UVENIO FASHION Talk!: An Interview with Top Male Model: Sean 0'Pry

For a decade now, Sean O’Pry’s chiseled features and striking blue eyes have stared back from billboards, subways, and almost every notable magazine. In 2013, FORBES named him the world’s highest-paid model. He may be best known as the handsome, ill-fated suitor from Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video, but he aims to create a name for himself that doesn’t need a celebrity face alongside for recognition. After 10 years in the modeling industry, O’Pry has experienced his fair share of international fashion weeks including opening for Versace, Givenchy, and Balmain – and once even walking in 18 shows one season in Milan. Now he prefers brand campaigns over runways, his resume boasting Calvin Klein,

Ralph Lauren,

Giorgio Armani

, Dolce & Gabbana, and Marc Jacobs, among others.

O’Pry, who celebrated his 29th birthday , is considered a runway veteran at his age. In fact, he laughs about feeling too old for his industry: “Have you seen some of these new guys?” Quite fittingly, this season at New York Fashion Week: Men’s, O’Pry walked exclusively for a designer who relies on maturity to uphold the cosmopolitan aesthetic of his clothes.

Joseph Abboud’s Spring/Summer ’17 show was his second in 15 years (after reclaiming his namesake label in 2013). The collection, inspired by the adventurous spirit of Ernest Hemingway, also featured older male models between their late 20s and mid-40s.

“My whole career has been trying to make boys look like men. We want them to look sexy and appealing, but we don’t want them to be too boyish,” Abboud said.

On the unconventional runway, set in a garden café with tropical trees and string lights, O’Pry entered in a pristine white three-piece linen suit that gave him an air of sophistication. A beige and ivory striped linen scarf lined the inside of his vest, and khaki print loafers neatly tied the look together.

“The idea really is to show men how to use summer fabrics,” Abboud explained of his linen-centric collection. “As guys get older and mature, they have more character.”

Even with a decade of industry wisdom, O’Pry admitted that he maintains the same pre-show routine: “I just try to pee before because I get nervous.”

Over 10 years, he believes social media has shaped the modeling business the most. “Before, everyone saw your book and just requested to book you. Now they just go on your Instagram.”

O’Pry himself has 570,000 Instgram followers and 94,000 on Twitter. The numbers aren’t insignificant, but they’re nowhere near the 2.4 million followers decade-younger male models like Lucky Blue Smith attract.

O’Pry, who earned 1.5 million in 2013, believes that there may be an age “too old” for the business. For the sizeable salary O’Pry has earned over his career, he offered three key words of advice: “Invest it well.”

“I collect cars and watches. I’ve invested in properties and businesses. I’ve been smart with my money since I was young,” he elaborated. O’Pry’s car collection, which includes a 1970 Chevelle, is housed back in Georgia. One of his luxurious hobbies includes restoring cars, which he developed a fascination with eight years ago. “I’d always wanted an old car, so I looked on Craigslist, found one, drove all the way to South Carolina – it broke down four times. ’73 Bronco,” he laughed.

For the future, he confessed that he would love to be on a lip sync show, but he refused to sing while in a dressing room of other men.

Besides modeling, O’Pry has been keeping up his acting classes as a potential next step. He’s been a pretty face alongside Madonna and Katy Perry, but after Taylor Swift’s Blank Space, he jokes that his life ambition is for people to “stop asking me fucking Taylor Swift questions.”