FIRST OF THEIR OWN

“Well, every piece of work I do has to be a first. Otherwise, things become narrowed. Every tiny bit of paper, every sculpture, has to be an experiment. Otherwise, there is no life to it.”

MAGGI HAMBLING, ARTIST

“My first night in my first digs away from my family home when I was just 18. I remember feeling it was the beginning of my life. I was looking out the window playing really loud music—my music. No parents to stop me. Freezing cold and comfortless. I even wore gloves to bed just to turn the pages of my book. But I was in my own place and I was going to go forward into my life.”

DAME HARRIET WALTER, ACTOR

“The first time I ever read a book by Joan Didion, it made me want to be a writer. A Book of Common Prayer—it’s such a cliché. Everybody reads Joan Didion and decides they want to be a writer.”

VANESSA FRIEDMAN, FASHION CRITIC

“I remember sharing my first poem—that was the day that I understood the power of language, how it can change lives. I realized I was sitting on a catalog of language that I wasn’t using because we’re told that certain words make sense for certain things. And the moment you move past that, you have words to use in a different way. That was the first time I could articulate who I was.”

KAI ISAIAH JAMAL, POET AND ACTIVIST

“My first step in art. I was three or four years old. I was drawing on my parents’ couch. I was such a naughty child. But I really liked it.”

MAYA GOLYSHKINA, ARTIST

“I’m making a film for the first time, and putting together a lot of footage I took in the ’90s backstage at fashion shows.”

CECILIA CHANCELLOR, MODEL

“At 12, I assisted my mum with her duties as an Avon representative. I spent weekends knocking on the doors of family and friends to sell them beauty products. It started everything: It taught me the importance of making people feel good, in mind and appearance.”

CHARLOTTE MENSAH, HAIR STYLIST

“In junior high, I’d read my best friend’s sister’s issues of Sassy—molding my sweet, porous young self to the contours of its gimmicky effect. There was a makeup tutorial that advised applying lipstick before lip liner to create definition, but avoid those Hi, I’m wearing lip liner lines. That was the first time I apprehended sarcasm.”

CHRISTINA CATHERINE MARTINEZ, WRITER AND COMIC

“Last year, I produced my first short film, which feels like a big thing and a small thing simultaneously. It re-engaged me as a maker. Importantly, it reminded me of how much I like to be in charge.”

EMMA D’ARCY, ACTOR

“The first day of school I still remember so well, with my jeans that were way too high revealing my polka-dot socks and my rhinestone Tweety shirt. I guess we all go through those phases. I definitely look back and appreciate my friendships at that time, it made it a lot less difficult.”

ANNEMARIE KUUS, PHOTOGRAPHER

“The first time that I was profoundly touched was when I was 16 and went to watch Lars Von Trier’s Breaking The Waves. It was the first independent movie I had seen in a theater and I was blown away by it. The incredible narrative, acting, photography, visuals, soundtrack, everything. I couldn’t stop crying.”

JAMES VALERI, FASHION EDITOR AND STYLIST

“I recently got my first tattoo, given to me by my father. It was really fun, but surprisingly painful.”

BLISS CHAPMAN, MODEL

“I was a freshman in high school the first time I went to a vintage shop. It was in my hometown and the owner was everything. Classic punk who loved vintage with a rocker boyfriend. Me and my best friend would borrow her clothes and do shoots for her webpage. I would style my friend—who I think looked like Trish Goff—and shoot her using Vogue collections as a compass. I didn’t know what I was doing or what to classify it as. I was expressing myself and finding ways to have fun in a small city.”

MATT HOLMES, STYLIST


“My first acting job I think was the McDonald’s advert when I was 22, maybe 21. I had to be in an office and pop my head up and look like I was ready for lunch. Everyone and their grandmothers photographed it and sent it to me.”

TANYA REYNOLDS, ACTOR

“I remember the first poem I ever wrote. It was about a cat that sat on a mat that ate a rat, and there was a bat or something. It was also the first time my teacher ever failed me for anything.”

LYRA WESTECOTT, MODEL AND POET

“My first obsession was plants and flowers. Like many people, like many girls.”

XIAOLU GUO, WRITER

“I was one of the first Black editors to work with Anna Wintour.”

MOUCHETTE BEll, MODEL AND EDITOR

“The first exhibition I put together was about two and a half years ago with an artist named Charlie Gosling. Everything started so quickly, so scrappily.”

ANGELICA JOPLING, GALLERIST

“I’ve just written my first book. It’s a coming-of-age novel about a young girl who becomes a model, gets involved with a well-known fashion photographer, and loses herself in the process. It’s about her discovering who she really is and how to be a real person in the world.”

PENELOPE TREE, MODEL AND WRITER

“The first time I ever got into trouble, I was in school when the head teacher caught me jumping on my teacher’s chair. I was quite a shy girl, so I was breaking the rules a little bit. I didn’t get into that much trouble, but it proved that by breaking rules you uncover the real you.”

KUKUA WILLIAMS, MODEL

“A first means curiosity to me. Every first is in the past, so I always look for a new one. A next first is the best first.”

HAJIME SORAYAMA, ARTIST

“My grandfather was an expert pattern maker, and I was a very skinny and tall 12 year old, so he would re-fit all of my jeans. I was fascinated by his craftsmanship and personal style. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, he showed me how to pin a pair of pants. At that moment, I knew I wanted to work in the industry.”

RAE BOXER, STYLIST

“The first time I took acid, I walked around the Gandhi World Peace Rose Garden in the Pacific Palisades with my best friend. I wept at the beauty of everything. It was the best day of my life.”

NADA ALIC, WRITER

“The first time I entered a darkroom, a whole new world opened—I understood the purpose of light in photography. The essence of it and the meaning of capturing a moment that will remain forever.”

JOSEPHINE LOCHEN, PHOTOGRAPHER

“When I think about a first, I immediately think about my first kiss. I was at sleepaway camp; I was embarrassingly young. There’s nothing like that.”

LYNSEY ADDARIO, PHOTOGRAPHER

“Women empowering women—thinking about what a world led by women would look like.”

CORA CORRÉ, MODEL AND ACTIVIST

“In university, I enrolled in a study abroad program in London. It completely transformed my view of what the world looks like and how I fit into it. Home, in the suburbs of Washington DC, I’d dress up in my bedroom, dreaming about the scenes I’d soon find in London: nightclubs, gigs, street style. My early days there brought me to the tribes who also valued outward expression and the freedom that it brings.”

YOHANA LEBASI, STYLIST

“I grew up among flowers; picking off excess leaves, trimming stems, sloshing buckets, and tailing my mother in wholesale markets. My parents owned a small flower shop, and my sister and I would finish our homework to the smell of gardenias and damp foam bricks.”

MINDY SEU, DESIGNER