World beckons aspiring young Dunedin model

Dunedin model Nicole Clulee is ready to leave the country in search of fame and fortune.

Early in her career, she was told she would go places, and when Ali McD Modelling Agency director Aliana McDaniel first saw her, she set out to make sure of it.

While Miss Clulee had "heard it all before", Ms McDaniel helped her make her mark on the international modelling scene.

Having started modelling at age 12, she was signed to Ali McD at 14 and later by Trump Model Management and others in Europe.

Ms McDaniel now described her as "grown up" and did not expect her to spend much time on home soil in 2010.

"This year is about her travelling," she said.

Last year, Miss Clulee spent three months in London, two weeks in Paris, and one week in Milan, taking part in fashion weeks and meeting agency representatives.

When she returned to New Zealand in April, she spent three months in Auckland where she did a shoot for Cleo magazine, took part in Air New Zealand Fashion Week and worked with designer Lonely Hearts Club.

While the fast-paced world of fashion was a far cry from her family home in Outram, the 18-year-old "takes it as it comes".

Her down-to-earth nature helped her deal with the pressures of the modelling world.

She was now "used to" all the travelling and had matured enough to go it alone.

From the outside looking in, modelling "seems amazing" but was "just like any other job", she said.

Miss Clulee will return to New York in March for work interviews, and in September for the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

In the meantime, she was waiting to hear if she would be travelling to London or Singapore next month, to work and meet agency representatives.

Her future plans also included studying at the University of Otago.

ellie.constantine@odt.co.nz