Women's
Heather Payne: Model/Designer On The Go
Heather Payne models for her activewear label, Payne.
After 20 years in the modeling industry, Heather Payne knew her time had come for a career change.
“I had a bit of an education, but one that was different than a university education,” Payne says of her extensive modeling career that sent her around the world walking countless runways and working with top designers, photographers, stylists and editors.
Payne's Spring 2012 lookbook featuring Heather Payne.
When she looked at her resume and began to reassess her professional life, she realized that although she didn’t have a college degree, modeling had given her a real-world masters in fashion.
“So instead of being afraid, I picked up a pencil and I just started drawing,” she says with the confidence every model should possess. “What was missing in my wardrobe and my friends’ wardrobes? Comfortable lifestyle pieces that could carry you from a.m. to p.m., so I could run to a pilates class in leggings with technical quality and I could also wear the leggings to lunch with a pair of heels, or out at night.”
Payne wears her Heroine Curvy Top and Outlook Drawstring Shorts from her Spring 2012 collection.
Payne was a walking fit model for her first designs.
“I started making clothes for myself and wearing them around the city,” she says of her designs that fuse high-fashion cuts with performance quality fabrics. ”People had a strong reaction to the clothing because it was something they were really missing.”
Payne wears her Resolve Lace-Up-Sleeve Top and skirt from her Spring 2012 collection.
In 2011 the model had morphed into a designer and launched a chic activewear label, Payne.
“As an adult I like the challenges of this,” she says when asked which career she favors.
Payne Spring 2012
Payne jokes that her workouts used to consist of Tracy Anderson videos in hotel rooms. “At the pace that I was working, unless there was a gym on the airplane, I didn’t have time,” she says.
But now wearing runway-worthy workout pieces like her asymetric-zip jacket, twisted strap dress and Tribute leggings she can break a sweat at Physique 57, her latest go-to workout, and dash back to the office without an outfit change.
“Even if you are not a six-pack rockstar, there is a direct correlation with your frame of mind and working out,” she says.
Shop stylish activewear and weekendwear during the On the Go Event, March 8-11. There’s a gift with purchase.
