Marte Mei van Haaster

PHOTOS: CHRISTIAN BRYLLE. MODEL: MARTE MEI VAN HAASTER/DNA MODELS. CASTING: DAVID CHEN. SPECIAL THANKS: FAST ASHLEYS.

“I’d like to relive certain moments in life,” muses Dutch model Marte Mei van Haaster. “For instance, when I was 17 and went to a festival my current husband went to too, and I’d like see him as a little handsome mini-Max.”

Scouted as a teenager in Amsterdam, van Haaster her runway debut opening Acne’s Spring/Summer 2012 show. You’ve since seen her in campaigns for Céline, Paul Smith, G-Star, Louis Vuitton, Marni, and Hermès’s Apple watch, and, last month, she walked in the Valentino and Louis Vuitton Resort shows. In addition to her modeling work, van Haaster is also an artist, producing work under the name MAXMEI with her husband.

A FEW THINGS THAT INSPIRE ME:
The way nature intervenes and intertwines with a city. How plants grow in places humans didn’t intend them to. How stones break in unexpected shapes and sizes. The effect of time on manmade materials. 

THE PEOPLE I ADMIRE THE MOST:
People who put themselves second and the wellbeing of the globe, nature, and others, first.

AN EVENT I WISHED I’D WITNESSED:
Having a sense of place before there were maps. Not knowing how Earth looked yet, but dreaming about it whilst living there.

QUESTIONS I CAN’T ANSWER:
How humanity will solve climate change.

MY BIGGEST ADVENTURE:
Life! I do all I do out of an intuitive urge and it has taken me to the best places, such as alone on mountaintops in India and getting married at age 24.

MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT:
Finding the love of my life whilst studying art full time and modeling in the middle. 

THINGS I’D LIKE TO IMPROVE ABOUT MYSELF:
Don’t we all just want to be a little more patient?

GAMES I PLAY:
Kubb. It’s standing in a field with wooden sticks and throwing sticks at the sticks of others. It’s like a mini wood war.

MY GREATEST VICE:
Scrolling through Instagram in bed.

THINGS I’LL BE REMEMBERED BY:

My never-ending willpower.

SOME THINGS I’D RATHER FORGET:
My late teenage years of unpleasant behavior towards anyone and everyone. 

MY IDEA OF HAPPINESS:
Being fully at ease with yourself, your surroundings, and all the people around you. 

ONE LAST FAVOR I’D LIKE TO ASK:

Check our art

For more from our “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” series, click here.