Style Q&A With Tyra Banks

Tyra arrived in a floor-length green leather-look trench and pinstripe trousers, both from Naked Wardrobe, with a Paige Jeans tank, metallic Sam Edelman pumps, and an Anine Bing clutch.

Ava: Can you walk me through your look today?

Tyra: Some people talk about feeling like a different Barbie depending on what they put on. But I played Eve in Life-Size, so I like to say I have different Eves. And this Eve is fashion biz boss. There's a corporate ferociousness to her. She is silently roaring, "Look at me. No, don't look at me. You know what? Actually, yes. Look. And stare. If you dare."

And I love that green can represent nature, growth and new beginnings, but also money and success. So this outfit is a total power vibe.

Ava: Stripping away the stylist and the high-end red-carpet moments, what everyday piece of clothing makes you feel the most like you?

Tyra: I have this straw cowboy hat from Boot Barn that makes me feel so me. And I did not even know what Boot Barn was. I was at this shopping center with my son and we curiously walked into DSW, and there was a Boot Barn next door. I thought it was another shoe store. We opened the door and OH. MY. GOSH. It was like Disneyland for cowboy world. We ended up staying for two hours! I got two pairs of cowboy boots and this straw hat. Now, my head is large…. Add wigs and hair and all the things I sometimes have going on under there? Hats have never been my friend. So I found the biggest straw hat they had. And honey, I felt sexy.

I loved that damn hat. And then somebody helped me pack for a trip and put it in my suitcase and I didn't know. I get to my destination. Open my suitcase and the front is broken and beat up and I was devastated. I tried to wear it the other day and my son looked at me and said, "Mom. That looks so bad. You have to take it off." So apparently the piece of clothing that makes me feel most like myself is currently deceased.

RIP, Boot Barn straw hat.

Ava: Your Modelland book unexpectedly exploded online this summer, 15 years after you first published it, and fans even started dressing in wild green outfits because of a lyric from the Modelland song. What was it like watching something you created so long ago suddenly become a fashion moment?

Tyra: It was WILD. Modelland is this fantasy world I created around a girl named Tookie De La Crème who gets pulled into this magical modeling school. And in the book, the first-year students wear green uniforms.

Then there's this crazy-ass Modelland song I wrote all those years ago, and there's a line in it that says, "Four chicks in green running the New York streets."

Cut to 15 years later and suddenly the song goes viral, the Modelland book comes roaring back on the Internet, and people start dressing in green! Green clothes. Green everything. And I'm sitting there going, "What the hell is happening?!"

It was overwhelming and amazing because I wasn't orchestrating it. The people on TikTok were taking this world I created and making it theirs. And they brought Modelland back so strongly that the book is actually returning and is now available for preorder. Now OOTD catches me wearing this iconic looking green coat! Coincidence? Deliberate? Or did all those Modelland fans wearing green somehow leak through the social-media universe and into my closet? I don't know. But apparently now I'm one of the chicks in green in 2026.

Ava: People have known you for decades as a supermodel, television creator and entrepreneur, but lately your writing is getting a lot of attention—from the unexpected resurgence of Modelland to your new Substack called The World of Too Much. Your writing voice is funny, quirky, deeply personal and sometimes completely unexpected. Where has this side of Tyra been hiding?

Tyra: She wasn't hiding! Y'all just met the model first. Modeling happened TO me. I was 15, sitting on a bench on the first day of school, and a girl came up to me and asked if I was a model.

But writing? That was already inside me. English was my favorite subject in school. Before I left high school to go to Paris for my first fashion week, I had been accepted to 5 universities to study film and television—producing, directing and writing. That was the plan. So having people discover my writing now and go, "Wait…Tyra WRITES?" is bananas to me.

Sometimes people don't realize that the quirk, the camp, the TOO MUCH of it all is deliberate—which honestly makes me love it even more. I wake up in the middle of the night and start polishing sentences when I should be sleeping. Words will not leave me alone. So The World of Too Much isn't me suddenly becoming a writer. It's the world finally meeting the writer who's been here the whole damn time.

Ava: You returned to fashion television as a recurring judge on Project Runway. After seeing so much fashion throughout your career, what does a designer have to do to make you stop and really pay attention?

Tyra: Different is better than better.

I've been in fashion since I was 15 years old, so I've seen a lot. Beautiful clothing doesn't necessarily make me stop and stare. Perfect doesn't necessarily make me stop. Sometimes perfect can actually be a little boring. I want to see something that makes me go, "Wait…what is THAT?" It could be the silhouette. The proportions. Something strange they did with a fabric fold. Even something that, at first, I'm not sure I like—but I can't stop looking at it.

But creatively, I'm always looking for that thing I haven't quite seen before. Don't just show me that you can make something better. Show me why you needed to make it. And that it doesn't look like anybody else's.

Ava: Every week on Project Runway brought new hair, a new look, and a totally transformed Tyra. But now you've wiped your Instagram completely, and it seems like you're paring back, almost reminiscent of your '90s era. What's going on?

Tyra: Oh, the creativity isn't going anywhere. My creativity is on fire. My brain is still doing entirely too much. But I don't feel like I need to wear all of that creativity on my face, my hair and my body right now. For years, I loved transforming. Give me the different wig. Give me the over-the-top makeup. Change the silhouette. Who are we today? Let's go. And that was genuinely me. But lately I've been craving something different.

I've been looking back at photos of myself in the '90s and there's an ease there that I'm really connecting to again. Not because I want to go backward and try to be 20-something-year-old Tyra. Child, she can stay right there in the '90s. It's the spirit of her that I'm feeling. My mama actually used to tell me, "Tyra, you don't need all that stuff on your face and body. Strip it back. Just be you." I wasn't trying to hear that. I had things to glue on! But I understand what she meant now.

I used to walk a lot of red carpets. You glammed, you dressed, you did the carpet, everybody took the pictures, and then you moved on to the next thing. Fashion was almost a one-way conversation. Socials feels different. I don't just want to put on a fab green coat, take a beautiful picture and say, "Here I am." I want to know what you think. Would you wear it? How would you wear it? What should I try next? I want that back-and-forth. Maybe that's what I'm craving most right now… not just being looked at, but connecting.

Tyra Banks has shown women how to take up space: on the runway, on television, in the book, and in everyday life. Over the years, we've seen so many different versions of Tyra, and every one of them has proved the same thing: when you are undeniably yourself, there's no dream too big to make real.