Trading the warmth of her Manila community for the unpredictability of New York, Siobhan Moylan accepts the chaos as a necessary muse.

PHOTOGRAPHY Lawrence De Leon
CREATIVE DIRECTION Loris&nbsp;Pe&ntilde;a
STYLING Ria Pio Roda
Siobhan Moylan stood before the New York Public Library as the crew readied the shot. Beyond the marble columns, tourists and commuters shuffled along Fifth Avenue, cocooned in wool. A sudden chill had descended upon Manhattan that week. Sharp wind cut straight through, testing the layers of Michael Rider&rsquo;s Celine.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to look back and laugh at this,&rdquo; she joked to the crew. Between takes, her body shivered, but the moment the lens focused, she went still.
It is a learned stillness, honed years earlier in Manila at her very first commercial casting. Back then, the Filipino-Irish model wasn&rsquo;t dressed in designer but in her high school uniform, terrified that someone she knew would see her. To 16-year-old Siobhan, modeling was not yet a career, but a secret life slotted between classes and hidden from her friends and family. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it was cool back then,&rdquo; she laughingly admits.
Siobhan booked that first job, and her momentum never quite halted. What initially was supposed to be a side gig snowballed into a full-fledged profession. She became a familiar face in local fashion campaigns and editorials featured in publications. Eventually, that teenage girl was replaced by someone who saw the modeling industry for what it is: a demanding, creative pursuit.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see [modeling] as superficial,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I see it as creating an image. It&rsquo;s almost like making art.&rdquo;
For Siobhan, the model is an active participant, working in tandem with stylists and photographers to build a shot. It was a perspective she honed within Manila&rsquo;s tight-knit creative community&mdash;a circle of friends and collaborators that she was hesitant to leave. But that very understanding of the craft eventually led her to consider what else was possible. Two years ago, the model left her home for New York.

Her current agent, who scouted her on Instagram when she was still in college, had long encouraged her to meet with agencies in the city. &ldquo;At the time, New York seemed so big and scary. So, I kind of put it in my back pocket for a while,&rdquo; she shares.
It ultimately took the pandemic to force her hand. &ldquo;I just felt trapped at that point. The fashion industry had halted, and there wasn&rsquo;t a lot of money going around,&rdquo; she admits. &ldquo;I messaged that agent again, and I was like, I think I&rsquo;m ready to come to New York.&rdquo;
After considering a few agencies, Siobhan signed with Ford Models, which once counted Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington as part of its roster. While awaiting her visa, she treated Asia as her training ground. She rotated through Thailand, Korea, and Singapore, navigating castings in foreign languages and enduring the unglamorous reality of shared model apartments.
&ldquo;I gained a lot of experience that really prepared me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Because New York is like a market that&rsquo;s unlike any other, to be honest.&rdquo;

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The reality of that market hit the moment her visa was approved. Her agent welcomed her with a deadpan joke: &ldquo;Congratulations, you&rsquo;re the shortest model in New York.&rdquo;
In Manila, her 5&rsquo;6&rdquo; frame let her blend in. In Manhattan, where the industry standard is at a strict 5&rsquo;9&rdquo;, she is an anomaly. She recalls walking into castings and finding herself next to Barbara Palvin and Alex Consani. &ldquo;I saw Alex at an event a couple of days ago, and I&rsquo;m up to her belly button,&rdquo; she laughs. &ldquo;It can be intimidating because I don&rsquo;t feel like I necessarily fit typical model standards. But somehow, I&rsquo;m making it work.&rdquo;
Making it work in New York, where modeling is woven into the city&rsquo;s fabric, demands thick skin. Unlike the supportive circles she found in the Philippines, Manhattan can be a volume game where rejection is constant. Siobhan has learned to navigate rooms where major designers&mdash;like Michael Rider, whom she encountered at a Celine casting&mdash;sit silently observing.
Yet, her height might actually be her biggest ally in those high-pressure lineups. Because in a room where everyone is 5&rsquo;11&rdquo;, she forces a double-take.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to not get attached, just surrender to the fact that I&rsquo;m just happy to be here,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re competing against the best models in the world. You may go to a casting and want to book that show or that brand so badly, and sometimes it doesn&rsquo;t happen. For most models, it doesn&rsquo;t happen. It&rsquo;s just part of the job.&rdquo;

"I&rsquo;VE LEARNED TO NOT GET ATTACHED, JUST SURRENDER TO THE FACT THAT I&rsquo;M JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE."

