Van Rooy

Willy Van Rooy. Dutch fashion model and fashion designer. He did not wait to leave the runway or for this or that photographer to stop asking him to pose. He decided to begin a career as a creator of fashion right away. He took a diploma in 1966 at the Academy of Fine Arts of Totterdam, and pursued both professions at the same time or in alternation. He began to do runway presentations in Japan and then wound up being photographed by Newton and Bailey and on the runway of Saint-Laurent. In the meanwhile, in New York, he designed leather outfits for Jimi Hendrix and invented a sort of monk’s habit that impressed Diane Vreeland. In 1982, he abandoned the modeling profession and moved to Spain where, with some success, he designed shoes. Since 1994 he has lived and worked in Los Angeles.