Teresa Lourenco

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Jar Jar's wife is a real model

Get more: Gossip, Misc.

Thanks to the kick-ass commentors at the freedarko blog for pointing out the full name of Richard Jefferson's wife/girlfriend: Teresa Lourenco. We've gotten email asking if we know who she is, and up until now our response has been something like "please leave us alone. Who asked you to email us?"

No more, however! Teresa Lourenco is her name, and she actually does more than pose for pictures with her husband. She poses for pictures without him, too. Like, with real photographers and everything. Not ones like our buddy Ryan, who tells young girls just off the bus he can get them their big break if they'll only "come to the studio and help me check my new light meter with a few bikini shots."

"The studio". That's our favorite part.

Back to Teresa. Check out more of her here and afterward, enjoy these anonymous allegations from this summer that she and RJ aren't together anymore.

I don't know what happened to her modeling-wise, but I know that Richard Jefferson isn't her boyfriend any more. They stopped dating about a year ago. The photo in SI is over a year old, from when they were dating. I heard she has a new boyfriend, but I don't know who it is. She dated an Indian NY hotel developer (multimillionaire) after she dated Richard, but I heard they broke up too.

--

i know who her new boyfriend is. it happens to be my husband. how nice isn't it?

Interesting, bitter, and unconfirmed - our three favorite things.

By the way, the fabled "NBA Wives" thread over in the Alley has taken to calling Richard Jefferson Jar-Jar Binks. We weren't sure at first, but...well, decide for yourself. We're going with it because we're so hilarious and good looking.

Posted by The Cavalier on September 30, 2005 08:23 AM | Permalink

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She was 14 and having been brought by her parents from the warm cocoon of life in the West Indies to the cool glistening beauty of Hamburg, Germany, it was only a matter of time before she was stopped and that life-changing question was posed.

"Are you a model?"

Two months after, the then designer for Givenchy, John Galliano saw her German comp card and lost his mind. She was flown to Paris, and swept into the fabulous vortex of Couture Culture. In other words, Teresa entered the business not from the ground up, but from the very tip of the fashion pyramid.

Four years later with Dior, Genny, and Gaultier campaigns under her belt, having walked down runways in London, Paris, Milan and New York for everyone from Gucci, Valentino and Gaultier to Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Anna Sui. Teresa is now sitting here oblivious to the rarity of such an instant career, sifting through a plate of steamed vegetable dumplings while her beloved 112 thumps in the background.

It is easy to see why she works. She is what could be best described as an all-purpose beauty. She's Indian and she's European. She's frequently mistaken for being Brazilian, listed by cutting edge publication Trace as one of their ruling black girls and yet beloved by very traditional designers such as Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. At a time when ideals of beauty are shifting and being reframed to include everybody from Jade Parfait to Alek Wek, Teresa is racially complex in a way that makes her a part of this new edge but so classically beautiful, she would have worked 10 or even 20 years ago.

"I bet you never even aspired to being a model, " I ask and she gulps quickly before smiling to answer, "Not really. I mean other people always thought that from, like when I was twelve, thirteen but I never really had time to consider it. It happened and I went with the flow."

"You took to it like a duck to water though. I remember the first time I saw you. It was backstage at the Anna Sui. Remember that really Viking collection and you were chilling with Charlotte Connelly and I remember thinking, "How come the most beautiful girl in the room isn't doing the actual show." And I thought you were so cool to be chilling backstage at a show you weren't actually in cause most girls would have been too egotistic to do that." "Really," surmised Teresa. "God. Who makes up all these stupid rules."

A photographer I know (who has a lot of that "whatever" attitude that is the hallmark of a new fashion generation) named Jayson Keeling has this great saying which I love to co-opt. He likes to say. "People don't understand but Fashion is a Thing. " He's so right. It's a very insecure thing, a very bitchy and judgmental thing but still, it's a thing. It's a code of conduct with a lot of rules and a select committee agrees upon those rules.

As the 90's die however, a new pack of fashion kids are forging a new aesthetic. It requires spitting out gorgeous images and then having the security to leave them lying there without soliciting anybody's approval. In other words the New Cool is about projecting beauty without bitter, insecure attitude and the cool yet sultry, detached but ambitious, innocent but assured model named Teresa is its poster girl.

"Teresa?" French fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier is babbling after his magnificent couture show in his tricky Franglaise "I love this girl because she is what the modern society is about. She's multiple you know. She looks Latin but she isn't. She's a very sexy girl but so dignified. I think she's got an amazing career ahead of her especially when people learn not to use her to be so classical. She is like the next Christy Turlington. Y'know, somebody with lasting calibre".

