like this now like they take your temperature like when you go in and we don't have the temperature yet but stores only allow so many people in and there's lines set up you know whether you talk to grocery stores or Home Depot or something like that like there's a yeah they're definitely starting to keep track of that and it'll probably progress to the temperatures and everything else that's been talked about a lot yeah Like, I mean, I haven't even been in a car in, like, over two months. Like, I've been in my little bubble because you can't leave.

And, like, even with the dog, they specifically said you can't leave, like, 200 meters away from your house. Now, starting Monday, the rules are easing off a bit, such as, like, people can go running if they want to run now. If you want to take your bike, you can take your bike. But you have to stay in your province. And, but with the dogs, it's really tricky. Everyone's saying, yeah, you can go with your dogs, but it's not actually written black and white.

So we're all just kind of assuming and taking a chance. But that's what I find here in Italy is not everything is clear. And so I feel like a lot of people are, it's going to be an interesting week coming up to see like what people get in trouble for. And, you know, it's not said really well what your rights are. So it'll be interesting. I know that in the future they want to have for the, the, the, um, for the, the, um, subway, they have like stickers on the ground where you have to stand and you obviously you have to have your mask and everything. But also for to go out to eat at a restaurant, I don't know if it all

happen, but they're really pushing for it to have like a glass in front of you and on the sides of you. Even if you're sitting at a table of two, there will be a glass right in between the two of you. Like it's it's really crazy because I was talking to my friend. She lives in Hong Kong and things have been really crazy there for them as well but they still have restaurants open not bars because like even in the restaurant she says you have to order your food first and then you can order alcoholic beverages if you want but when you go in the restaurant you have to have the mask on but she says where they sat like it was right beside the door so you could take off your mask at the table so she's like what's the point of that and then when you go to the

bathroom you have to put your mask on as well like they don't have like yeah they don't have like the barriers at the table but i think italy that's what they're going for they say june first so we shall see they're testing it out to see what happens see if our number spike a lot or or what but yeah it's been interesting where you're sitting at currently if anyone cares listening is 207 000 total cases 28 000 deaths yep well you mentioned that you're not allowed to go for runs. So you're not allowed to go for runs? No, no, you're not allowed to do any exercising. It's really... How are you staying sane? You know what? I have, I've become a baker. I've become like Cinderella. Literally, I scrubbed my oven over three hours the other day. I've done a lot of

different. No, it's really, actually, and now we have a rescue dog that arrived three months ago that we found in Sardinia so we've been busy with him trying to teach him little tricks and you know give him all his love I try and take him out well I do take him out for minimum three walks a day I know maybe it's not so good but for my own sanity I take them take them around a little bit just to get some fresh air because I think if I just stayed inside all day I would like yeah it would be insane my dog has rescued me I think when it comes to the COVID but yeah you know you keep busy and then actually um These past couple of weeks I've been getting, if you can believe it or not, jobs, photoshoot jobs. This is something new.

I got contacted by a couple of photographers asking me if I could do some web shooting for them. And I was like, okay, but after the COVID, right? Like what's this web? How are we possibly going to be able to do this? But literally what you have to do is you have your cell phone and you're on Zoom, like how we are now. and they tell you where to put the phone and like the lighting and where you can move and what works and what doesn't and on their side they have their big camera taking the pictures through their phone and that's what I've been getting the pictures we were supposed to shoot yesterday but it was raining

all day so not good for lighting and then also today we were supposed to shoot but also it was raining again today so tomorrow's supposed to be sun so I'll be working again tomorrow but yeah all new all new stuff and like you're trying to like contortion yourself and weird ways to try and make like the camera work and you're balancing your phone on like books or even I had a box the other day and like the lid of the box kept falling down so the phone would fall but it was like the perfect angle for the shoot and yeah it's been interesting I mean people have had to adapt right well everybody's had to adapt every industry is trying to figure out how to I mean if it was only a couple days it wouldn't be such a big deal, but you're talking months and everybody's trying to figure out when we go back to

whatever we go back to. I mean, even my mom, she was supposed to come here for five weeks this summer. I don't think that's going to be happening. And I mean, even if I go there, who knows if something happens and if I'll be allowed back. So, who knows? We're dealing with the, we're dealing with the same thing. Mel's sister's supposed to get married in all. August. And right now the borders down to the States, you can't travel across the borders, right? Oh my gosh. It's different. I don't know. Oh my God. You're all like, okay, let's like pass this thing. Actually, everyone just listen and stay home and avoid everyone. Like, make it go faster because it's the people that still like go to stores and like socialize and

