Debra Shaw in 'Red Hot' Fall Fashion Lensed by Fabien Montique in The Sunday Times Style AOC Fashion

In the words of Laura Craik, writing for The Sunday Times Style [IG] magazine September 3, 2023, Debra Shaw “thrums with good energy”. A key reason for Shaw’s longevity as a couture model lies in her humanist spirit.

Fabien Montique [IG] captures Shaw in the fashion story ‘Red Hot’, wearing Celine by Hedi Slimane on the cover. Note an outtake from Montique that is very VROOM VROOM. “I like wearing red — it’s a powerful colour,” says Shaw.

Paris on My Mind

Shaw’s own comments hit an AOC nerve when she recalled her origins story, centered around a customer in a local Philadelphia, PA clothing store, who mistook her for a mannequin.

“She jumped when I moved,” Shaw says, laughing again. “Then she told me I should go to Paris. ‘They will understand you there,’ she said, and then left the store, like a ghost. That woman put the idea in my head. After that I got fixated on Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Now I can see it from my window.”

Being a Team Player

For AOC, Shaw’s self-analysis of her secret to her longevity is a life lesson for all of us. It involves:

“. . . being open, being flexible and not having the ego involved in areas that it doesn’t need to be involved in. You can have the ego on stage because that helps the performance, but coming in and demanding things? That doesn’t work with this [younger] generation. It should never have worked, because the reality is we’re all pulling together. So be a team player.”