Trailblazer & Lifetime Achievement Award for supermodel Stacey McKenzie
November 4, 2022
Relaxing in Jamaica a few months ago, Canadian supermodel Stacey McKenzie received a call from her agent saying she was the recipient of another award.
After learning where the honour was coming from and what it was for, she decided to attend the event and accept the recognition.
McKenzie, who splits time between Jamaica and Canada, was presented with a Trailblazer & Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural Black Fashion & Beauty Gala (BFBG) on September 24 in Toronto.
“I am so thankful because it is coming from my community and that means the world to me,” she said. “That is something I don’t take for granted. I had to be here in-person to show my gratitude. I am really touched by this award and it took me back to thinking about that young girl in Jamaica dreaming of having a life in fashion and coming to Canada for a better life for my mom and me. That dream became reality. The other thing that resonates with me is that I like what this new organization is doing to shine light on fashion and beauty creatives and bring them closer to work together. That is beautiful.”
Ann-Marie Daniel-Barker created the event to acknowledge the accomplishments of small Black-owned businesses in the fashion and beauty industry.
“When we came up with the Trailblazer & Lifetime Achievement category, the thinking was it has to be someone who started from scratch and overcame many hurdles before achieving stardom,” noted the Jamaican-born fashion stylist. “As I was making a list of candidates, I remembered Stacey. I followed her career for many years and am aware of the obstacles she faced. I thought if anyone deserved this award, it was her who has accomplished so much and has returned to Toronto to give back and inspire others.”
Supermodel Stacey McKenzie (l) & BFBG founder Ann-Marie Daniel-Barker (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Working with some of the world’s top fashion icons, McKenzie has graced the covers of Vogue, which in 2015 named her one of five Jamaican models to change the face of fashion, Flare and Harper’s Bazaar, hosted Stylissimo on MTV Europe, corresponded for Fashion File, served as runway coach and appeared on hit reality television shows America’s Next Top Model, MTV’s ‘Made’ and CBC’s ‘Canada Reads’.
While life may seem rosy now, it was not always that way for the former Canada Drag Race judge.
Family and friends often made negative comments about her appearance.
Tired of being frowned upon and rejections from booking agencies, McKenzie changed her look to conform to the perceived status quo.
“I permed my hair which is something I hate,” she said. “I love to cornrow, braid, twist, do natural hairstyles and wear an Afro. That is my thing. But I went ahead and chopped my hair off and then permed it which is not my style.”
To conceal her freckles, McKenzie used full coverage foundation.
“I did that because I was not interested in wearing make-up,” she said. “I am a natural girl. To minimize my lip, I made it look smaller. I just did the stupidest things before going back to the agencies who told me I am the same girl that keeps coming back and they are still not interested in me.”
The response caught McKenzie’s attention.
“I was like, ‘You know what, you are right’,” she said. “I am the same girl no matter what I try to do to change. I figured I just needed to be that girl and if they get it, they get it, if they don’t, they don’t. I just needed to be myself. I would just have to go after the modelling and if I don’t succeed, it is not for a matter of not trying very hard. I kept going back to those agencies who always said no.”
Learning that model agencies existed outside Canada, McKenzie hopped on a Greyhound bus to New York City unbeknownst to her mom who thought she was staying overnight at a friend’s home in Toronto.
Visiting agencies with the hope of getting signed again proved futile.
“They were very mean,” McKenzie recounted. “New York is tough and a totally different ballgame. I was just there for the day and it wasn’t fun.”
A few months later, she was back in ‘The Big Apple’ after meeting someone who was taking aspiring models to secure signings.
At a major agency owned by a Black woman, McKenzie was the only model that grabbed the boss’s attention.
“After getting over the initial shock, I thought everything was good until she told me to go back home, pack my bags and return to New York,” she said.
Overwhelmed with joy, McKenzie came back to Toronto, dropped out of high school and returned to New York confident she had finally made it.
She was in for a big shock.
“This woman walked by me sitting in the lobby of her office without acknowledging me,” she said. “When I stopped her and reminded her what she told me to do and I am here, she calmly said, ‘I am not interested’.
Without family members in New York and kicked out of her home after telling mom, ‘I am going to be a model, don’t’ worry, I am going to come back and I got you’, McKenzie was confused and helpless.
“My mother didn’t buy what I was selling,” she noted. “She wanted the best for her child and I didn’t see that then. I thought she was ridiculous which she wasn’t. She wanted me to be secure.”
Pulling herself together, McKenzie revisited the agencies on her list.
