Pat Kraal on the cover of Hot Nouveau July/August 1989. Image courtesy of Pat Kraal.
Pat Kraal walking the runway for Jean-Louis Scherrer. Image courtesy of Pat Kraal.
Transcript
“Hi, I'm Pat Kraal, top model in the 1980s. Top Model because I did go abroad to work and I did do a lot of shows in Paris. Well, actually, because of my height, I'm 178, it really wasn't easy growing up in Singapore being my height. As a teenager, I was already, I think, at 14, I was already my height. I remember going after school, you know, the big school holiday in December, and then going back to school in January, and I was like, from primary to secondary, I was like, 'What happened to everyone? Why is everyone so short?' So I kind of shot up in the two months. And 178, so I mean, you know, with my height and all I think, my height and my build, I was thinking, why not try modelling because some of my friends were already models. So they also like, you know, pushed me and said, Why don't you become a model, so, okay I'll just try. It was either that or kindergarten teacher. I always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher because I love kids. So I could have been a kindergarten teacher instead, I think.
I remember my dad, when I told my dad, I want to be... because my friend asked me to join the agencies. 'Oh no! You're not going to be a model! No, no way.’ I said, 'Okay.' In the end, he's the one who gave in and he's the one who found I think he had, maybe, because he was a journalist, David Kraal, maybe you know him? In the end, he's the one who said, 'Okay, I found you an agency, you join this agency.’ So that's why I joined Mannequin. And when I started making a name for myself, he's like, 'Wow! So proud!' Then he's like, 'Oh this is my daughter!' You know, typical parents. Directly after school, I didn't even complete my A levels because I was like…
See I actually joined Mannequin, but I didn't have any jobs because I think they thought I was too tall. And then a friend of mine asked me to join Carrie's, my secondary classmate. And she was my height. So she said, 'Pat, why don't you join? You'll be working all the time.' So I joined and the next day, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, jobs every day, every day every day. So there was no looking back. In this time, I don't think that many people actually wanted to be a model, like now every Tom, Dick, and Harry or every girl wants to be a model. They think it's such an easy– I mean, it was hard work, but it was fun doing it. We had fun doing it. It wasn't considered work. It was more just getting paid to do something I really love. And I think at that time, really not many people wanted to be a model.
In the agencies, you had to sit for the classes before you could work, actually. So it was a small classroom with a big catwalk in the middle, big podium. And not big I mean it was probably 25 metre square ballroom with chairs all around. And then there was a podium in the middle with a T, a T-shaped podium. So we would go on the podium with our heels and actually the teacher, which was always an ex-model or model at the time would teach us. We all had to pay attention, look, and then one by one they would make us walk and correct us.
They teach you deportment, how to walk on a catwalk, how to, like social etiquette, how to behave, how to eat properly, how to hold yourself, how to, like, how to pose, because when you walk you had to do the half-turn, full- turn, quarter-turn, how to open a jacket, how to where to place your hands, how to use your… how to put your hands in the pocket, how to pose for pictures. You do learn a lot.
First fashion show I think it was Mandarin Hotel ballroom. I was very new and I think I had never even done a fashion show before. Graduated from the modelling courses at Mannequin and at Carrie's. No, no, no, I did fashion shows but never a big fashion show. And of course there were fittings and rehearsals and all that. First fashion show, very scary, all the policemen around because of the jewellery.
So I did go to Paris to try my luck because another friend of mine, Hanis, you know, Hanis? She was working in Paris, and we were best friends at the time. So she said, 'Yeah, you have to come, you have to come. The work is so good and you're paid so much more.' So I did try. I did try for like one season. But I was in my early 20s, 21 or something, but I hated it because it was snowing the first time I arrived, it was winter, and I missed home and the food and I didn't speak French at all. I was like, 'Okay, I'll do one season just to prove to everyone that okay, you said I can work there. And I worked there and I'm just coming home. I'm gonna stay in Singapore now.' They said, 'Oh, no!' When I came back, they're like, 'Oh, you work so well. You're so silly. Why don't you go back?' I said, 'No, I hated it, it was so snowy, it was so lonely, and it was so horrible.' In the end I went back and I'm still here after 30-something years.
Actually, when I first went to Paris, I went to Givenchy, just to say hello, because I didn't have an agency, didn't have any... only knew my friend. And she had a fitting at Givenchy, so she's like, 'Pat! Pat! Come with me.' I said, 'Sure.' So I went there. I said, 'Hi, Mr. G.' We used to call them Mr. G. And he's like, 'Oh, who's this girl? He said, 'I want her to work, sir.' He said, 'Can you start straight away?’ I was like, 'Sure!' You know, everyone goes to Paris to find an agency first and then they will send you for castings. I did it the other way around. I went to a designer, got hired, and then had to find an agency.
So after Givenchy, I went for casting at Jean-Louis Scherrer, and I was working for, I don't know, Chanel, Pierre Balmain, Cardin, who else? I can't remember. Then I went one day for casting at Jean-Louis Scherrer, and then they said, 'Oh, would you like to be our house model?' Because I was a house model for Givenchy, and a house model is a model that does all the pre-fittings, the fittings for the show, so they make the clothes on you. And I was like, 'Sure.' And there was no house model at that time. So they said, 'Yeah, you're the perfect fit. Would you like to?' And I was like, 'Sure, let me see a contract first.' You know? So I remember sitting, like, overnight with the guy who was in charge of the models, because he was all in French, so he was trying to explain the whole contract to me, and I said, 'No, no, I want this, this, this,' and then they gave me what I wanted. So I worked actually exclusively because being a house model, I had no time to do any other shows or any other fittings. But I was happy. I was really happy there. I was even paid... because I managed to get paid for one year when I was actually working for six months.”
Pat Kraal on the cover of Female magazine, 1990. Image courtesy of Pat Kraal.
Pat Kraal on the cover of Cherie magazine, 1988. Image courtesy of Pat Kraal.
