Precious Lee Always Bets On Herself—From Taking the LSATs to Opening Harris Reed’s Debut at Nina Ricci

♪ Do do do ♪

[door slams]

Oh my gosh, we're locked out.

[phone dialing]

[heavy sigh] Oh gosh.

Uh-oh. [phone hanging up]

Excuse me!

[gasps] Oh yeah.

Excuse me!

[Hotel Staff] Hi. Hi.

Can you let me in my room?

I just got locked out.

Thank you.

That was funny and real.

I really need to get mine back.

[laughter]

[hip-hop instrumental music]

Bonjour, Vogue, it's Precious Lee,

and we're about to get ready to open the Nina Ricci show.

Come in.

I'm gonna show you a little bit of what I do

to get ready in the morning.

And, I did the Off-White Show yesterday,

and I bleached my brows,

which we're going to have a fun little morning experimenting

using a Parisian brow tint.

Even if you're not tired and you just wanna feel refreshed,

and get that morning snatch,

I love doing this ice bath.

It's such a old trick.

The first time I saw someone do this

was Joan Crawford in a movie.

What was the movie?

Mommy Dearest.

And, she would do that in the morning.

She had this gnarly like 10-step routine,

that she would get ready for.

And so, I just always loved that.

[screams]

Okay, she's refreshed, she's awake.

Now, she has to get her brow back.

I've never used it.

So, you guys are about to witness a true experiment.

I love a bleach brow moment.

I'm the girl that loves to experiment.

Like, one of my favorite things about modeling

is being able to bring so much energy

to different characters.

The Off-White show,

it was a giant installation of a moon,

and so we were giving hot alien vibes,

so it was like,

yeah, bleach 'em. I'm down.

We're gonna wait, oh, I gotta set a timer!

Somebody set a timer.

Guys, let's see what's gonna happen.

[clock ticking]

[alarm ringing]

Guys, don't try this at home.

This could've went really wild.

They're back.

Do we like?

[Camera Person] Yeah. Is she back?

They're, like, back to, like, black black.

It's fine, it's cute, it's fab, it's strong.

Normally, I have music blasting.

Lately it's been giving Beyonce Renaissance,

and, like,

vintage rap.

When I say vintage, I mean like five years ago.

[laughter]

One of the things that I've learned,

especially for fashion week and runway shows,

is you just have to be, like, flexible and malleable,

and understand that anything can happen.

A shoe breaks, a pin pops, like,

there's so much drama that can happen,

and I think the main thing is to, like,

remember that this is supposed to truly be fine.

I know that's cliche and people say it all the time

but when the crazy stuff happens, like, you know,

my flight being delayed in New York for six hours,

and then canceling,

and then the next day losing my passport,

and then saying they didn't find it,

and then they found it, went the next day,

sat on a plane for three more hours,

landed after a seven and a half, eight hour flight,

and went straight to Off-White.

And, I could've, like,

had a meltdown and been so sad about it.

But...

[sighing]

It's fashion baby.

[slow R&B instrumentals]

What are we thinking?

This?

This?

I think it's giving chic.

That's what we're gonna do.

[boot zipping]

♪ Do, do, going down ♪

[heavy sigh]

You guys should put in little music.

[laughter]

Elevator music!

♪ Dun dun dun dun dun dun ♪

[playful scoff]

Not The Runway Slayer!

How are you? Good.

You wanna say hey to Vogue?

Hi, Vogue!

[giggling]

[upbeat R&B instrumentals]

[Fan] Can we take your picture?

Sure.

Woo, thank you.

Thank you.

We're gonna go grab a coffee,

and a little bite to eat before the show.

[sighs] The light here is insane.

I truly think I'm cuter in Paris.

My entire matriculation,

I was juggling modeling and college,

and it was so difficult to do,

because I am running to a photo shoot in another city,

while trying to make sure that my midterms are on time.

It was just such a struggle of me

realizing what I really wanted,

and I wanted to be an advocate

and that this platform as a model,

would enable me to have more access to people,

and to touch more people, and to to talk about the things

that I wanted to contribute to society and change.

So, I put off law school,

which I knew I wanted to be a lawyer since seventh grade.

And, I knew it, and I was like,

This is happening.

I'm gonna be a sports and entertainment attorney,

crisis communication,

I had a whole plan.

And, I took the LSAT, I'm just so grateful

that I took the leap of faith to bet on myself.

I could have easily been afraid to take the jump.

There was no one that looked like me.

I had no real start in modeling,

that was equivalent to, I guess,

most people's starts in the things that I wanted to do.

Regardless if you wanna be in fashion or not,

like, you really truly have to bet on yourself,

and really trust and believe that whatever it is,

that is in your heart, in your mind and space to do,

like, you're 100% capable.

[rhythmic hip-hop beats]

It's showtime baby!

My mom, I love her so much, she's, like,

literally my number one fan and she called me,

and she was like,

Wait, is this the first time that a curve model

has opened a show in Paris Fashion Week?

And I'm like, Huh?

I was like,

Ma, I didn't, who thinks, what?

Are you like, the Guinness Book of World Records?

I didn't even think about that.

[drum beat music]

[whistling]

We're here.

Hi. Gotta say hi to Precious TV!

[excited chatter]

[musical finger snapping]

[excited chatter]

Rocking the runway is case-by-case basis, right?

And, for the Nina Ricci Show today,

we were able to walk slower.

You can do more shoulders, you can do more hips.

And so I definitely channeled

my inner nineties super energy.

[upbeat music]

And then gimme a nude lip for this.

She's not dressed and she's opening the show,

so can she go get dressed now?

So remember earlier when I was saying

that everything always [background chatter]

ends up being hectic [background chatter]

and you have to be flexible!

[background chatter]

That's happening right now.

[blowing kisses]

[tense upbeat music]

When I came to Nina Ricci,

a massive, massive push and focus

that I wanted to have was not only

on diversity across gender,

which is something I'm really known for,

but also across body positivity.

And I think Precious symbolizes and embodies

fluidity and beauty and confidence

in such a strong, powerful way.

It was like a real big childhood dream come true

that she said yes to walking my first debut.

So everyone enjoy the show.

Bye!

Okay guys,

[background chatter]

I told you there was going to be hectic drama.

Wait, wait, wait, what?

Earrings, earrings.

[Make Up Artist] Q-tip please.

Let's just take it out.

Let's take this one out.

Cause we're not gonna see it anyway.

Walk down on the white.

Come back on the black?

[Crew Member] Walk on the black, come back on the white.

We got this.

You ready?

We're gonna deliver the party!

[Crew Member] Can all photographers leave now?

Back here, all photographers need to be gone.

♪ Let me tell you a story about a girl ♪

[stylish upbeat music]

[stylish upbeat music continues]

[crowd cheering]

[crowd whooping]

Oh my god, this is Vogue.

Vogues, say hi to Cici!

She's a Virgo, like me.

You're a Virgo too? Yeah.

Scorpio, eh!

Are you a Scorpio? Yeah I am.

Congratulations.

Babe, You ate it up.

Did you like it? You ate it up!

I'm so proud of you.

I took a lot of videos.

We just wrapped the Nina Ricci show.

It was iconic.

It was amazing.

Thank you for being with me

to watch my diary of a model.

In Paris!

[blowing kisses]

Bye.

[upbeat music]

[laughter]

[indistinct chatter]

How was it?