Tropicana Magazine Jan-Feb 2018 #116: A Start From The Heart

GAME CHANGER
Was there ever any resistance from her
parents over dropping out of university and
pursuing modelling? “They’re very proud of
me. At the same time, I think as parents, they
worry about the next step, because modelling
isn’t a lifetime thing for most people.” This
might be why she hasn’t, she says, missed a
single Chanel show since she started. When
Lagerfeld presented his Resort 2016 offering in
Seoul, Park opened the show and took the final
loop with the designer and his godson, Hudson
Kroenig.
Spending time in a lower register —
listening to music, watching Netflix or
practising meditation — is critical to staying
equalised, Park insists. She’s swapped the West
Coast for New York and is currently based in
trendy Bushwick while she has her apartment
in the East Village renovated.
At one point, she says that she was
experiencing severe insomnia — an
occupational hazard primarily, but also because
she says she has a tendency to get caught up in
her own thoughts. “I was flying from one place
to another, and every successful model has to
learn how to cope with that; mine was even
worse because I just get too in my head.” She
admits that her perfectionism doesn’t help: “It
takes a lot for me to just kind of pat myself on
the back.”
Enter meditation, kundalini yoga and
breathing exercises, which complement her
fitness routine that includes kickboxing and
floor exercises with a trainer friend who owns
Rumble Boxing in New York. “I’m trying to
diversify my regime,” she says, citing regular
facials and massages as additional essentials.
“I’m more low-maintenance than most people,”
she says, before clarifying, “Not most people —
most models, I guess.”
Indeed, there is a grounded nonchalance
in her attitude, which she chalks up to having
a sense of who she was before she began. “This
industry can make you very disillusioned,
but I started later so I think I was able to kind
of forge who I was a little bit more. I also
have really good people around me whom
I love.” This group includes her boyfriend,
photographer Jack Waterlot, and an architect
university friend who is currently overseeing
works on the East Village flat. “It’s going to
be sick,” she enthuses, naming Paris architect
Joseph Dirand as inspiration. Certainly, for
someone who is fast becoming a global fashion
icon, a sanctuary-type home feels as much like a
necessity as an indulgence.
TM | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
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