stuff. Like, I don't know. Although I hear like in Lloyd, you guys are allowed to still visit like family and everything, yeah? Well, the cool thing about, not the cool, the good thing about Canada is we're just so spread out, right? Like we don't have, you know, our entire country is 38 million, give or take. And, you know, Saskatchewan's like, I don't know, a million. And Alberta's, you know, four million or I'm probably, you know, whatever the numbers are. But we're just spread out, right?

So it just hasn't hit us nearly as hard, especially when we all essentially shelter from home. Like, I mean, the government came out and said everybody, you know, we were down to no bigger groups of 10 or less. And they were saying, but don't do that if you don't have to. So, I mean, everybody for a month here hasn't left or seen anyone. Well, heck, I mean, we only had, you know, like the cases in Canada. Let's bring up Canada. Canada right now has had 54,000 total cases and 3,000 deaths across the entire country, which is like, it's a massive country. And so we've been, we've been pretty fortunate. Like Saskatchewan governments unveiled their kind of phase back in plan of how people are going to start to move again.

Alberta just did the same thing. Everybody is going nuts. By the time this is released, hopefully I've been on a golf course. Like maybe. And it's, you know, there's some hope starting to brew around here that maybe we're going to slowly get back to things. Because for Lloyd in particular, and, you know, we'll wait and see what another week brings. I know they've had outbreak at the hospital and a couple more cases pop up. But for Lloyd in particular, Saskatchew in particular, they just haven't had like this huge outbreak.

I mean, when you look at what went through Adela. everybody over here was going, holy man, if that hits over here, like, what is that going to look like? And Canada, once again, it's just, we're not as densely populated. We're spread out. And so, and then on top of that, everybody stayed home. Like, we haven't had anything. Everything's been canceled. Every imaginable gathering has been shut down. And so there hasn't been anything to go do anyways. Yeah. Well, I mean, that was like, yeah, it's just such an insane situation. And like you said, you guys are more spread out. We're here.

We're more like, basically we're all sitting on top of each other because it's really like Italy is really crazy. But we also have a huge like elderly population here. So that's also why it has taken out a lot of people, unfortunately. But also when it first started happening and they said that the provinces were going to close down that a lot of people tried to leave. I remember reading and seeing like videos of people going to the main train station to take the last train down south, say to Rome, but because otherwise they're going to be closed in their province and they can't do it anymore.

But it's the stupidest thing that they could have done because it really affected the northern part of Italy. So if you might not even know that you're infected and yet you're going to Rome to see your family and then you just spread it out there. Like all these people, people can even like squish onto the trains. And they were like, I've never seen anything like it before. I go to that train station every day. And it was piled of people just swarming in. They're trying to get that last ticket to go to Rome. And I think that's also why it's spread quite a bit is because people just didn't stay in Milan.

They didn't listen. They left the province. So I don't know. But I don't know what's true and what's not. But apparently I heard that there's actually a village in the mountains up north here in Italy. and apparently a lot of them have the coronavirus, but they're like immune to it, so they don't show any symptoms. It's like the weirdest thing. Like, I don't know what's in their water or what, but apparently like they have it, most of their town.

And yeah, they're all immune and they, but they don't show the symptoms. I don't know. Have you been tested for it? No, I'm strong like an ox. I'm part new. Nothing touches it. They haven't introduced like mandatory testing or, or anything like that?

No, and so like that's the thing too, that also with the numbers, what they were doing is Italy, I mean, years, they really have, like, they let go of their money for the health care system and stuff like that. So they didn't have the opportunity to give the swabs to everybody. So basically their percentages that they've been saying of, okay, this many people have been swabs

and this many people have the infections, is because those are the people that are already going to the, hospital because they don't feel well. So of course they give them the swab there. But here, no, they don't come house to house and do the swabs. So no, nobody's really been tested. The people have been tested or if they feel that they might have something and then they go to the hospital.

