they seem cool

The Model Finding Beauty in the Mundane

Left: Paris wears her own clothing. Center: Paris wears a Mulberry top and David Yurman earrings; Right: Paris wears a Mulberry top and David Yurman earrings. Photo: Lucas Michael

Paris Reid is a model and a student with Cher-like lengths of platinum blonde hair and bleached eyebrows. She says she hesitates to call herself “any kind of artist,” but she clearly gets excited when talking about the arts. She makes ceramics, but loves visual art, poetry, and, most importantly, archives. In her free time, she goes through memorabilia on Etsy, eBay, and Japanese auction sites to find what she describes as “beauty in the mundane.” She spoke with the Cut about ’60s Dutch magazines, Paco Rabanne, and eating roots.

Paris wears her own clothing. Photo: Lucas Michael

If you could be a magazine, what magazine would you be? 
There’s this cool magazine called Gandalf that was published in the Netherlands in the ’60s and ’70s. It was kind of subversive for the time.

If you could speak to animals, which animals would you want to talk to? 
Something in the water, for sure. Maybe crabs or starfish or those bioluminescent fish.

Sneakers or slippers? 
Slippers, I have so many pairs. I’m one of those people who can’t walk around the house in bare feet.

What’s something your social-media followers don’t know about you? 
Everything. I like to have my secrets.

What was the last website you looked at? 
EBay, perpetually. I never buy anything, I just religiously put things on my watch list. I love Etsy, eBay, and Japanese auction sites.

If you could be outfitted by one designer for the rest of your life, who would it be? 
Someone who did something things really avant-garde, like Courrèges or Paco Rabanne. Or, I miss Alexander McQueen.

What time is your alarm set for in the morning? 
Oh, I never set an alarm unless I have to wake up for a flight.

What do you eat for breakfast? 
Coffee, black. And rice with sesame seeds.

If you could only eat three things for the rest of your life, what would they be? 
Ginger in any incarnation, Japanese pumpkin, and turmeric. That’s a limited three things, but I think I could do it.

What piece of clothing or accessory makes you feel most like yourself?
This gold chain. It was my grandmother’s before she died and it means a lot to me. Beauty can be very mundane, in a way, that you might not really notice.

If you were a color, what would it be? 
I love sensory questions like that. I think it would change day by day. Today it would be blue.

If you could be trapped in an elevator with one person, who would it be? 
My sisters, if I could treat them as a single unit. I don’t know if I could handle being trapped in an elevator with anyone else.

If you could tell Donald Trump one thing and make sure he would listen, what would it be? 
There’s too much and not enough at the same time. He’s a symptom of a larger American disease. That’s what I have to say.

Paris wears a Mulberry top and David Yurman earrings. Photo: Lucas Michael

Paris wears a Mulberry Beth tank, $430 at Mulberry, and David Yurman Solari large hoop earrings, $2,700 at David Yurman.

The Model Finding Beauty in the Mundane