Kicked out of the orphanage and onto the runway: Meet New York Fashion Week’s most extraordinary catwalk star
When Mendez was 13, her mother left her at Orfanato Niños de Cristo orphanage in the town of La Romana, after deciding she could no longer take care of all her children.
Since she was abandoned by her mother, Miss Mendez has had no contact with her family, and at 21, she became too old to remain at the orphanage.
But a good friend of the organization’s founder, Sonia Hane, offered to take her in so she could learn English in New York City.
This turn of events led to a meeting with a casting agent, and an opportunity to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week.
Fior Mendez, 22, walked the runway on Friday Septemeber 7th for the first time at Lincoln Center for Nzinga Knight, an American Muslim designer with a Caribbean background.
