Mr. Armani In Oregon

Back in September my older sister Nicole told me about how people from Italy were going to be coming to our small family farm in Oregon.

I laughed.

I honestly thought she was messing with me.. especially the way the whole thing played out.

My sister works for a modeling company called Savage Models in Portland, Oregon. I had considered being a model post college-basketball but hadn’t pursued it further than meeting Chad and the gang, taking some measurements, and head shots. It was a time where I wasn’t comfortable with my body. College basketball had told me over and over and OVER again that I wasn’t BIG enough and so I felt too small, too skinny. Someone had forgot to tell me that the modeling world WANTS that but it would take me a while to learn that.

It all worked out well though because my sisters agent ACCIDENTALLY called me instead of her and started talking about the project. Being the horribly conniving little sister that I am, I let him talk long enough to realize that it wasn’t for me and that something BIG was happening. I quickly told him he had the wrong “Schrock sister.” He laughed, I laughed, and then Nicole gave me this horrified, “What do you know?” look.

Insert evil grin.

Once she was off the phone I couldn’t help it, “So…. what was that about? Whose the photo shoot with?”

“Giorgio Armani,” she snapped at me.

Then, with a sidelong evil smirk of her own, “Don’t tell anyone or you can’t be in it… and I”ll have to kill you.”

“No offense but … WHY would they pick you?” I scoffed.

“They found me on Instagram,” she briefly replied before heading out of the house.

What? I didn’t believe her for a second, that was PREPOSTEROUS! Why? Because my sister, at the time, had about 238 Instagram followers compared to my 538, why would they pick her? NEITHER of us have that many followers!

It wasn’t for about another month or so that I began to realize that this was true. Our family was kept in hush-hush, we could talk about it, just not mention the name of the project or the Armani name.

Do you know how awkward it is to ask your roping friends if you can do an Italian photo shoot at their house with their cattle and arena?!

We quickly learned that it provided a pretty humorous conversation starter for us!

It was all set up, we had it worked out around Pendleton Round-Up and Northwest Professional Rodeo Association Finals and BEFORE the Columbia River Circuit Finals and Oregon State Women’s basketball season starting up; priorities right?

I was pretty fortunate because, yes, I kept my mouth shut and my sister allowed me to be in the photo shoot with her! Funnier than all of that was that I had to call in two friends to be in the commercial as well. My friend Rachel was with me when Nicole sent me a panicked text trying to find some “extras” for the Oregon State scenes to play students since school hadn’t started yet so Rachel got to come along. Finding another person, a guy more specifically, became MUCH harder! In a panic as friend after friend was out of town, at work, or at a sports game, I finally found someone.

My childhood friend from kindergarten all the way through college.

“Hey.. Jahnsam,” I started with no preamble. “What are you doing RIGHT NOW?”

“Ummm… I just got out of an interview… Hi Katie, how are you?”

“Are you going to your parents house?”

“Yes… what’s going on?”

“Can you stop by campus?” I pleaded.

“Haha uhhhh, sure?”

“Thanks! Text me when you get here and I’ll clue you in!”

 

And just like that Jahnsam got to be an extra in an Armani photo shoot. We spent about three hours filming our scene and we got free coffee out of the whole deal and made a one second cameo in an international commercial. Pretty cool right?

 

Moral of the story? Answer the phone.

This is something that I have to tell myself all of the time after this incident!

It was so much fun having people from THREE different countries out at our country farm in Oregon. It was crazy because they loved the farm life as much as we do and it was awesome getting to share the little joys that farm dogs, horses and cattle can bring into your life. I hope that on the next trip, we get to visit them in their home countries because I am sure I will be just as thrilled and excited as them!