“This girl really carries the weight of online shopping on her shoulders,” the tweet said, which was created last month by the Instagram account @bravohistorian. The image: a pretty blonde model in a cutout dress, subtly smiling at the camera. If you’ve shopped online during the last decade, you probably laughed because of course you’ve seen that girl. In fact, that’s probably how you know her—as “that girl.” How strange that she’s arguably the most successful e-commerce model working today and yet so few people know her name. It’s Ludi Delfino, by the way.
I ask her whether she’s seen the meme. She has, and some TikToks too, which also playfully underscore her everywhere-ness. “I was dying,” she tells me over Zoom from her home in Los Angeles days after I DM’d her asking whether she’d be willing to talk about the unique niche she’s carved for herself—ubiquitous anonymity—in an industry that’s currently all about leveling up and up and up until you become a household name. I read her some of the comments, including one that said, “This girl shows up as one of my recognized friends in my iPhoto People & Places because I’ve screen-shotted her outfits so much.” Another: “She shows up on my IG and FB feed more than my kids.”
“Those comments made me feel really good,” Delfino says. “I was like, Oh my God, I love these girls. [They’re] the ones that keep me busy.”
When I ask her to explain how, exactly, commenters on a meme keep her busy, Delfino sums it up this way: The more an average shopper recognizes or likes the model showcasing the clothes they want to buy, the more they probably do. “E-commerce, it’s all trackable,” she says. “Obviously they’re checking our numbers—how much we sell, you know.” Actually, I didn’t. But it makes sense: The more a shopper admires or identifies with a model, the more likely they are to purchase items they’re wearing in the hope they look as good on them. So, the more people buy things Delfino wears, the more work she gets.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Delfino has been a model for 17 years, a career that was spurred by her mother, who put her in modeling classes in her native Brazil when she was young. This led to getting an agent and trying her hand at runway modeling during the shows in Europe. She had the good sense to realize early that the runway might have prestige, but—at least before the rise of Insta-models—it also required women to have a very specific look that does not include being conventionally pretty or even particularly proportional. “Not having a super ‘fashion’ look obviously didn’t get me too far when I was younger,” Delfino says. “I was never the fashion-looking girl.”
In a world of Biebers and Jenners and Hadids, it’s hard to imagine hot young things being boxed out of the fashion industry, but when Delfino was coming up, not fitting into the rigid runway and high-end editorial mold often meant turning to the direct-to-consumer print catalogs brands would send shoppers in the mail (kids, ask your parents), which she did every three to four months. But, over time, remote purchasing moved off the physical page and onto the web. “That was life-changing for the career of models like me,” Delfino says.
Today Ludi Delfino is one of the internet’s most visible e-commerce models, working regularly with brands that range from fast fashion (Forever 21, SheIn), subscription services (FashionPass), and contemporary labels like BCBG, Lauren Moshi, and ASTR. “Ludi is so fast,” Lauren Moshi’s cofounder, Michael Moshi, tells me over the phone when I asked him why he thinks Delfino is used consistently by retailers. “She gets the look right away, she’s easy-going, consistent, and she has a sense of style, so if we ask for an opinion like, ‘Would you wear this?’ she always has the right thing to say.”
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
And then there’s Revolve, the multibrand online marketplace that woos a very specific millennial and Generation Z consumer with its mix of trend-driven clothes and accessories, established and emerging designers, unrelenting use of influencer marketing, and price points that are generally higher than fast fashion but—with many prices hovering in the $200 to $300 range—might not be completely prohibitive for the young woman looking to dabble in cutouts or embrace ruffles. Delfino has become the de facto face of the site, though not by design.
According to the model, the partnership started around 12 years ago when she went in for a casting. Revolve, as a destination, wasn’t as pervasive as it is now, but Delfino said it had a strong leader in Michael Mente, the site’s cofounder, and seemed like a cool gig. Ten years later, she’s shooting anywhere between 100 and 150 looks for Revolve on a weekly or monthly basis, and has been given the nickname “the Revolve girl” by in-the-know online shoppers.
“[We] have over 800 brands, with daily new releases, so it’s important for the models we work with to keep pace with a fairly rapid shooting schedule,” says Lauren Yerkes, Revolve’s chief merchandising officer. “Ludi is the utmost professional in this sense. The Revolve girl knows her so well, she’s become an extension of our brand.”
The fact that most people who see her online probably don’t know her name doesn’t particularly bother her, as Delfino is in it for the work. And make no mistake—it’s work. She tells me that she shot consistently and safely all through COVID’s height, often driving an hour each way to jobs, most of which require her standing for eight or nine hours at a clip. But it’s not all anonymity. Delfino admits she does get recognized when she’s out and about. “It’s kind of crazy because my husband and I will go out and he’ll be like, ‘That girl just said, “She’s the Revolve model,”’” she tells me. “It’s funny because he used to joke that I’m the most recognized—not famous—model.”
She doesn’t care that much about the perception that e-commerce modeling isn’t as cool as flitting around the globe for Fashion Week or shooting with top photographers. “Well, I guess I’m not that cool,” she says. “But then again, I’m busy, I’m always working, I’ll take it. It’s hard work, but I’m used to it, and I really don’t mind it.”
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
The lifespan of an e-commerce model is also a plus—she’s been doing it for over a decade, and Delfino says she could see herself sticking with it for another five years at least. She recently became a health coach and signed up to get her personal-training certification. She also became a U.S. citizen last year.
When I ask her why she thinks she’s a top-selling e-commerce model, she goes back to not having that stereotypical high-fashion look, which is a bonus when your job is trying to convince the general public to buy things you’re wearing. Approachable is the word she uses, and cites her “soft face.” “I think it works for e-commerce because you don’t want a girl that’s too fashion or too pretty,” she says. “You want someone who you can relate to.”
Like with any career, Delfino admits she sometimes wouldn’t mind shaking things up a bit. “My hair and makeup, it’s always super simple. I do miss having a little bit more fun shoots here and there,” she says. “But I’m so thankful for e-commerce. Like I said, it definitely I think changed my career and a lot of models’ careers because it keeps us busy. There’s work so often now.”
Perrie Samotin is Glamour’s digital director and host of Glamour’s What I Wore When podcast. Follow her @perriesamotin.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
