Alicia Naidoo

Home grown Xia Narain was the closing model for Burberry at The London Fashion Week earlier this week.

Narain was booked as an exclusive Burberry model sharing the ramp with the likes of Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Irina Shayk.

“The experience was unbelievable, I got there and they’re like you’re closing the show! Burberry definitely changed my life; it was and will always be one of the best moments on that ramp.”

When I stepped out on that ramp as the closing girl I felt like this is it, my entire career is going to change, I’ve lived for this. The first thing I did when I got off that ramp was to call my parents” said Narain.

Her modelling career was sparked when she was about 14 or 15 years old – she was casually walking around Gateway when a French photographer discovered her.

“I became a model in such a funny way, I was 14 or 15 years old and I was walking around in Gateway and this French photographer ran after me while I was going into the bathroom and he was like Wow! You should be a model, and I was so weird and lanky, how was he finding this beautiful? So, I tried,” said Narain.

She actually got rejected by the first agency she went to as they thought her look was too ordinary, but the second agency decided to take a chance on her and she said this is what changed her life, the fact that someone said this might not work but lets just go for it.

“I do not see difficulties and struggle as a bad thing, I think everyone needs a bit of struggle to be who they are and where they are. I have gotten rejected as much as I have gotten accepted,” said Narain.

Besides The London Fashion Week, the highlights of Narain’s career include shooting a Coco-cola commercial in South America, modelling a campaign in Thailand, at The James Bond Island among other amazing experiences.

Narain belongs to Models International in Durban, Topco Models in Cape Town, Edit Models in Instanbul, Turkey and PRM in London, England. She is not only an International Model but a

University of KwaZulu- Natal (UKZN) graduate in Psychology and would like to one day pursue a career in clinical psychology and get her Doctorate in Psychology.