Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron and Andrew Laporte.
Aaron and Andrew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Drew: My mom actually saw a photo of a model named Mekhi (Lucky) in a magazine with a blue eye and brown eye and she contacted his manager. You might’ve seen him before. His manager, Demanti St.Claire, showed interest in signing us but we slept on the opportunity. This got us thinking about our potential and we thought, “damn we can maybe actually model.” Just the fact that this manager, who had models walking some of the biggest shows in the world, showed interest in us inspired us to just go to NY and try and see where modeling could take us. We decided to take a trip to NY to visit different agencies. A lot of agencies turned us down because you’re not supposed to just walk into agencies like that. We got to our agency, Major Model Management, and the Vice President of the agency opened the door and told us they were closed. She did a double take and realized we were twins and invited us inside. And that’s how we got signed and started modeling professionally.
Aaron: We were blessed to be offered a contract just like that. I always find it funny because in the beginning, I had absolutely no interest in modeling. Drew basically had to beg me for me to do my first photoshoot but after seeing the pictures after our first shoot, I decided that modeling could be something I could get down with.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Aaron: It definitely was not in the beginning. Uprooting myself from the place I’ve lived the past 14 years of my life was not the easiest thing to do but my brother and I had a dream we wanted to pursue. Plus we’re young now so this is the perfect time to do it. Something that helped me not overthink before the big move to New York was reminding myself of a video by Will Smith where he basically states that fear is the simply the anxiety of what is to come. I had to shift my mentality to not live in the worries of the future but to have faith in God, our talents and work ethic to bring us where we needed to be.
Drew: I had people who were making fun of me for chasing this dream. I had more people telling me to not do it than I had people telling us to do it. My dad didn’t support it at all. I had people in my circle at the time telling me to stay in little Valdosta, GA and get my degree. I was also in the process of signing a lease with three other people, and I had to drop out. I remember someone mocked me and told me,” Go ahead to NY and be Tyra Banks.” The months leading up to me moving I felt more and more stressed and depressed thinking about what people would say if I failed, how they would speak ill of me and make fun of me for thinking I could accomplish something that so many people aspire to do. I really just had to say, “fuck it.” I knew I’d rather try and fail than to not try and always think about what could have been.
The Laporte Twins – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Drew: We are the Laporte Twins. We are models who are signed to Major Model Management in NYC. We are considered self-employed. We do commercial and high fashion modeling. We are also DJs as well. We always stand apart from others because we are twins. It always attracts people and people tend to think it’s just about the coolest thing ever!
Aaron: Our sense of style also makes us stand out as well. I also make beats. I’ve been making beats for about four years now and I love it. I’m also teaching myself piano to implement with the music production.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Drew: Our proudest moment would have to be walking the Pyer Moss show last fall. I had admired the designer, Kerbito Jean-Raymond, for an extremely long time. I had dm’ed him years prior to walking his show just because I admired him so much as a designer and that’s what I want to to do in the long run. Fast forward to last fall, Quavo, Kehlani, A$AP Ferg, and many more were front row of the show we walked. Lil Keed, Doja Cat, Brent Faiyaz and more celebrities walked the show with us. To this day is still feels surreal. After the show Mekhi, the model who my mom first saw in the magazine, walked up to us and told us we did a great job walking the show. It was such a crazy moment, and we actually told him that he was part of the reason we were modeling today. We told him the story of our mom seeing him in the magazine. That day still feels so surreal to us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.majormodel.com/portfolio/ny/development/men/1420811/aaron-laporte https://www.majormodel.com/portfolio/ny/development/men/1420810/andrew-laporte
- Email: laportetwinsmgmt@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/air_un/?hl=en , https://www.instagram.com/planetdrxw/?hl=en
Image Credit:
Virginia Kluiters in Huf Magazine, Petros Koy in Vanity Teen Magazine
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