March 12, 1999
Web posted at: 5:16 p.m. EST (2216 GMT)

From Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch

MILAN, Italy (CNN) -- Erin O'Connor is an up-and-coming British model who has been stealing the spotlight at the fall/winter fashion shows in Milan.

Starring in Milan is special for the six-foot model as it is where she got her first big break.

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"It was a show producer called Kevin Krier. I think he couldn't get over how tall I was, and he cast me for the Gucci show, and I really hadn't done anything," she recalls. "I met Tom Ford and that's where my face was first seen and then it slowly built up from there."

The hazel-eyed 21-year-old says Krier chose her because she represents today's strong, confident young woman.

"I think of her in terms of a like modern-day Anjelica Huston... She has such a magnificent character about her face and about her whole shape. And then to work with, she's just a lamb," Krier says.

While she thinks she possesses these qualities, she also considers herself to be quite shy.

The high profile business of modeling quickly taught her to cope with shyness. "It's like being an actress, you know. It's a whole lot easier sometimes to be someone else than to bring out the best qualities of you," she says.

O'Connor has an edgy look that, as one of today's top models, is helping to redefine beauty. She thinks her looks are more approachable.

"I think we've lost the idea of a perfect aesthetic beauty in a way and the whole looks thing is also based on individuality and personality which counts for a lot, and I feel like I've proved it," she says.

O'Connor studied dance for ten years and says that training has helped her performance both on the runway and at the editorial shoots, which she prefers.

New York is her new home, but she tries to return to England once a month. She says she always thinks of her family and friends whenever she has time off.

The young model says she wants to develop and improve who she is, and is considering going back to school for a degree in writing.

O'Connor has a philosophy on modeling and the success she has experienced. "Believe in yourself and believe that you're there for a reason," she says. She advises other potential models, "Don't start too young. You have to develop yourself, before you let other people develop you."

For now she says she's living for the moment, having an incredible time, and "who knows what the future will bring."