Malaika Firth Is 'A Woman of Spirit' Lensed By Chris Colls For The Edit May 14, 2015

Model Malaika Firth is styled by Natalie Brewster in ‘A Woman of Spirit’. Chris Colls captures the nature-loving beauty for The Edit May 14, 2015.

In Firth’s interview, certain strong personality traits emerge, most noticeably that the Kenya-born, London-raised Firth — who comes from a lineage of strong women — takes matters into her own hands. most notably in terms of lining up her first boyfriend.

Firth liked the idea of her first beau being a male model. Scrolling through Twitter, she pluckily shot one such model a message. “I saw his icon, searched his name in Google, saw some of his YouTube interviews, and liked his energy.Everyone wants to talk about that spicy guy!” she says, dissolving into laughter. The “spicy guy” was Ralph Lauren model Nate Gill, and after sending that message a year ago, the two are still together. “It helps that we’re in the same industry. We’re both Aries, fire signs, so there’s a bit of competitiveness, but he’s also very positive, which is good because there can be a lot of negativity,” says Firth, who initially found the modeling world to be “very catty”. “I could feel the energy – a lot of jealousy. Now it’s changed; everyone hangs out together. I like that.”

Malika Firth is equally articulate on the subject of race.

I think RACE as an ‘issue’ is so OLD (fashioned); it’s so over. People are ALWAYS trying to bring it up… Of course I feel there should be more darker-skinned girls in campaigns. But getting jobs shouldn’t be about color. It’s about work ethic.