Top Model Teresa Moore returns to Tonga [1]
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 - 15:23. Updated on Monday, May 5, 2014 - 09:35.
By Linny Folau
TONGAN-born Teresa Moore, a top international fashion model, based in New York City, returned to Tonga in the New Year after 20 years away.
Teresa has a successful modeling career that sees her on billboards in Times Square and gracing fashion magazine covers, and shooting television and print advertisements for top international fashion brands.
Talking to Matangi Tonga Online in Nuku'alofa on January 4, the tall lithe Teresa who is on a one-week holiday was as stunning as her glossy pictures, and she looked every bit of a top model, but her easy going and humble personality is that of an island girl as she recalled fond memories of her early childhood in Tonga.
Teresa was born at Vaiola Hospital in Nuku'alofa to an Italian mother Lorenza Moore and her late father, an American Ron Moore, who operated a small business called Moore Electronics in Nuku'alofa in the 1980's.
Teresa said she grew up at Halaleva in Tongatapu and she still remembered how she loved dancing in Suliana's Polynesian dancing group and at Gala Day at Tonga Side School, where she was in the same class as Princess Mata'aho.
" I haven't been back home to Tonga in 20 years and it just feels great to be here," she said.
Teresa currently holds contracts with some of the world's top fashion modeling agencies, including Marilyn in New York, Union Models in London, Natalies in Paris and others in Germany and Milan. She has represented product lines for international brands such as L'Oreal, Neutrogena, Ralph Lauren, Marks and Spencers, H&M, Garnier and Triumph International.
She has also appeared in covers of ELLE Magazine, Shape Magazine and NZ's Fashion Quarterly Magazine, and has been featured in magazines like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and British Harper Bazaar. She has also been on the catwalk for the London Fashion Week.
Spotted
Teresa, an only child, stayed in Tonga until she was around nine years old and finished Class Four, before her family migrated to New Zealand where she went to High School at Orewa College in Auckland.
When she was around 14, Teresa was spotted while out shopping in Auckland by Sara Tetro the founder of 62 model agency New Zealand's premier's modeling agency.
She then started doing part time modeling work as a teen and did modeling jobs for Glassons and was in fashion magazines such as Cleo. She also went on school holidays to Australia and did modeling work and was featured in the Australian Harper Bazaar Magazine and Australian Cleo.
Teresa said at 18 a model scout from the United States came to New Zealand and was committed to take her to New York, so she went to New York on a two-month school holiday trial.
"At the time i didn't think it was a possibility to become a model, because modeling was amazing as a part time job and I enjoyed school, but I still went to New York to work on the idea. When I got there and I went from being a kid to becoming a professional and I looked at how people played the game and I tried it out and decided to pursue it," she said.
Teresa started with Women Modeling Agency for six years and only moved to Marilyn late last year.
She recalled that while with Women she was featured on a billboard for Shape Magazine in Times Square in Manhattan for a month.
"It has been a step by step process and I worked hard because I just didn't get everything at once. And as they say in the fashion industry I am as good as my last job, which means that the fashion industry inspires people to change their fashion and fashion trends and that translates into the models too."
She said for example, in last 10 years there was the blonde trend models then the brunettes.
So when asked to describe her look she said in the US she is called "exotic" because of her dark features. "But in Tonga I was just known as palangi because I am white, and one of my friends called me the other day a 'palangi loi' because I was born here," she laughed.
But after seriously considering her look, she said it is that of a classic beauty, which is a natural beauty like that of supermodel Cindy Crawford.
She said as a model it is essential to stay in shape and she does that by eating healthy, eating natural and fresh food only, and food with low carbs, and she also does pilates.
Photo shoots
Teresa's life now is hectic because she is only home in New York for two weeks or a month before she flies off again for work either in Germany, London, Paris, or does photo shoots in exotic places such as the Bahamas. Last year alone she had up to 100 flights.
"Working in the fashion industry you are judged by what you look like, and I have learned to become tough and have grown a very thick skin, and learned to become a good enough version of myself. And I am nice and hardworking!"
Work now for Teresa includes her biggest client Ralph Lauren's Black Label best ready to wear label. "I have also done shoots for Saks and Fifth and Bloomingdales Department Stores and I am on catalogues, online and billboards," she said.
But with a successful career that allows her to travel the world in the glamorous industry of fashion, Teresa said she has always remained connected to Tonga.
"I really missed Tonga because when you are born and grew-up the first nine to 10 years of your life as I did here in Tonga, it forms all the good and bad, and it is great to be back in the beautiful weather, gardens, food with the land so rich, and the Tongan culture has remained as strong as I remembered it," she said.
Teresa who is in Tonga with her American boyfriend, leaves on Saturday back to New York, said she would definitely return and visit Tonga in the future.
"When we arrived here and I saw the coconut trees and the welcome to Tonga sign at Fua'amotu International Airport, I cried because this has been a part of my life that seemed liked a dream when I grew up here, but it's not a dream because I am here," she said.