Its a classic rags to riches story that's almost too much of a cliché to be true, but last week an Israeli teenager with no previous modeling experience strode down the catwalk at Paris fashion week - as the leading model of fashion house Christian Dior.
According to a report by Israel's Channel 2 on Friday, Sofia Mechetner, 14, described by her Israeli agent as a young Claudia Schiffer, was catapulted from her modest apartment in a depressed high-rise apartment house in the town of Holon, near Tel Aviv, to fashion world stardom by an incredible coincidence.
Used to sleeping on a broken bed, sharing a bedroom with her two younger siblings, sweeping the floor and folding laundry to help out her single, three-job mum, the 5-foot-11 blond-haired, blue-eyed teen thought she might try modeling after being asked one too many times if she'd ever considered it.
She turned to a Tel Aviv modeling agency called Roberto, which saw her potential and sent her images to the exclusive Viva modeling agency in Paris. Initially, Viva expressed interest, but when Mechetner arrived in Paris with her Israeli chaperon last month, the agency decided she was much too young.
With free time on their hands, the two Israelis decided to check out a Dior store in central Paris. Once inside, the Tel Aviv chaperon spotted chief Dior designer Raf Simons near the counter and decided to ask for him a selfie. After posing, she introduced Mechetner to the fashion leader, and the rest, as they say, is history.
