Maren Ashby

Maren grew up in Traverse City, Michigan, where her dad ran a small sailing school on Grand Traverse Bay and she spent every summer teaching kids to tie knots and swim to the buoy line. She studied textile design at a state university, started modelling after a local swimwear brand asked her to stand in for a fit session, and now shoots swim and knitwear campaigns out of Chicago. She swims a slow mile in the lake or the hotel pool before every shoot because it is the only thing that calms her nerves, keeps a sewing kit in her bag for fixing straps on set, and still sends her dad a photo of every beach she works on. Fittings are her favourite part of the job: she likes telling designers exactly where a seam pinches.