Whereas most rising models do so on the international runway circuit, Lida Fox — apparently her real name — prefers to use editorials as her springboard. Which isn’t to say she avoids the runway; quite the contrary, appearances at Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, and Chanel prove she’s got the mettle for it. But her face is so insouciant, so tomboyish, so cheeky that it screams for a closer, longer look.

Comparisons have been made to Stella Tennant, as well as a young Madonna, circa brunette, although Lida’s style is less pop, more polish. The daughter of a ballerina (her mom) and an opera singer (her dad), the South Carolinian has haute drama in her blood. She herself is a dancer (see her twirling for Saint Laurent in the video below) and has said it was her dancer’s posture that landed her a spot in a Marc Jacobs show, her first modeling job. The theme that season was Cabaret, so Marc had the girls at his casting assume a Bob Fosse pose, which Lida did with ease and with Marc’s nod.

Not that anyone in fashion will ask Lida about opera or ballet, but if they did, she could probably talk their ear off. She recently told Dossier magazine all about Wagner’s The Ring Cycle (the one with Valkyries in helmets), which, she says, “is really a saga of four operas that continue the same story. I’ve never actually seen the entire Ring together, but I’ve seen each of the four operas separately. It’s a fantasy and adventure story with lots of good versus evil themes and very thrilling and bombastic music.”