So that's also why we have a big percentage. Have you witnessed the, a big thing that blew up on social media was people singing to the healthcare workers as they're going home? Have you been a part of that or seen that? So nice. Well, actually, where I live, okay, I live on a main road, but it's outside of Milan. And basically, everyone kind of keeps themselves here. I don't know. But you see here on all the windows and stuff, they have like an Italian flag hanging or they make like the rainbow. Also, sometimes they have certain things to pay respects where you go out on the balcony, say at 9 p.m. you shine your cell phone light. So we're always a part of that. We try to see if anybody. else will join in and do it as well. Actually, they had this thing that, um, the very first one, they said, oh, everyone has to go out at 9 p.m. and shine their cell phone light because, uh, they're, they're going to take a picture from space, right? And they want to, like, light it up.

I ask people if they saw this picture and nobody is, nobody, I don't think anybody took the picture. We were all latent, but nobody took the damn picture. So, yeah, it was fun nonetheless, though. Yeah, you see a lot of people supporting with, like, doing the, the, paintings and stuff in the window. I think you guys do the hearts, right? Or do you do the brain? We got the hearts. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we do. Some people have gone like, some artistic people obviously have like gone above and beyond and the must have little kids because they've like painted Paw Patrol characters in the windows and stuff like that. And when we take, you know, we take the kids on,

you talk about walking your dog three times a day. We take the kids. Well, not me in particular when I'm at work, I guess, but Mel takes him probably three times a damn walks. And it's crazy how little things like that in the window, whether it's hearts, whether it's whatever you got. The kids love it. Like, love it. Love going for walks and looking and finding it. Absolutely.

I'm a big fan of it. I thought it was like the coolest thing. Yeah, it was really nice. Actually, when was that? I'm all confused of my days. What? Oh, Easter just happened. Yeah, that's what it was.

that it was the coolest thing because I was walking the dog out and people had to keep their social distancing but I saw like say this guy leaving his house with like a tray full of like glasses filled with prosceco and he would knock on like the neighbors like outside their gates or whatever ring the buzzer and he would like leave the glasses there and also from the balconies I've seen people like all cheering together but keeping their distance on all different balconies of apartments and be like woo and stuff. It was really nice, like how everyone got together to celebrate. And it was a really happy moment to walk around. And still people like in the positive festive spirit. So that's cool. In your modeling career, what's the strangest thing you've had to model if there is such a thing? Oh, gosh. Strangest thing I've had to model.

Oh, I know one. Okay, so. what pops into mind is when I first moved to Toronto and after actually no so it was the same person that used to hire me for dance jobs he knew this woman who wanted to have a photo shoot

with this Bjork outfit that she made you know Bjork yeah with like the swan area so she got me to put that on in this blizzard and I think that was around the same time of the coldest blizzard ever in Toronto and basically I was wearing nothing in the middle of the snowstorm and people were bundled up so like you could only see their eyes maybe and it was the coldest I've ever been in my life but we got the shoot it was really cool oh and end I remember one time I did a shoot and oh god they said it would be a really interesting shoot with like cool makeup so I was like okay sounds cool all of a sudden this guy shows up with like this cage and I remember thinking

okay like what the heck is that it was cockroaches and like um walking stick bugs you know walking stick bugs like the really long gay ones they look like grasshoppers almost but really long legs okay i know what you're talking about yeah yeah so it because it was a makeup shoot they just needed my face so i remember i had to lay down and they put this like pillow thing behind my head i guess but they place like the cockroaches in different spots on my face and i i mean i i i had to lay down and they put this like the cockroaches in different spots on my face and like the walking stick bugs. First it was cockroaches and walking stick bugs. But yeah, and I remember like them being like, okay, open your eye and I'm like, I can't because like one of like the like leg claw things was like right where like

my eye opening was and they're like, no, it'd be like the best shot ever. You got to do it. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to like have to go to the hospital or something after this. But yeah. And they didn't tell me at the time after that they were actually hissing cops. cockroaches. I don't know what I would have done if I if it hissed on my face. I don't know. I'm not scared of like spiders and stuff like that, but you know, I don't go looking for that type of stuff. I mean, I tried it. I don't think I'd ever do it again. I never would have thought to ask about animals, but do you have to deal with insects and animals at all? Like, not at all. Obviously, you do, but like, is that a common occurrence? No, not so much. I mean, they do like, say dog

sometimes or, you know, a horse or something like that. But yeah, no, that was the one time with insects, thank God, because that was good. We got the pictures. Well, how about the craziest spot you've ever had a shot then? Because I'm assuming you go to some pretty spectacular places in the world. Yeah, I mean, shot, there's been quite a few. Like, I mean, I've done a lot locally because here there's, um, beautiful sites in Italy.

