Albanian model Morta Kontrimaite moments before her Prada spring/summer 2015 debut in Milan.

Morta Kontrimaite’s first name may not be especially auspicious—it means "death" in Italian—but her debut at Prada this week certainly was. I caught up with the 18-year-old Albanian model while I was doing the backstage circuit yesterday. I wanted to interview a first-timer because the Prada show is known to be one of the most coveted and nerve-racking modelling gigs in the circuit. (Some models make it through the casting and fitting hoops only to be dropped moments before the show begins.) For a novice, Morta was handling the scene with surprising aplomb. “After I did
Calvin Klein in New York, my booker said that Prada might use me,” she explained. “I’m feeling a little stressed, but to keep calm I’m just thinking about my family, my friends—and my life. I’m not going to think about all those people looking at me!” Gemma Ward opened the show, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morta in that spot one day.
Curious to know what Guido Palau asked Morta and her fellow Prada models to do before the show? Thought so…
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