Dee Dee Myers predicts that her career as a model will be short lived.
The former White House press secretary got to spend a day posing for renowned fashion photographer Norman Jean Roy last fall, to appear with four other Washington women in a spring ad campaign for Jones New York. The advertisements debuted in magazines and on bus stop billboards last week.
“It was a little bit weird, I have to say,” she said laughing, “It was great, they made it easy.”
The higher-ups at Jones New York, which had previously tapped Myers to be an “empowerment ambassador,” decided to highlight real Washington women for a regional ad campaign and chose Myers, Georgetown Cupcake owners Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, Nellie Robinson of the Children’s National Medical Center and SRB Communications founder and chief executive officer Sheila Brooks.
“I think Washington, D.C. is incredibly inspirational for women in this country,” explained Jones Group CMO Stacy Lastrina. “I think Washington has a lot of style.”
Myers wasn’t quite as confident. “Fashion is not something I feel I am really strong at,” she said, admitting she’s gotten teased for the pictures that are popping up around the District.
Bill Burton, who recently left his post at the White House, was the first of Myers’ pals to see the spread. “There was an e-mailed iPhone picture of him standing in front of the billboard, so that’s how I knew they were up,” she told Yeas & Nays. “He didn’t just send it to me, he sent it to some other people,” she added. Her daughter even added that it was “freaky” to see her mother plastered to a bus stop.
Despite the taunts, Myers looks chic sitting in the backseat of a towncar with the Washington Monument peeking through its rear window.
“I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people around and the response has been really great,” she said. “It really helps to have a world class photographer, really good lighting and a stylist.”
