Colin Jones on Her Rise on the Runway and Arriving at a ‘Pivotal Moment’ in Fashion
Colin Jones is a great believer in the power of manifestation.
Growing up in Spanish Fork, Utah, she was physically a million miles removed from the world’s fashion capitals, but she was already acting out her dream of becoming a famous model.
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“I was doing picnic table runway shows with my grandma and practicing in my mom’s heels in the kitchen,” she says.
“Just from the minute I was born, I loved being in the spotlight. I’m a Leo,” she adds, by way of explanation.
The path to stardom was not an easy one. Growing up in the predominantly white, Republican and Mormon town with a population of 45,000, the model known online as Col the Doll faced more than her share of prejudice as a trans kid obsessed with fashion.
But her unwavering belief ended up paying off. Just two years after making her debut on the Gabriela Hearst runway, Jones is coming off a banner season that saw her walk for brands including Hermès, Michael Kors, Givenchy and Nina Ricci.
“Oh, my goodness, I could turn red just talking about it. I feel so, so grateful that I’m in this position right now and that all the opportunities have divinely happened,” she exclaims. “It’s just such a full-circle moment for me.”
On the day we speak, the 20-year-old is back where it all began. Fresh off shooting the cover of WWD Weekend, she’s taking a break from her busy schedule to recharge at home. Jones has joined Zoom from the living room of her grandmother’s house, which offers sweeping views of a nearby mountain range.
“These mountains definitely look a lot more majestic than they did when I was trying to leave. I’m appreciating it for what it is. The cow-pat smell, I can get past it,” she jokes.
Jones initially approached a local agency after a psychic predicted she would become a model, and she hasn’t looked back since. Deep in the honeymoon phase of her relationship with the industry, she’s decided to leave any negativity behind.
“I just believe in the universal law of attraction. I think that we get out what we put out there,” she says. “I always try to bring my best energy and just think very, very positively when I enter a room, and I think that you always get that back tenfold.”
That spirit positively radiates on the runway, where Jones has made a mark with her magnetic presence and a killer walk, epitomized by her dramatic strut down the Maison Margiela runway last fall, which had fashion TikTokers anointing her the breakout star of 2023.
She partly credits working with talented movement directors like Pat Boguslawski at Margiela, Simon Donnellon at Nina Ricci and Eric Christison at Mugler. “It’s such a collaborative experience,” she says. Jones gets a kick out of meeting a brief, and then some.
“As a model, I always look at it as chameleonizing myself, plus that little extra sprinkle of divine universal juicy energy,” she enthuses. “A mixture and combination of all those beautiful things create just the most incredible concoction of in-the-moment spontaneity.”
At Mugler’s last show, designer Casey Cadwallader’s collection was showcased against oversized curtains shrouded in shadows and dry ice. With regal composure, Jones struck a series of statuesque poses as the final curtain fell, releasing a billowing cloud of smoke.
“In the moment, when that curtain dropped, I just had to feel it in my heart and my gut. I had one chance to do that,” she recalls.
Cadwallader was confident she would nail it. “When I first saw Colin in the white dress, I knew it could only be for her. She radiated in it, and she was so excited. I knew she would move in the perfect way to close the show,” he said.
As she hits major milestones, the model is soaking it all up, from moving to New York City and signing her contract with Women Management to shooting a Zara campaign with Steven Meisel and scoring the cover of i-D magazine.
“My little fashion heart cannot take it. I don’t know, I’m like the Grinch — like my heart just grew and grew and grew, and at this point, I don’t know when it’s gonna pop,” she says.
“Being someone that really has had the passion for it and the love for fashion, every second is just absolutely blissful,” Jones continues. “Even moments that one would kind of be overwhelmed. Let’s say a heel breaks backstage, I’m just like, ‘This is so fashion. I’m so here for it.’”
Her most meaningful moment so far was earning her Victoria’s Secret Angel wings, as part of the lingerie giant’s World Tour show aired on Prime last year.
“As a trans woman, looking at Victoria’s Secret as that brand that represented that ultimate femininity and that power, it was not only good for my career as a model, but also just as a person. It was so healing for me to get to be in that space,” she says.
She doesn’t know whether she’ll be back when the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returns to the runway next fall after a five-year hiatus during which it reckoned with accusations of workplace toxicity amid the burgeoning #MeToo movement. “You know what, I’ve charged my crystals in the moonlight, all I can do is really put out the positive vibes,” she demurs.
She’s grateful to have arrived at a moment when trans models can be open about who they are. “It is such a beautiful, pivotal time that we’re in right now in fashion,” she says.
“I just feel so honored that I get to finally exist in that space as that identity, but I definitely do see so much room for a huge sense of growth in terms of diversity and inclusivity,” she adds. “It’s quite magical to see someone that you can aspire to be like, and have a role model.”
Growing up, she found strength in seeing models like Ariel Nicholson or Goan Fragoso break boundaries. ”It gave me permission to completely be myself,” she recalls. Jones is thrilled to pick up that baton.
“People will send me videos of them recreating my walk or recreating poses or send me messages,” she says. “To know that I have that impact, especially on the younger generation, genuinely, it just makes me emotional every single time.”
In her spare time, she volunteers at New York City’s GHMC, a nonprofit that helps people living with HIV and AIDS.
“One day I would love to open up my own organizations and houses where people can go and access trans health care that they’re in need of, and it can be a process that isn’t as it is right now,” she says.
Jones says she was lucky to have her mother’s support. “She made so many sacrifices so that I could be more authentic, and so that I could blossom into what felt right for me,” she says. “I am so grateful that she’s just a stellar example of unconditional love.”
It was her grandmother who came up with her now-famous moniker. Jones had just moved to New York and was looking to ramp up her online presence with a catchy Instagram handle.
“I had just moved to my first apartment, my dollhouse, and I was talking on the phone with my grandma about it. And I remember she concluded the conversation by saying, ‘Oh, you’re just my little Col the Doll in your dollhouse now,’” she says.
“And immediately I was just like, ‘I gotta call you back,’ hung up the phone, changed my Instagram handle and that is how Col the Doll got birthed,” she adds with a laugh.
Doll by name, doll by nature: Jones cites Barbie as her style hero.
“Barbie has a million different careers. One day that girl is going to be a stewardess on an airline, the next day, she’s going to be a businesswoman with her little glasses, and I kind of feel the same,” she explains.
“The way I look at fashion, I think about what gender energy am I trying to convey today? You know, today was a little feminine Rodarte moment but tomorrow, who knows, I may be in some boxer briefs and a baseball cap, serving Adam Sandler,” she adds.
Her shoot with Agata Serge for WWD Weekend was another opportunity to flex her versatility.
“She was just like a girl’s girl. It felt so in-the-moment and fun,” she reports. “She would bring me over to the camera and we would talk about poses we liked, and it was just such a collaborative experience, which is the shoots that I end up loving most.”
While Jones is fully committed to modeling right now, she doesn’t rule out broadening her scope one day.
“To me, modeling is just a different version of performance art,” she says. “I’m open to everything and this is just the beginning for me, for sure.”
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