Stockholm, Sweden

Ingmari effortlessly weaves fame in the fashion industry together with a pure & simple life in nature

After a photoshoot in the center of Stockholm, Ingmari sits with a friend at the vibrant Torpedverkstan restaurant, looking out across the water. Her charisma is striking. This isn’t just a beautiful woman, this is someone whose deep wisdom and inner beauty radiates from the inside out.

Still modelling now in her seventies, top model Ingmari Lamy has become a worldwide poster girl for the beauty of natural aging. She gracefully weaves her fame in the fashion industry together with a pure and simple life in nature (she’s also a mother of two). We had the privilege of spending some quality time with Ingmari over a few days in and around Stockholm, getting to know her while soaking in her wisdom on inner beauty, surrender, real connection and how she lives the free ‘barefoot’ lifestyle.

As the warm evening light reflects off the water and the waiter brings us flowery cocktails with lavender and rose, it’s clear that Ingmari is at ease navigating the urban luxury landscape. Of course she is, having been a famous model for so many years, but there’s so much more than meets the eye…

Living the simple life

“I actually really love the simple life! Already as a very young child, I was happy alone in nature. I could spend hours walking, contemplating and playing in the forest. Nature brought me wisdom. Nature spoke to me and I listened. Nature answered my questions and always surprised me. Back then, we lived next to a forest and a lake. I felt at home there, at ease in nature. I always went out on my own — playful, full of imagination and open to magic. To this day, I still live the simple life in nature which I so deeply love, even next to the travel, the city life, and the glamorous locations I get to experience as a model.  

The simple life was always my way, wherever I was. Even in the middle of a city, I’d look for pieces of nature. After a modelling job, I would quickly take off the make-up and go be by myself somewhere, wandering around in gardens or city parks. In Paris, where I was often, I’d stroll up and down the Seine. I avoided crowded places and areas with lots of traffic.”

“Not that I didn’t like the fashion scene, I enjoyed it very much! I remember hanging out in an old factory with Andy Warhol, and the wonderful parties with Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo, who became one of my dear friends. I’ve had so many amazing experiences. But because I wasn’t into drugs or heavy drinking, it could be a bit lonely when I was much younger. Modelling is amazing, but it can also be emotionally stressful at times, especially for a sensitive person. It takes energy to get through the long days, meeting new people on each job and working in social surroundings all the time. So I always did it my way and enjoyed the best of both worlds: the urban luxury and the simple life in nature.”

How it all began

The next day we sit behind the typically Swedish, red wooden house in the middle of the forest where Ingmari lives at the moment. Nothing but sweet silence, the soft wind rustling through the trees, some birds chirping and the calming sounds of a gigantic lake. Ingmari is reminiscing on how her modelling career started.

“I was discovered when I was 19 and preparing to go to art school. I was enjoying a trip to Paris with my boyfriend at the time. At one of the fanciest night clubs there, we met some people who asked us to join them at their table. It was amazing, I felt so free and danced the night away while my boyfriend sat talking. They said I looked luminous, but I just felt happy and joyful with myself. The next day one of the men we met wanted to show us around Paris. He took us to a beautiful building that turned out to be a modelling agency, and introduced me to the woman who owned the agency. There was a photographer there who booked me for my first job right then and there! There was also another photographer who booked me for Harpers Queen magazine for the following week. That’s how it all started.”

How life unfolded with ease

What’s so striking about Ingmari is the deep relaxation, ease and effortlessness she radiates. Her attention to the tiniest details, all at her own slow and steady pace. Her ability to live life moment to moment.

“This is truly how my life unfolded. With ease. Not that my life was so easy, that’s something totally different. I’ve had my share of difficulties in life. But things happened, unfolded, without me putting in a lot of effort. It just came to me and I surrendered to that path. That’s why I feel that modelling is part of my calling in a way. For me life is not at all about ‘how do I look?’ It’s about meeting the present moment fully, time and time again. I learned this naturally by being in nature often, already from the time I was a child. I was never really part of ‘the system’ out there: working 9-5 in some sort of rat-race.

