Sixteen year-old Dillon Duchesne peeked beyond the dressing-room curtain onto the scene of her first NYC fashion event and bore witness to everything she heard about the shows in the Capital of Fashion:  The beautiful people; the flowing exotic cocktails; the stunning couture for next season by such luminaries as Marlon Gobel, Zang Toi, and the legendary Jean-Paul Gaultier about to be paraded for the gathering crowd in support of a major charity.

Setting aside the din, the Westlake, Texas native prepped backstage for her first-ever walk before a demanding New York fashion crowd. Yes, the 2011 edition of Fashion Forward for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis was everything she hoped.  Now it was time for the Upper East Side’s newest resident to step forward and claim a very early inheritance that most children aren’t destined to receive from their parents:  The spotlight.

Accompanying the just-signed DNA Models at her catwalk debut was her father, Steve Duchesne.  A retired hockey star, the elder Duchesne capped off 17 years in that spotlight by winning a championship with the 2002 Detroit Red Wings.  Steve later traded in his hockey fame to become stage dad to the rising teen model.  With her “proud, very humbled” papa eagerly awaiting his little girl’s entrance from the photographer’s well, iPhone camera at the ready, Dillon’s stunning  5'10" frame entered the scene, swathed in futuristic fashions by the same Sally LaPointe who shot to fashion fame dressing Lady Gaga for her performances.

As the very latest of the world’s best-and-brightest who move to New York in pursuit of their aspirations, young Dillon channeled her powerful Christian faith and modest modeling beginnings just two years prior to pull herself through what her father called a “nerve-wracking” experience.  Yet the prodigal daughter took to the runway like a pro, gliding the floor with the same confidence and intensity that propelled her father across the ice.  Of equal importance, Dillon was walking in yet another important pair of footsteps.  Her mother Tracee was signed to Elite at sixteen and modeled worldwide as well.  Tracee has since gone on to become one of the top interior designers in the Dallas area.

While Dillon had wanted to model since childhood, her experienced mom had deemed 14 an appropriate age to get started.  She’s come a long way from modeling contests and Neiman-Marcus ads to an auspicious debut walking in one of NYC’s largest annual fashion events. Dillon Duchesne’s new life as a Manhattanite consists of go-sees and bookings, independent home study, and acquiring such big city survival skills as “flagging down some cabs and learning the subway, of which I’m really proud....”  The folks are so proud that the entire Duchesne family is pulling up stakes and moving to the Big Apple very shortly to pursue business opportunities and see Dillion through the fashion jungle of New York City.

As is tradition, each member of a Stanley Cup-winning team takes it home with them for a day.  While little Dillon was eating Cap’n Crunch out of the bowl atop the trophy and looking forward to modeling like mommy, she “never envisioned” taking her place in the spotlight as her parents before her in front of 1500 members of New York’s elite.  It is a spotlight where her parents have thrived and for which they have prepared their daughter well.

As the event’s Casting Director Melissa Batsel told Dillon and Steve Duchesne backstage after the show, “This is only the beginning.”



Dillon Duchesne takes her first New York walk in a Sally LaPointe design at GMHC Fashion Forward 2011.



Steve and Dillon Duchesne review the rookie model's performance backstage with GMHC Fashion Forward 2011 casting director Melissa Batsel.

Photos by Andrew Richter/imagesAR.

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