Malmö-born, Yeezy-discovered model Aisha Potter on the power of confidence

Aisha Potter gives great lessons in confidence. ‘Looking at her, it must be easy,’ you may think. But the 25-year-old Malmö born and raised model wasn’t always signing deals with Glossier and inspiring over 500,000 followers with her style. “When I was younger I was always making excuses to not put myself out there, waiting to become the person confident enough to try,” Potter says.

But then she realised that confidence always comes after discomfort. “That was the biggest lesson for me, seeing that I had to go through one to get to the other. Suddenly, you’re relaxed about something that used to make you feel insecure, which is the best feeling.” And being unafraid to take leaps is what’s defined her career.

Potter, who now lives in L.A., left Malmö för the U.K. as soon as she could. “I always used to say, ‘the day that I turn 18 I’ll move and never look back'.” She was working in e-commerce when the Yeezy spotted her. The brand's booking was vague, to say the least. “I basically jumped on a plane to Paris without knowing anything. All I had was an address, a name and instructions to say nothing but that one word at the door.”

Despite the somewhat anxiety-inducing circumstances, her pluck paid off. “I ended up being involved in the creation of the Gap collection engineered by Balenciaga. I flew with enough things for two days and ended up extending my room every single day for a month. It was the start of an era,” Potter reminisces. “I didn’t have a thing with me and got everything from flea markets and second hand shops. I became much more fearless with what I wore.” And the more so she became, the more she garnered attention.

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“How you feel is one of the biggest parts of your outfit,” says Potter, who doesn't believe much in dressing according to trends. According to the model, it makes people with unique styles and energies all clamour for the same thing. “They don’t want that item because of its form or how it suits them, they want it because of what they associate it with,” she reflects. “It’s a perfect example of the clothes wearing you, rather than you wearing them,” referencing the iconic quote by Vera Wang.

There’s another part of trend culture Potter hopes is fading. “It feels like social media has for a long time fed into people’s habit of always wearing something new. But I see it becoming trendy now to rewear your clothes, with the worn look being chosen over the new.” Using social media to influence more sustainable trends isn’t the only potential the platform has for Potter.

“The industry has always been divided between the different types of modelling; e-commerce, beauty, runway, editorial. And where you ended up was in the hands of the agency. But Instagram has given models the power to steer things themselves, and cross the barriers between categories.” It means Potter has the freedom to always be reassessing her style and future. “I want to push the boundaries of my style even further, the unexpected. I feel like a blank canvas, ready for whatever’s next.”