Beyond the catwalk

• Do not say you were not warned. Chances are that she will rearrange your furniture should you pop into the kitchen for a few minutes to prepare a cup of tea.

Emma Too just cannot stand clutter, which she says is a common trait in many Kenyan homes. Every time she walks into a room, she finds herself mentally re-arranging the furniture, shifting paintings and portraits from one wall to the next and tossing out what she feels is a waste of space.

She admits that sometimes, it takes a lot of will-power to stop herself from rolling up her sleeves and giving her host’s home a much-needed make-over.

A couple of years ago, she convinced a newly married friend to give her new home a new look. When her husband, a long-time bachelor, returned home that evening, he nearly had a fit.

“He had been so used to having his house look a particular way, walking in and seeing his couch facing a different direction unnerved him,” she laughs at the memory.

“I cannot count the number of times I moved the furniture at home around while I was growing up – sometimes I would do it every few days,” adds Emma. Luckily, her mother did not mind, and allowed her to do whatever she wanted with the other rooms as well.

We are chatting in her airy living room, simply but tastefully furnished with artsy pieces collected locally and from her extensive travels abroad.

A couple of green plants in huge clay pots lend the room a kind of freshness and vibrancy that you can almost touch. The effect is both inviting and invigorating.

“From a very young age, I had a very strong sense of aesthetics and always wanted to be surrounded by beautiful, exotic things,” she explains, when I comment on the beautiful surroundings.

This desire was so strong that while her teenage friends used their pocket money to go to the movies or buy trendy clothes, she would use hers to buy landscaping and interior deco magazines and plants. She had even befriended her neighbours’ gardeners who would let her pick the plants she fancied and add to her collection.

It was only natural then that she would curve out a career in landscaping and interior deco when she quit the catwalk 10 years ago, saying goodbye to a glamorous career that so many young women dream of.

Interestingly, the decision to quit was speeded up by a horse-riding accident. She still has a scar on her left side as a reminder of just how lucky she is, acknowledging that it could have been worse.

“The accident made me realise just what a short-lived career modelling is – what if my face had taken the impact?” The accident was like an epiphany, and immediately, she started plotting her exit.

Emma doesn’t miss her modelling days, in fact, she regrets going into modelling at all.

“I never should have gone into modelling,” she says with a firmness that leaves no doubt that she means it. She especially regrets the fact that she will never enjoy the anonymity that comes with being just any other girl. But, as she points out, she has accepted this as the price she has to pay for being in the limelight.

“Some people expect me to wear a permanent smile. If I don’t, someone somewhere will write about how aloof and anti-social I am, yet everybody has their bad day – I’m no different” she laughs, throwing up slim manicured hands.