Nina Is Always in the Moment

The black heels in Nina's model bag are VIVAIA Addisons, found after a specific search for a vegan, animal-friendly heel with "a positive mission."

She credits the material itself for holding its color under different light, and for a level of comfort most basics don't have.

"Wear them with a black dress for evening, it's perfect. Wear them with skinny jeans for daytime, it's perfect. Wear them with a suit, they look absolutely beautiful."

She likes the pointed shape too. Worn with black trousers, it almost continues the line of the leg. "It's almost like an extension of the pants."Ten-hour days, rain, casting tapes: the Addisons have held up through all of it.

Nina has a similarly precise description for her personal style: "Minimal editorial... but feminine and sexy." The contradiction is deliberate.

Pair a masculine blazer with a mini skirt and heels, say, or a fitted dress under a sharply tailored coat.

One of her favorite white shirts is actually a men's Brooks Brothers shirt, bought for herself and washed until it fit right, now worn open over a fitted black mini dress with heels or sneakers.

"The composition and the combination matter as much as the individual pieces," she says.

Before modeling, Nina spent years helping other people work through uncertainty. Now she uses some of the same thinking on herself.

"I project openness and... confidence in all states of being," she says. "Not just in your most polished moments."

That matters in a job where rejection is ordinary. Nina tries not to let one casting become a verdict on everything else, coming back instead to a bigger question: what kind of model does she want to be?

Her VIVAIA Wishlist

"There's so much going on here," she says. There is a vibrant art community, commercial work, music and easy connections into nearby cities. New London, she says, is small but still has a lot going on.

Her days move between castings, art shows, exercise, the life-coaching clients she still works with, and time with her dog and cat.

Being busy, for Nina, isn't about cramming more in. It's about preparing enough to leave room for what she doesn't know yet.