interview

Name:
Lucas Jayden Satherley

Agency:
IMG (New York)

Age:
21

Height:
6’1.5″

Instagram:
@lucasjsatherley

Place of Origin:
I was born on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, but I’ve basically lived in Brisbane my whole life.

Ethnic Origin:
My dad is Kiwi so he’s from New Zealand. My mom is Australian and my grandmother is Australian, but my granddad is Filipino. She was like one of ten wives, which she didn’t know at the time, so I’ve got countless cousins I’ve never met who all live in the Philippines.

Birthsign:
Cancer

How discovered:
I was scouted off Instagram by my mother agent. She was hassling me to come in on direct message. She messaged me quite a few times but I kind of ignored it because I couldn’t think it was an actual thing. Then I looked it up and they actually had an office so I went in and she was really keen for me to try it. I was just about to leave for Europe on a holiday and she convinced me to do it so I did a test shoot and then signed with IMG.

What were you doing before you started modeling?
I was working on buildings, doing bricklaying, working sixty hours a week in the sun just to save up to go to Europe and then that whole holiday I spent just working. The plan was to go to university this year.

What do you think you would be studying?
I wanted to study psychology because I liked it, but I was going to study law because there’s a job crisis in Australia. I’ve known guys who have master’s degrees in chemical engineering and they’re working at McDonald’s.

Favorite things:
I’m obsessed with art, all forms of art, just self-expression in general, but more so painting and drawing. I love surfing and being at the beach obviously. Ever since I started modeling, everything I used to do I don’t get to do as much, so I don’t get to go to the beach, but I do get to do art out here. I draw a lot of portraits of my girlfriend and we do a lot of writing and poetry.

What are you listening to at the moment?
I always listen to old­ school bands like Nirvana, the Ramones, Radiohead, all those good ones, but then I also listen to a lot of rap like A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, the standard bunch.

Favorite movie, tv show:
My favorite TV show would be Vikings. I think it’s interesting because it hasn’t really been done properly before. Everyone’s doing zombies and it’s kind of repetitive. I think the acting’s really good in Vikings, and I know it’s not totally accurate but I didn’t really know anything about that whole era.

Favorite designer, fragrance or beauty product:
I have two favorite designers, Saint Laurent and Alexander Wang. A third would be Raf Simons.

What would you be doing if you weren’t modeling?
I say I’d be studying at university, but I guess it’s hard to gauge now, because once you start doing this job it opens so many opportunities and you meet so many people. Your perspective on what you want to do and the whole world changes almost completely, so if I had the same mindset as before that’s what I’d be doing but to be honest I don’t know.

What’s something uncool that you love anyway?
Saying the word “lit.” I love saying “lit” but everyone makes fun of me for it.

Favorite modeling experience so far?
It would be with Mert & Marcus when we shot Vogue Italia at Margate. It was wild fun.

You spent most of last year working in London, how was it?
I’d always been obsessed with London. London was like that city I grew up always wanting to go to. Everyone always wants to go to New York, but for some reason I was always obsessed with London. I always convinced myself that I was British. It’s hard to explain, but I was so obsessed with London before I went there and it is still my favorite city in the world.

What’s the best thing about your hometown/country?
I would say the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone always has a plan to go to Australia eventually — it’s not at the top of the list, but it’s always in there. People always go for Sydney and Melbourne and really if you’re going to Sydney, it has the Opera House and the Bridge, but really it’s just this tiny, tiny version of London. It’s just a city with cool things in it, whereas the Great Barrier Reef, you’ll never see nature that beautiful. And it’s dying so I tell people to go there as quick as they can because you can literally see it when you go. You can see it’s getting polluted and it’s getting killed, so I think everyone is making a mistake by going to Sydney.

Which brand would you really love to model for?
Alexander Wang would actually be it. After I got scouted, two days later he picked me up for his campaign, he picked me himself and then two days later also for Balenciaga and I couldn’t do them because they’re both shot in New York and I didn’t have a visa. But I saw him at his party last year and he remembered me, which was a good thing, and he knows I’m here now so fingers crossed.

Place you would love to visit:
There’s quite a few. I would say two right now would be Thailand or Barcelona.

Currently you’re obsessed with/about:
Quest Bars. Peyton and I eat countless amounts of those, like way too many.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
As clichéd as it is, I would say be yourself. Especially in this industry, don’t let anything get to you. You have to make sure you’re still the same person. If I ever felt like I was losing myself, I would take a holiday and go home, because if you get caught up in everything and start changing yourself, it becomes a permanent thing. Change is permanent if you leave it for too long, so I would say just be yourself and don’t ever change for anyone.