来欣赏这位大器晚成的模特

On Jan. 8, 2018, photographer Janis Wilkins returned home from an afternoon yoga class to find her Washington Heights apartment building engulfed in flames.

2018年1月8日，摄影师Janis Wilkins下午结束瑜伽课回到家中，发现她的华盛顿高地公寓楼被大火吞噬。

The seven-alarm fire — caused by a faulty toaster in a neighboring unit — destroyed her rented home of 15 years. It also displaced the 63-year-old photographer for more than a year, which she spent at Hotel 17 near Union Square.

邻近一个单位的烤面包机出了问题，引发了7起火灾，烧毁了她租了15年的房子。这也让这位63岁的摄影师流离失所了一年多，她在联合广场附近的17号酒店度过了这段时间。

Though the fire took away so much — and she unfortunately did not have renter’s insurance — in a Big Apple twist of fate, it sparked a glamorous new modeling career for Wilkins.

虽然大火夺走了那么多，并且很不幸，她没有租房人保险，在命运的大转折中，它为威尔金斯点燃了一个迷人的新的模特生涯。

A few months later, she was walking near 15th Street and Third Avenue wearing yoga clothes and — in a change — not trying to hide the white roots invading her long honey-blond mane.

几个月后，她穿着瑜伽服在第15街和第3大道附近散步，不同的是，她并没有试图去掩盖那头白色的头发。

“I was dying my hair [at the time],” she recalled. “But it was a hot day, and I said, ‘I am going to let my white hair fly.’ ”

她回忆说：“当时我正准备染发。但那天很热，我想，我要让我的白发自由飞扬。”

Suddenly, she felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Daniel Peddle, a well-respected casting director who discovered Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence.

突然，她感到有人轻拍她的肩膀。丹尼尔·佩德尔是一位备受尊敬的选角导演，他发现了奥斯卡影后詹妮弗·劳伦斯。

“He said, ‘I’m casting [an advertising campaign for lingerie company] ThirdLove and we want women with different ages and different bodies,’” said Wilkins, who had never modeled before. “I wasn’t looking for it, but I said, ‘Sure!’ ”

“他说，‘我要为内衣公司ThirdLove选角，我们想要不同年龄和身材的女性，’”从来没有当过模特的威尔金斯说。“我从没想过，但我回答，‘当然!’”

At the casting, potential models were asked just one question: Why do you like your body?

在选角时，这位潜在模特只被问到一个问题：你为什么喜欢你的身体?

“I said that I love my body because I am healthy,” Wilkins remembered. She landed the gig, appearing in both the brand’s commercial and in its campaign.

威尔金斯回忆说：“我说我爱我的身体是因为我很健康。”。她得到了这个机会，出现在该品牌的商业广告和广告活动中。

Almost two months later, “I was driving down Broadway at night, right by the [Ed Sullivan Theater at 53rd Street] and we hit a traffic light. My friend goes, ‘Look!’ — and there was a five-story billboard on the theater. And there was my image.”

大约两个月后，“我晚上开车去百老汇，正好经过53街的埃德·沙利文剧院，我们遇到了一个红绿灯。我的朋友说，‘看!——剧院里有一个五层楼高的广告牌。这就是我的形象。”

This past January, she walked in her first-ever New York Fashion Week show, for the edgy brand Deveaux.

今年1月，她在纽约时装周(New York Fashion Week)上首次亮相，为前卫品牌德芙(Deveaux)走秀。

Wilkins, who’s not married and has no kids, briefly attended art school, lived on a commune in California, spent a year in Brazil and then programmed computers on Wall Street in the early 1990s before becoming a photographer.

威尔金斯没有结婚，也没有孩子，曾短暂上过艺术学校，住在加州的一个公社，在巴西呆了一年，然后在20世纪90年代初在华尔街编程，后来成为一名摄影师。

Now, she’s signed to Muse, a major modeling agency.

现在，她签约了一家大型模特经纪公司Muse。