Northern Light

Dutch supermodel Bregje Heinen illuminates everything—from the runways of New York to the landscapes of Iceland.

- Justin Rohrlich

When supermodel Bregje Heinen glides into Rudy’s, a bar in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, heads turn, unsurprisingly. Heinen is only 25, but she exudes a quiet elegance that somehow recalls the movie stars of Old Hollywood. At the same time, she’s also down-to-earth and humble enough that she doesn’t seem out of place in a barroom full of daytime revellers.

Heinen was born in Borculo, a sleepy burg of 10,000 in the eastern Netherlands. She broke into the business at the age of 14 after being discovered by a Dutch modelling agency on Hyves, a now-defunct Dutch social media platform.

“I had been asked before [to model], but I never took it seriously,” Heinen says, forgoing the beer in front of her for a glass of ice-cold water. “My mom and dad looked into it, and it looked okay.”