Rick Genest shot to modeling superstardom after Nicola Formichetti cast him as the face of Thierry Mugler. But before getting his big break, Rico was homeless and viewed by society as a tattooed freak.
In an interview with Hint, Nicola told the mag he discovered Rick on Facebook and found his pictures to be so inspiring he changed the entire Mugler collection.
He explains “I added more, by taking stuff from him, making it a bit darker and gothicy.” After that Nicola adds:
“So, basically I Facebooked him and was like, “You know, I’m doing this thing in Paris and I would love you to be there in two weeks.” He emailed me back straightaway and he was like, “Yeah, sure, I would love to, but I don├óΓé¼Γäót have a passport.” And then I start thinking how the fuck is he going to get a passport in time?”
After the holidays Nicola went with his “gut feeling” and flew to Montreal to meet with his future muse and ended up shooting the Mugler campaign.
Eventually Lady GaGa saw the pictures and said “Oh my god, you have to do a show”.
As Formichetti mentioned before, Rick didn’t have a passport because he was homeless and had thousands of dollars worth of fines for sleeping on the street.
Nicola ended up paying for the fines himself because he strongly believed in the guy and Rico walked in Paris.
Wow. Such an amazing story!
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