We love the women we work with, and Mara Schiavetti Imodelling Nancybird is a perfect example having pivoted to modelling later in her career and became one of the first to champion mature-age modelling in Australia.

Read on as Mara shares inspiring insights on life, filled with creativity, the importance of reinvention, dressing to feel good and a passion for living well.

I stumbled into modelling; it wasn’t anywhere on my radar. It happened while moving back to Melbourne just before the COVID pandemic and after living in NYC
for almost thirty years. Some of the back story is that I had stopped off in Los Angeles to prepare my dog for the last stretch of the journey, and knowing that I would be stuck there for six months, I decided to take acting classes in a studio around the corner to where I was staying. I tried acting when I was younger but was too shy and introverted, and it just didn’t work out.

Attempting again after a lifetime of experience was a different story altogether. Thankfully. When I arrived in Melbourne, having caught the acting bug, I organised headshots from a local photographer who suggested I try modelling. So, I thought, why not? When I joined People Agency, I was their first older model. The industry was beginning to open up to feature mature-age models in Australian campaigns and advertising, following on the heels of Europe and the US. I got lucky and started work straight away.  

I need to feel comfortably chic at all times, even at home, with no one to see me ;D I inherited my devotion to style from my Italian aunts and my parents. I know that it’s a positive thing that mirrors my mental health.

I love playing with colours and fabrics that feel good on my skin. Feeling good about my appearance puts a positive start to the day. I guess my default style is urban chic. I love to keep up with fashion trends, keeping that in mind when putting together outfits. I like to play and try new combinations of old favourites with items hiding at the back of the wardrobe. It gets exciting to uncover a new outfit combo.

I have lived a life of creative expression, from my work as a hair and makeup artist to creating a magazine, and now with acting and modelling. It feeds my heart and soul. I've had a lifelong passion for photography and recently took
up writing. I’m a constant explorer of creative expression; for instance, I took up knitting two years ago and found it therapeutic. It was another way to express mood and artistic design, and it showed me that I am more than capable of accomplishing anything by taking one step at a time. I finished ten jumpers,
which added more colour and elegance to my wardrobe. Creativity has no boundaries and comes from an unconscious place, for me at least, that can reveal the most unexpected facets of our personality and hidden talents, that’s what I love most about it. It also shows how brave we can be by attempting something daunting. I never know where it will lead, and that’s exciting. I don’t plan, leading with my heart, is how my life becomes incredibly fulfilling.

Ah well, if you’re talking about a spiritual process, there are always so many things to let go of hahaha. It’s never-ending, whether it’s habits, attitudes, traumas, toxic friendships or failures: They like to linger in your heart and mind like parasites and stop you from expanding and growing. Identifying what you need to let go of in a phase of your life is hard, but I manage to get there eventually, and it’s always a victorious feeling because I have shed what
doesn’t serve me, and I feel renewed.

If you’re talking about relaxation, swimming gives me that feeling of total weightless bliss. Walking, another great moving meditation. Contemporary and spontaneous dancing, which I do at home when a great song comes on, is a euphoric way of letting go.

I’ll have a busier schedule with work and projects, so keeping healthy, mind and body is important for thriving and concurring what lies ahead. And there’s beach and more beach ;D I’m looking forward to heading to the coast, spending hours in the ocean, and reading great books under my umbrella. I also think surf lessons are in the cards.