Jacquie Tajah Murdock spent most of her life as a dancer at the Apollo Theater in New York. Despite wanting to be a model, this dream never was fulfilled. But then she was featured on the site Advanced Style.

She caught the eye of a designer at Lanvin, who cast her as a model for his upcoming Fall advertising…

Murdock says…

This campaign is a dream come true. I grew up in Harlem always wanting to be a model, but in my day there were very little opportunities for women of color to work in fashion. At 18 I went from agent to agent looking for jobs, even as a hand model. I have finally made it and I will never give up. Hopefully some day I will get to Paris!

Regarding the actual fashion she was modeling, she told Fashionista this endearing story…

Well at first, they brought a short dress–strapless with a big great white bow. I looked at it and thought it would have been more appropriate for a younger woman–a 19 or 20-year-old girl. The two ladies that were helping me step into it said ‘This is too small. We can’t pull up the zipper.’ It must have been a size zero, and I was so happy. Then they brought the original dress, and it was just me. It had a neck. The green long sleeves, skirt below the knee, with a peplum in the front. It’s so unusual because I spoke to them when they interviewed me about a peplum, and I didn’t event know that a peplum was in this year!

Here are some more pics from Advanced Style…

(via BuzzFeed)

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