Background

Born in the heart of Los Angeles, California to parents in the modeling world, Lieke was always set up for what people called an “easy life”. Her mother was a French immigrant who met her father (Second generation Dutch) at a boardwalk in New York, and after about three years of dating they decided to move to Los Angeles after her mother became pregnant with her. It wouldn’t take long before her Father began to appear in her life less and less during her early years. This resulted in most of her early memories being between her and her Mother. Lieke would be brought to her Mother’s workshop, being kept close and engaged as her Mother would set up pins for her to hold while she tailored, making dresses, suits, and outfits that left Lieke in awe as she would later see them on TV during board walks. As Lieke grew older, the more her Mother would allow her to help. By the time she could hold a needle properly, she was helping make small stitches in the outfits, and only would be allowed to start making outfits from scratch when she turned nine years old. Books and movies allowed her creativity to fester, the words and expressions of characters that she adored began to show in her work and gave some of her outfits a certain style. Her Mother would implement a rule of only speaking French while in the house, as she wanted to make sure her daughter could speak her family's native tongue. This continued well into her adulthood, and even helped her a bit when she expressed to her father she wanted to see the other side of the industry as well, as some of the connections she made came from those in the industry who immigrated like her mother had. Lieke started out as a model when she was around eight years old, moving up through the industry thanks to the help of her parents' connections. However, she resented the fact that people would bring it up as a way to insult her, and would begin to deny help from her parents’ friends as she settled into the industry. Comments began to get made by judges and other models in the industry began to get to her slowly, and her obsession with trying to make a name for herself out of her parents’ shadow began to develop into an extreme “perfectionism” through tailoring and her environment. She would hide herself in broom closets and backrooms to “fix” symmetry on dresses, holding herself way to far over the table at restaurants and at home in order to fix the way silverware was set up, reorganizing entire rooms in her parents house when they were away because one thing was off or not color coded the right way. These moments lead her to lose track of time at some points, leading her to develop a reputation of coming late to walks and shoots that followed her through most of her Teenage years as a model. Tailoring became an escape and her obsession for everything to be “perfect” led her into a small spiral of stress and anxiety. Up on the stage and in the limelight of the public, she would almost glide through the boardwalks, keeping a smile on her face and a friendly demeanor to those that she found herself interacting with. Behind closed doors she would read headlines and reviews of her performance religiously, any friends she would make on stage she would push away when she was alone, her private and public life almost revolving around the need to be perfect, her environment organized. As pressure began to mount on her from critics, and a moment of the mask slipping in front of her parents leading to an outburst of embarrassment and anger, she decided to announce a break as she focused on her college and fashion design, with her parents hoping it could help her current situation. However, with her behavior and some paranoia of people’s intentions leading to her college life being affected, her parents decided the best thing for her was a break. So they told her to take a semester off, and bought her a first class ticket to go on a train from California to New York on a luxury train-liner known as the The Silver Meridian, hoping this break will finally allow her some space and peace she has been desperately needing.