HHS student, model to walk in New York Fashion Week

Homewood High School junior Jasmine Elliot is about to see a childhood dream come true — she will model in shows during New York Fashion Week this September.

“Since I was younger, I liked fashion and walking, and I’ve always liked modeling,” said Jasmine, who also goes by JAS. “I’ve always looked up to models, so modeling has always been something I wanted to do.”

This September, Jasmine and her mother, Felita Elliot, will travel to New York City with a group of models from Model Haven, a Huntsville boutique for which Jasmine models. Model Haven has three shows at NYFW, but Jasmine hopes to walk in other shows as well.

“During that week, they have model castings day in and day out, so our days will be filled from the shows and going to model castings and going to other shows, so it will definitely be an experience,” Felita Elliot said. “A lot of hustle and bustle.”

Modeling is one of the first things her daughter has been really excited about, aside from being an athletic trainer at Homewood High School, Elliot said, and it’s something she want to see Jasmine succeed in.

“I’m willing to support her in that and make sure she’s happy,” Elliot said. “…She’s really put in a lot of work and practicing.”

Jasmine first started with smaller, boutique fashion weeks as well as photoshoots and catalogue modeling, and said she has learned a lot in her experience.

“I enjoy meeting new people, hanging out with other models, learning more — because it’s always good to learn more, to see how other people walk and how other people do things,” she said. “…I’ve learned a lot because if you look at my walk from when I first started modeling to now, it’s a big difference, so hanging out with other models and other coaches, it helps me become a better model myself.”

She has also participated in shows in Atlanta and made an appearance at a women’s conference, and her mother said it has helped Jasmine come out of her shell a bit.

Elliot said she is also glad that Jasmine has received support from her friends and family throughout the experience, including when costly trips such as NYFW come about.

The trip will cost around $1,200, Elliot said, and they’re hoping to raise that amount before the end of August. Elliot set up a GoFundMe page for her daughter’s trip, and Model Haven also has several fundraisers planned for the group of models going on the trip.

“I started the GoFundMe because she gets a lot of support from different people, and encouragement,” Elliot said. “I told her whatever she can raise can go toward that [trip]. I have one [daughter] that goes to Bama, her older sister, and then she has a younger sister that cheers at the high school, so it’s just me and money gets stretched.”

By attending NYFW, Jasmine hopes to meet other agencies and designers for whom she can walk so that she can gain experience. Overall, she said she is thankful for the opportunity to model.

“It’s actually really fun because I actually know some models from Homewood that didn’t get the chance to meet the people that I did, and so their experiences aren’t as open as mine,” she said. “So I’m grateful that I get to go to New York Fashion Week. It’s really exciting, and modeling is something I really like to do.”

A link to Jasmine’s GoFundMe can be found here, and her modeling Facebook page is facebook.com/themodeljas.