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In an industry where each day can look vastly different, she&rsquo;s leaned into the uncertainty. A recent beauty shoot she booked in Paris, for example, only required her to be in the city for 24 hours, although she ultimately stayed the weekend. &ldquo;[Your agency can] message you at 7 p.m. and they&rsquo;re like, you have this huge casting or you have this job tomorrow. It&rsquo;s so different week to week,&rdquo; Siobhan shares. And while moving has given her a clearer view of her career, it has also taught her to embrace the fact that it won&rsquo;t always be in her control.
&ldquo;You have no idea what&rsquo;s going on,&rdquo; she says with a tiny smile. &ldquo;And there&rsquo;s something beautiful about that.&rdquo;
Siobhan reclaims a sense of agency by playing with clay. What started in the pandemic as a series of &ldquo;alien sculptures&rdquo;&mdash;biomorphic, strange forms documented only on a secret Instagram account&mdash;has evolved into a whispering, creative outlet. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really let it be known,&rdquo; she admits of a &ldquo;finsta&rdquo; account where she tracks her progress. After completing a 12-week wheel throwing course this year, she has also begun creating handthrown pieces. &ldquo;But who knows,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll make it more full-time and known to the world.&rdquo;

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For now, she shares that world with her husband, Christian Tantoco, in their Williamsburg apartment. Even their downtime is touched by a love for fashion and design. &ldquo;Christian and I love to shop. It&rsquo;s like a problem,&rdquo; she admits with an embarrassed chuckle. Given Christian&rsquo;s family background in retail, their shared hobby often turns into &ldquo;retail tours&rdquo; of the city. They scour Brooklyn&rsquo;s thrift stores not just to buy, but to study the market.
The couple remains deeply connected to their heritage while building a life in Manhattan. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Filipino and I feel very Filipino,&rdquo; she shares. When they tied the knot in the Philippines this April, the theme was Filipiniana. Siobhan&rsquo;s bridal wardrobe was dedicated entirely to local design. Carl Jan Cruz custom-made a gown for the ceremony, and Isabel Sicat of TOQA designed her after-party dress.
&ldquo;We missed home, honestly,&rdquo; she admits. &ldquo;I had built a community there. I&rsquo;d been working there for so long, and [CJ and Isabel] were friends. It just seemed natural to just go that route.&rdquo; Her wedding became a moment of celebration for the community that raised her, before the inevitable return to Brooklyn.
&ldquo;Even if I were to move back to the Philippines, I&rsquo;m always going to have one foot in New York or Paris, where I can work,&rdquo; Siobhan says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any plans of quitting modeling anytime soon. That&rsquo;s also what New York gave me.&rdquo;
In an industry obsessed with youth, she has found a different truth in the city. &ldquo;Everyone thinks there&rsquo;s an expiration date for modeling. You start at 16 and then you end at 24, but it&rsquo;s not true. Some of the most successful models in New York are in their 30s.&rdquo;
The timeline has shifted. And so has Siobhan. She&rsquo;s not the guarded 16-year-old in a school uniform anymore. In her place is a woman standing against the cold Manhattan wind, no longer so afraid of being seen.

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PRODUCERS Ria Pio Roda and Loris Pena
MAKEUP Mika Shimoda (using Celine Beaut&eacute;)
HAIR Jos&eacute; Chavarria (using Oribe)
STYLIST&rsquo;S ASSISTANT Lorenzo Quevada
PHOTO ASSISTANTS Chester Viloria &amp; Ariel Wu
CINEMATOGRAPHER Max Arellano
ASSISTANT CAMERA Chris Scarborough 
SHOT ON LOCATION AT Centra Studios and New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Industry Standards: Siobhan Moylan

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