“I think he was really victimised by what became the corporate takeover of fashion,” Harlow says. “It was a pivotal point where fashion went from a boutique industry into multinational companies, so the output required for those designers was immense. They were put through the grind mill.”

“We were gifted with a master. He was a Mozart of fashion design.”

Harlow also suffered.

“For years I was going back and forth on The Concorde. It would be ‘Mr Penn needs you’, Nick Knight, Steven Meisel and ‘Grace Coddington wants you here’,” she says, rattling off photographic and styling legends. “I didn’t have access to a ‘no.’”

The travel took its toll, with Harlow working intermittently from 2000 before retiring because of health issues.

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“I contracted late-stage Lyme disease and there were complications... my body was in such depletion.”

In 2018 designer Donatella Versace coaxed a healthier Harlow back onto the runway, leading to immediate bookings for future work and more covers, but this time with better access to a ‘no’.

“I’ve learned to have boundaries and a healthier sense of my own self-care,” she says. “I think there are some people that approach this position of being a model from a more narcissistic point of view. That was never the case with me.”

With the way that Harlow’s eyes flare within metres of a camera and her eloquent descriptions of McQueen’s mastery it’s difficult imagining her declining future offers from Meisel, Knight or Coddington, even without a Concorde waiting.

On Harlow’s own Instagram account I came across a video of the model throwing herself against a studio wall with force, aiming for the perfect photograph.

“That’s what keeps me here,” she says. “That’s the juice that can get me on a transatlantic flight. Could you see the commitment? That’s a repetitive situation too. It’s not once or twice.”

For Harlow, it doesn’t stop.

Crisis support is available from Lifeline (13 11 14) and Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636).

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