Early success with its constant praise can affect a young model in one of two ways: it can create a brat, because the girl before she is even adult is sucked into an adult world where clothes, car and drivers, parties and instant friends exist at her disposal. Or it can create a girl who just assumes her role in a world of five figure checks, Concorde flights and endless adoration with a kind of quiet grace. Teresa, in a photograph or on the runway speaks of that.

A few weeks after the shoot when I glimpse her gliding back and forth at the Calvin Klein, head high, back straight, hair lilting to the rhythm of her drifting dress I realize that she is the testament to the truth that the best models are born not made.

http://models.com/model_culture/tales_model/teresa/pg.3.html

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another interview I got of the web

Once in New York I keep in touch with Teresa. We usually arrange to meet backstage before the different shows she's doing. I shoot pictures of her as she is being made up and watch as other media interview her. She acts graciously and forthcoming with all.

At the end of the week, after the Randolph Duke show, we make a balance of the last few days as we walk on the street on her way to a fitting.

What kind of week would you say you have had until now?

A busy one. You know how hectic it all is during show season. Tomorrow is the last day. It would have been today if the hurricane had not come (Note: she refers to the unwelcome storm that hit New York and soaked part of the 7th On Sixth tents affecting fashion week), but some shows were cancelled yesterday due to it.

Of the shows you

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Agencies: Next Model Mgmt NYC, Next Model Mgmt London, Fashion Model Mgmt Milan, Next Model Mgmt Paris

Other agencies: View Mgmt Barcelona/Madrid, Dominique Models Brussels, Mega Models Hamburg/Berlin, Next Model Mgmt Los Angeles, Chic Mgmt Sydney, Next Company Model Mgmt Vienna

Comes from: San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago

Born in: 1981

Height: 5'10

Measurements: 34-23-34

Shoe: 8.5

Hair color: brown

Eye color: brown

Spring/Summer 2000:

Alberta Ferretti, Anna Sui, Bill Blass, Calvin Klein, Carolina Herrera, Chanel, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Givenchy, Herve Leger, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Loewe, NYC 2000, Narciso Rodriguez, Nina Ricci, Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti, Randolph Duke, Richard Tyler, Sonia Rykiel, Valentino, Yohji Yamamoto.

Fall/Winter 2000:

Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Carolina Herrera, Chaiken, Chanel, Cynthia Rowley, Daryl K, Jean Paul Gaultier, Loewe, Ralph Lauren, Rebecca Danenberg, Richard Tyler, Romeo Gigli, Sonia Rykiel, Tommy Jeans, Valentino.

Spring/Summer 2001:

Alberta Ferretti, b michael, Chaiken, Cynthia Rowley, Dirk Dikkembergs, Dolce & Gabbana, Douglas Hannant, Enrico Coveri, Gianfranco Ferre, Halston, Iceberg, Jerome Dreyfuss, Loewe, Massimo Rebecchi, Michael Kors, Moschino, Missoni, Oscar de la Renta, Portugal Fashion International, Ralph Lauren, Randolph Duke, Rifat Ozbek, Roberto Cavalli, Rochas, Romeo Gigli, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sonia Rykiel, Valentino, Victor Alfaro, Vivienne Tam.

Spring/Summer 2002 Haute Couture:

Carven, Christian Dior, Emanuel Ungaro, Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent.

Fall/Winter 2002:

Baby Phat, Bill Blass, Bruuns Bazaar, Carmen Marc Valvo, Chanpaul, Christian Dior, Diane von Furstenberg, Dirk Bikkembergs, Emilio Cavallini, Gen Art, Gianfranco Ferre, Guy Laroche, Heatherette, Hermes, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Luca Luca, Marcel Marongiu, Peter Som, Pierrot, Rochas, Rocco Barocco, Trussardi, Vivienne Tam, Zac Posen.

May 2004: Women Mgmt NYC --> Next Model Mgmt NYC

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Within the multi-racial roster of models in the fashion business today, there is one who is quietly but surely leaving her mark, olive/cinnamon-skinned Teresa Louren

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got it more the same website as before

Things are quite laid-back at the Cibeles shows, definitely much more so than in NY and elsewhere. We take advantage of a moment backstage when

Teresa

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something in spanish that I can not read

Roberto Verino viaja a la Siberia nevada

El dise

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[Nemeside]

she is nice model

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She is one of my top 5

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Great new pics on the way!

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All new pics came from www.elle.com

[Ann Mary]

she is great! thx

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Sure! Anytime. When I saw them I was like"OH MY GOD" and then I new I had to post! Its great that she is still modeling.