The surrendering was exactly what I did and still do, not only in life, but also at a photoshoot. Of course those days come with a lot of waiting too, and I see that as an opportunity to be mindful. When I’m in front of the camera, I have to stand in certain poses for a long time and sometimes my body isn’t so happy with that, to say the least. So what can you do other than just surrender, relax and fall into that moment deeply.”

And isn’t that a beautiful metaphor for life itself… Relaxing into it, even when things get difficult. Knowing that this present moment will pass. Surrendering to the flow and movement of life.

The real calling

The sun warms our skin as a fish dives above the water and splashes back in, leaving a fading ripple. The serenity here is so soft and nourishing, a stark contrast to the buzzing city life of Stockholm just 25 minutes away.

Ingmari continues: “By spending so much time in nature I naturally started to connect deeper to myself. Letting go of the struggling, and surrendering to just BE instead of DO things all the time. This deep connection to the core of our being, our essence, is a vulnerable place. It can feel frightening to let go of the armor that protects us from that deep inner space, because it is challenging. We don’t know how we’ll be received out there, if we’ll get rejected. But in the end, this deep connection is a place of deep trust. It’s very different from telling yourself you need to be rich, great, and beautiful, but feeling insecure underneath. Then you are, unconsciously, dependent on the outside world for recognition or validation. My journey has partly been about learning to detach from both praise and rejection. Learning to listen only to your heart. Only, only, only always listen to your heart. That in itself is a big lesson I think! And that deep inner connection is the only key to our true inner beauty, as I see it.”

Beauty that radiates from the inside out — Ingmari is the living example of this. And with this topic, we get to the real calling in Ingmari’s sparkling life: inner beauty.

True inner beauty

“It wasn’t my thing to be in front of the camera, although I do this with great joy. My thing was the search for who we, as humans, are deep inside. That was and is my quest in life. And the modelling jobs gave me amazing opportunities to support this quest.

Most of the time, I met great people. I travelled often, encountering other cultures. After the job was done on fashion work trips, I stayed longer to travel alone amongst the locals. So I had the best of both worlds: after experiencing the luxury of the best hotels and amazing food, I would do the complete opposite to get a sense of the local life and meet wise indigenous people. Walking the Atlas Mountains where the Berbers live, for instance. This helped me see that deep inside, we’re all the same. Yes, the way we dress or look might be different and our stories are different, but from within we are, in our essence, very much the same as fellow human beings.

I did so many different things that were all about that true inner meeting of the self.  Just as life flows in different rivers, I’ve never done the same thing. As an artist, I organized several amazing gatherings and art projects in the past where I always wove my creativity in to help people meet themselves and others, behind their masks. Even for big companies, as well as CEOs.

For these events there was no script, it was a mix of different elements like performance art and deep inner work. So it took a certain level of surrender on my part. I simply brought the elements to create and hold the space for whatever wanted to unfold. Those gatherings were cathartic, wildly creative and so deeply touching at the same time. It’s humbling to see others experiencing that deep meeting with themselves.”

Maybe these events are in a way a metaphor of the many elements from Ingmari’s life: art, inner work and meeting ourselves and others deeply. She gazes at the trees across the lake and sighs, “There are so many stories in a lifetime!”

Photography: Lena Djuphammar
Production and text: Michèle Bevoort
Editor: Valerie Lewis

© Copyright 2020

BEHIND THE SCENES…

• The next Living a Barefoot Lifestyle portrait will be published here as soon as possible. Want to stay updated on new portraits? Please subscribe to the newsletter.

• The extended story of Ingmari Lamy will be featured in the book ‘Living a Barefoot Lifestyle. Free Souls on a Roll’ Stay updated on the book launch? Please subscribe to the newsletter.