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Erin O'Connor is Chanel Travel Wallet used to being judged on her appearance. The 33-year-old English supermodel whom Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld once described as “one of the best models in the world” is so striking that the eyes of everyone in the room linger on her angular, disarmingly symmetrical features and elongated frame.Her aesthetic – one which has the biggest fashion designers in the world clamouring to send her down their catwalks – is haughty, regal, otherworldly, so it's surprising to find her so, well, down-to-earth when we meet in a dark corner of the May Fair Hotel in London.In a black tailored suit, ox-blood brogues and red lipstick she is at once softly feminine and androgynous. Her posture and bone structure seem somehow aristocratic, but she is, famously, a working-class girl from Walsall near Birmingham. She can be frivolous, but is generally serious, speaking in confident, measured tones, but occasionally breaking into a laugh that's akin to a squeal. She loves fashion, but doesn't follow trends. Couture designers adore her, but she became one of the faces of Marks Chanel Classic Wallet Spencer in 2007 (“they called me their ‘wild card girl'”) . And while she is a self-proclaimed “freak of nature” she's unnervingly beautiful.“Someone once referred to modelling as being like winning the lottery gene pool,” she says with a confused laugh. “It's such an odd way to put things but what is different about modelling is that the industry often picks you. And a lot of models are, like me, from small towns, who often felt a sense of isolation growing up, of not being accepted amongst their peers because they were different. And I do think modelling offers up that sense of ‘well you are different, and that's quite alright.'”Growing up, O'Connor was 6ft by the age of 15. She was flat-chested with large feet and a large nose, and hid behind waist-length black hair, earning her the nickname “Morticia”. Teaching was her chosen path, before serendipity struck during a chance encounter with a model scout while rummaging in a bargain bin at the Clothes Show Live in 1996.“At first I thought that she thought I was stealing something,” O'Connor says with a chuckle chanel purse cake.

“She produced a Polaroid camera and I'd never really seen myself that way. Growing up, we took endless photographs and the films were shoved in the drawer and never developed. So it was quite an instant reaction to see myself like that on Polaroid film. I was wearing braces and everything else and she liked what she saw before I could really understand what the appeal was.”Within Chanel Coin Purse months she was modelling for Versace, but the lanky girl who was used to being teased for her height still couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. “I really did need that push because I was quite happy where I was, thank you very much,” she says.“And then all of a sudden I had to believe in fate because it was a relatively ordinary day but my life changed forever. I think naiveté was my armour and I allowed myself to be completely carried by that so I literally got the bus to the train station, landed in Victoria, put on a nice outfit and never looked back.”Where O'Connor couldn't see the appeal, the rest of the fashion world could. At a time when supermodels, from Cindy Crawford to Claudia Schiffer were every fleshy inch the male fantasy, she heralded a new era of androgynous “freak chic”. Lagerfeld said: “Her face is like a Roman vase – not a standard beauty, but a modern anti-beauty,” while actress Anjelica Houston told her Chanel Purse Forum “You'll never be pretty but you'll always be magnificent.”“She isn't only a model,” said Jean-Paul Gaultier. “She is quite like art. She is like theatre … I should love to be with her every day.”Gaultier was right of course. She is far more than just a model. Not only has she strutted and posed for most of the top luxury brands in the world and become the face of the British high street thanks to Marks & Spencer, but she has become the friendly spokesperson for an industry that's often perceived as aloof.As a past vice-chair of the British Fashion Council, she has a strong association with London Fashion Week – which kicks off on Friday – and it's a relationship that goes far beyond stepping out on the catwalk. In 2007 she founded the Model Sanctuary, a relaxing space during Fashion Week where models can have access to nutritionists, osteopaths and life coaches, and generally take a break from their hectic schedules. They see over 300 models a day, most of whom are in their late teens.“First and foremost they're young people in their own right,” she says Chanel Gst .