I mean, you're with the mountains around, and then you see the lakes and stuff like that. You can get really beautiful locations here. So basically I've been around here or Dubai. We were a bit in the desert. But I don't, honestly, it's so funny because my, I done a lot of shoots when I was younger. Now I'm really focused into like the fit modeling

because the fit modeling is actually where you, kind of get the money. Okay. Yeah, because that's where it's actually a job. And because I am older, I mean, we all have bills to pay, right? So you do whatever gives you, like, you know, the most, like, money that you want to do. Whereas a lot of shoots, like, they can. If you get, like, a big campaign, then, yeah, they pay a lot of money.

But also it's a lot of, like, the younger people starting out, say, like, 17, 18-year-olds that are, like, doing that and starting. You know, it's the young. younger generation now. Even for like runway, it's like getting to be like that. I mean, I just did like the fashion week here, which is like a really cool thing. But I mean, when it comes to like just normal photoshoots and stuff, yeah, it's more just for your book and their book, you know, to help build it up for for bigger jobs. But yeah. You're not that old. And I say that old like I'm, I mean, you're a young like you're in your 20s. Are you not?

Oh my gosh. Yes. Okay. So what the hell are you talking about being old? No, no. I'm not in my 20s. In my modeling years, yes. But, you know, in normal real life years, no, I'm not in my 20s.

No. I'm older. I've made you blush by asking your age. Yeah. Well, yeah. No, I'm trying to... I got you tongue-tied. The one question I've asked, a woman's age, you know, I can hear my mother going,

you're never supposed to ask that. Oh, that's so true. I hope somebody's... I hope your wife is listening so she can give you crap after. No. She probably will. She probably will. That's all right.

You know, I hear about it all the time that you can't ask certain questions. But no, what fun is that if you can't ask certain questions? I'm 32. actually. Well, you don't look at day over 26. How's that? You're really nice. No, it's funny because everyone knows like my age, especially in, I feel like in Milan, they're more cool of your age. Like, for me, honestly, I have to say, being 32 and working in the modeling industry and still doing what I do is kind of unheard of. I have met another woman who is 39. And I was like, Like that's awesome. But yeah, you know what? It's basically a lot of people who are, you know,

teenagers and stuff like that and in their 20s. Although, you know what? I've met people before. This girl one time, I remember she told me she was 18 and honest to God, she looked like she was, I thought she was like 34, 35 and I was like, no, you're not. She showed me her ID and it's true. I was like, yeah, so I was like, whatever. Whatever. So sometimes, sometimes I do fib a little. But you know what? If it gets you the job, then it's fine. But you know what?

With my clients and stuff, they all know my age and they're all cool. And I also think when you are older, you actually maybe are more professional. Because especially when you travel to different cities, I see so many times young girls coming to Milan and Milan is known for their PRs. Basically, if you come to Milan, you get food for free, you get to go to the clubs for free, you get everything for free basically that you want to do for a night out or for lunches. You can go to these different restaurants. But some people, they take it too far.

So for our job, sometimes you have to go to castings. I've seen so many times where girls look like complete crab. So basically, in the end, they come here. basic about 90, 95% of the girls that come to Milan, they end up going home because they end up just partying. They just have left home from their parents, no supervision type thing, and they just party and that's it. And then get nothing accomplished. So, you know, I'm really happy with my age and what I'm doing and, you know, I'm focused and, you know, I have my clients, so I'm really happy. That's awesome. What I'm curious then? What is next for you? Like I assume that you want to

model until you're 39, until you're 49. Have you thought about life after modeling? Or is there a way to stay around the modeling world that you could use all your expertise? Because I mean, now you're starting to build. If you got a dossier file on Whitney Birch, it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I assume somebody would find that attractive to have you. I don't know if models have mentors or I don't even know what all the job titles are in that area. I mean, right now I'm really happy with what I'm doing. I have my clients who come from all over to work with me. And it's really nice that, you know, they call my agency.