At Elite Model Management, Karen Lee Grybowski – she was Director of Scouting for 18 years before starting Karen Lee Group in 2010 – told her she is ‘really good looking’ and inquired if she wanted to model.
“I was like, ‘Hello, that is what I am here for’,” McKenzie said. “She then spoke to her boss who totally disrespected me when I saw him. That man put me down, saying things like I am ugly and f… crazy. In the face of all of that, Karen Lee fought for me even though she said he told her if things didn’t work out with me, she was out of there. When she told me I had three months, my reply was that is all I need.”
Within a week, she got her first cover and was sharing an apartment with other models.
Age 16 at the time, McKenzie, however, found the lifestyle challenging.
“It was too carefree and I was not used to what the other girls were doing,” she pointed out. “I was used to going to school and learning to crochet with seniors at my church. That was how my mother raised me. Even though there was a house mother, we had the freedom to go wherever and do whatever we wanted. Also, there was a girl who disrespected me and I lost it and ‘give her a good piece of beating’. I realized I was too young to be in an environment like that without any proper support and guidance.”
McKenzie expressed her discomfort to Grybwoski who promised she would handle the situation.
“I told her that was not necessary as I was going back home which I did,” she said. “I was going to start all over again.”
In the next 18 months, McKenzie saved enough money to go to Paris, a frontrunner in the fashion industry, for two weeks.
With the help of former American model-turned-fashion influencer Dawn Leak who was living in France at the time, her fortunes changes.
“Dawn helped me to find cheap accommodation, her boyfriend at the time redid my photos and they introduced me to a small agency that took me on,” said McKenzie.
Top model agent Gaspard Lukali booked her with French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier who was casting for a show.
Unable to find the location and crying on the street on the night of the appointment, McKenzie thought she had blown the opportunity until a strange female approached her with a business card.
“When I asked her who she was, she told me to come to the location on the card at 3.30 p.m. the next day and then scampered off,” she said. “When I looked at the card, I realized she was Jean Paul’s assistant. I ran after her to verify if that was true and she said, ‘Yes and I want you to come tomorrow because I think he will love you’. I told her I was supposed to be at the same address, but I couldn’t find the place. The woman told me that I was right in front of the building and that is how she saw me as she was looking through a window.”
At the casting, McKenzie met Gaultier whose first remark was, ‘Elle est belle’.
“When I inquired what that meant, he said ‘You are beautiful’,” she recounted. “That was the first time I ever heard that. When I asked if he was serious, his response was, ‘Yes, you are beautiful and gorgeous’. He then told me to walk for him and I killed it. After walking for a few minutes, he turned to the other models in the room and said, ‘You see, this is how you walk’.”
At age nine, McKenzie saw a photo of Gaultier and singer Madonna in a magazine her older sister brought home and vowed she would be a model walking the runaway with his designs.
Almost a decade later, she was cast by Gaultier in her first runway show walking with Madonna who called the iconic designer two days before the ready-to-wear event asking if she could make an appearance.
“That proved to me that when something is meant for you, no one – except the Most High God – can take that away from you,” McKenzie said. “If I would have listened to those people who told me I would never make it, I would not be here doing this interview with you.”
Stacey McKenzie was honoured to be the recipient of the BFBG inaugural Trailblazer & Lifetime Achievement Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Leaving Jamaica at age nine with her mother Ruth Williams who is 84, they lived in Lawrence Heights, also known as ‘The Jungle’, before moving downtown.
Even though they had a few conflicts, the self-trained model is thankful for the single parent support and advice.
“Using the money she saved from selling food and snacks at my elementary school in Jamaica and clothing in the street, my mom bought me Adidas track suits and matching kicks, gold earrings and nice clothing to go to school,” McKenzie, whose father died when she was an infant, recounted. “Even though we were struggling financially, she told me that people should never see me to be less than who I am. She told me to always walk with confidence, always hold my head up high and make sure I look like a million dollars when I am out in public.”
Having had to work extremely hard to fulfil her goals makes it easy for McKenzie to want to give back to young people chasing their dreams.
In 2003, she created ‘The Walk Camp’ to inspire and empower young girls through mentorship.
The idea was conceived after meeting youths in the basement of a Glendower Circuit building where McKenzie once resided.
“There was this little boy that approached me saying, ‘Miss, you are the only one that ever comes back here’,” she said. “When I asked him what he meant, he mentioned a couple of names that had made it big and never returned. That really touched me.”
Humble and very accommodating with her time, McKenzie knows what struggle and hardship look like and has pledged that no child is left behind once she can help.
