Rebecca Leigh Longendyke’s childhood was the picture of an all-American upbringing. Now 22, Longendyke grew up the middle of three sisters in the upstate New York town of Hurley (population 6,314), her father an accountant and her mother a loan officer. Her family went on a yearly vacation, alternating between Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and North Carolina’s Outer Banks. When she was little, she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast, but in high school, after becoming, as she says, obsessed with the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, Longendyke decided to pursue a career in science.
In 11th grade, Longendyke was scouted by a modeling agency, whose owner sent her a direct message via Facebook . After going on a test shoot, she decided the work wasn’t for her. “I didn’t feel super confident or comfortable doing it, and I wanted to go to college,” she says. “So I said, ‘OK, no thank you. But in the future if I’m interested I’ll definitely contact you.’
That moment came a couple of years later as she was finishing her freshman year at Binghamton University. She needed a summer job, and it occurred to her to give modeling another try. This time, the experience clicked. Her first shoot was for an athletic brand—one day, an easy stint. She says she realized, “Oh, wow, you can actually do this and make money.” Back at school, she continued to model during her time off.
Her high-fashion break came the following summer, at the casting for a Saint Laurent shoot that took place at a Brooklyn loft. After taking a few pictures, she found herself waiting around for hours with the other models without word. Worried because she had to get home for a waitressing shift, she finally texted her agent to see what was happening. The agent replied that Longendyke had been chosen. In fact, her test shots were so strong the brand ended up using them for the campaign.
In February 2018, during her final semester of college, Longendyke walked in her first runway show, for Calvin Klein 205W39NYC at New York Fashion Week. A whirl of Paris runways followed that same season, including Saint Laurent, Valentino and Chanel. Still, she felt unsure if she was going to keep modeling after graduation. With her degree in biomedical engineering, she says, “I could choose something that was very structured, where I would live in a certain place,” or she could accept the risk of pursuing modeling. As top labels continued to take notice of her, success at modeling began to seem less and less improbable.
In the months following graduation, Longendyke traveled to Russia to walk in a Chanel show in Moscow and starred in campaigns for Chloé, Chanel and Saint Laurent as well as numerous magazine editorials.
This issue’s cover shoot, in New Zealand, was the first time she and photographer Lachlan Bailey worked together. “We wanted to do a shoot all in white and based in nature,” Bailey says. “I was inspired by the otherworldly poetic feel of the [1975 Peter Weir] film Picnic at Hanging Rock. I thought Rebecca was the perfect fit. She has a very captivating face.” Longendyke found stylist Anastasia Barbieri’s clothing choices ideal. “The styling was very dreamy, white and lacy and pretty,” she says, “and every location was spectacular.”
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