Oh, has Whitney available? They have to see my schedule. And so it's really cool. Also, I know it's, how do I say, I'm just coasting right now and doing this because I love, I absolutely love what I do. It's something new every day. You meet different people from all over the world. Basically, you get to play dress up all the time.

But, yeah, I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, someday, yeah, I want to have, like, you know, kids and you can't really do that because, you know, I don't think they really do maternity so much. that's here. Pay the bills, but, you know, I would like to branch off actually and perhaps work, even in my agency that I'm with because I absolutely love them and they're a great agency. So, yeah, I do know a lot. I'm trying to figure out which way I want to go.

I mean, there's also like my dental that I can do as well here. So in fact, even around the corner from my house, there's a dental dentistry there. So I can just knock on their door someday and be like, hey, you know, we're trying to figure out. I mean, it's going to be interesting, I think, after the COVID, how everything is going to be when it comes to the fashion world, because I feel like things are already starting to shift a little bit, you know, because who knows how long it's going to last.

Even I have, like, even more clients here, and they just did, like, the fashion week in Paris, and so I was there with them. But normally we come back, and all the people that have bought the clothes, they you have to start making them so again it's made on me and we haven't been able to do that everything's been shut down and of course they they can't continue they can't continue like with with the production if they don't have a model to make it on so so yeah I mean who knows who knows

what's going to happen I think everybody's kind of just up in the air right now yeah it's uh that's probably the hardest part about it for all of us is not knowing, you know, it'd be nice, but they just somebody with a crystal ball could go. August 1st, everything's going to go right back the way it was. But it doesn't feel like that. It certainly does not feel like that. I'm just so excited for Monday. Oh, I just want to walk my dog everywhere.

It's going to be cool. I mean, they're saying July 1st, sorry, probably July 1st, but June 1st, they're saying for restaurants and stuff. But they're also saying, oh, let's see what happens with this phase too, because then maybe we might go back to phase one. And you know what? They're saying you can visit close friends and relatives starting Monday as well. But I can, but like they say no parties, but I can see people kind of taking the piss and like having parties

and they ruin it for everyone. You know, and then that's it. Taking the piss. That is awesome. Like my British clients, that phrase. Oh my God. That is by far the best thing you've said this entire interview. Well, that sounds terrible.

Now you're taking it as an insult. I'm going, taking the piss. That's funny. That's funny. The funniest thing you've said all interview. Taking the fist, yeah. It's true. I can already see people doing this.

And then we're going to be back here again, sitting around wondering what to do. Like, honestly, the weekends don't even exist anymore. It's just day. That's it. There's not a Friday. There's not a Saturday. They're all together. Yeah.

Yeah. It's all the time to bed by 10, 30, 11. Well, make you jealous. Tomorrow is my birthday. And tomorrow's my birthday, I'm going shooting gophers and drinking Pilsner. That is awesome. I used to do that as a kid. Well, not the Pilsner part, but shoot gophers.

Shoot gophers. Yeah, yeah. I'm very excited. That's awesome. Just go and do something that, yeah, well, thank you. I'm 34. I don't say, you're going to do a good song 28 this year, aren't you? Yeah, but don't tell anyone because I feel like I'm about 23.

Oh, that's good, right? It only matters what you feel. That's cool, though. As a kid, actually, my, okay, so my brother used to shoot the golfers. I remember I tried once, and I got really scared, but I used to ride the quad on, like, the field. And, yeah, you just like, oh, my gosh, the golfers, like, exploded open and, like, just see, like, the organs all sticking out.

It was a good childhood, but yeah, it was very interesting. But we were doing a good job, right? Because, you know, like the horses and the cows and stuff, if their foot goes into the hole, then, you know, they have to put down. So we were doing our part. We're doing a service to humanity. Absolutely. Well, let's get to the final segment.

It's a crude master final five. Showed out to Heath and Tracy McDonald in town. They support the podcast from the very beginning. And with just five questions here at the end, kind of wrap up hanging out with you for the afternoon. If you could have coffee with one person to pick their brain or just to have a chat, who would you want? That is a very good question.

Who would I want? Well, if it was just to have a coffee right now, honestly, it would be my mom. Oh my gosh, I would love just have a coffee with my mom right now. It's been so long. Who would I like to pick apart? I think, who would I like to pick apart? I think I would like to pick apart. Oh, I know.

Mark Sullivan. He's a writer who I just finished reading a book from beneath the Scarlet Sky. And he interviewed a guy from the World War, too, that happened to you. And he ended up writing a fiction but nonfiction book based on the information that he got from this man who has now passed away. But I would like to pick apart to get more information on their conversation that they had because the book is absolutely amazing. Like I've lived here for almost seven years and I just learned so much. Like I walk certain streets every day and I had no idea of the history that took place on those streets. It was just cool.

It was awesome. I got him. You're sitting in history. You know, you think Canada has been around for, you know, a couple hundred years, not even a country for that long, but, you know, the kind of idea. And then you just go over there and you're talking thousands of years. That's the same. Yeah, insane is right. Even the duomo, the duomo you see every day, I had no idea that they were hoping back in the world war that they would, that the duomo wouldn't get bombed.

So they purposely lit it all up. So the planes could see looking down. and know not to like they were hoping please like see how beautiful it is and don't blow it up and they they actually didn't so the domo still stands not harmed yeah i learned that from the book it's really interesting anyways what uh what's been your covid hobby my COVID hobby not cleaning no um actually it's changed quite a bit it went from like I started baking like crazy I made so many even like banana breads and stuff like that. Because I had all of a sudden, I had all these random bananas in the house.

I had like no idea. I didn't know about them. But, you know, so I got into this big like baking kick. And then yeah, then I just got some stuff done. You know, like those pesky little chores that like, I don't know if you have like a nightstand, like a bedside table with like for me, my whole life, it's always been like the messy drawer. And so since I've lived in my house, I'm like, okay, I'm going to clean that drawer. I finally got around to doing that. So I just odd little tests and stuff I've gotten done.

Your house will never be this clean will it ever, ever again. It's so nice. Oh my God. And like that oven, it sounds really boring. But that oven, yeah, it's sparkling. Crowning achievement of Wednesday. I've got an oven. If tomorrow the COVID restrictions disappeared overnight and you could go anywhere.

where would you go? Lloydminster. Would you come back to Lloydminster? Yeah, I would go to Lloydminster because I have a beautiful niece and nephew, Mason and Sydney, and I just love them so much. And like my brother's there, my mom is there. Yeah, I'm telling you, I love Lloydminster. I have a whole appreciation for it since I, like, went away.

It's a really cool place. Everyone's so nice. Yeah. If you could model for, I don't know if one. company is the right thing one brand maybe out there that you haven't yet who would you want who who who is on like your bucket list like x walks through the door oh i would love to model for chanelle i love their stuff they're just so classy and then even with like their runway shows they're really beautiful like they're just so nicely done although i i don't know how

it really is now because unfortunately Carl Lagerfeld passed away but definitely Chanel. I love just like all their outfits. Amazing. Final one. You'd mention you're reading a book or finished a book. If you were going to pick right now to read a book, watch, I assume Netflix, because everybody watches Netflix, or hike or go outdoors, which would you pick out of the three? hike go outdoors. Absolutely right. Where then would you want to go hiking? Actually, around my place, there's so many beautiful places because we're in the mountains.

So literally, even if you drive 30 minutes, you park the car and you hike up a mountain that takes all day. And then there's refugee camp where they make all their food and wine and you just sit there with friends and you chill. And you can either stay overnight or you can roll back down the mountain. How good is the wine over there? Oh my gosh. It's amazing and you can get amazing wine that is not expensive at all. It's awesome.

Well, thank you very much. That's right. Well, thank you very much for sitting down with me. I've really enjoyed this. I mean, it's been a pleasure to sit and talk with you a little bit. I learned a lot of things today. That's right. That's right.

And it's really cool to see another person from this area, you know, go out and do something that is far away from the norm of just the world in general probably, right? Like, it's cool. It's very, very unique story you have. Yeah, I mean, if you would have said that I'd be living in Italy. I'm like, yeah, I know you're crazy. But, yeah, it's, I'm really happy. It's been quite a journey.

journey though and thanks so much for having me it's really cool I love your podcast I think such an amazing idea it's awesome thanks for having me yeah well thanks again for hopping on absolutely hey folks thanks again for joining us today if you just stumble on the show and like what you hear please click subscribe remember every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story the Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple Spotify YouTube and wherever else you find your podcast fix Until next time.