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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Gabrielle Leblanc describes herself as an alternative model.

Her eclectic portfolio features stunning images captured by a range of professional photographers.

Gabrielle Leblanc models jewelry by Jamie Look in Old Town earlier this month. The 21-year-old model plans to pursue more runway gigs in BC. - photo courtesy of Patrick Kane

The styles she models include avant garde fashion, dignified but hip formal wear and artistic semi-nude poses.

Leave it up to her and the Yellowknife resident will assemble a retro look with vintage denim, black Doc Martens, patches and camo, dark mascara and a belt strung with .303 cartridges. Her aesthetic sympathies are influenced by psychobilly, a musical sub-genre born from late punk and rockabilly subcultures whose influence spills lawlessly into contemporary urban fashions.

When she's working as a model, however, the rebel does what she's told.

"We don't get to choose what we look like or what we wear," she explained. "We represent the designer and if you don't like it you've got to just deal with it. Most designers are very particular. It's their stuff and you're representing them, so everything you do reflects on the designer. You have to go up there and sell it."

Fortunately, Leblanc appreciates the stuff she's modeled recently. Yellowknife fashion designer Jamie Look employed Leblanc in her latest runway show titled The Rain, The Thunder and The Sun. Leblanc exhibited pieces from Look's fall and winter Northern jewelry collection, which will be available in local galleries and retail stores in the coming season.

"Gabrielle is gorgeous," Look said. "She takes direction really, really well, which is a strong feature to have as a model.

"She pays attention and she cares about the details and the finished product. She always asks if there's anything she can do better and how she can improve herself."

During Look's runway show earlier this month, Leblanc wore a smart black strapless tank top and dark skinny jeans that accentuated a fluorescent yellow freshwater pearl earring and necklace duo, dangling caribou bone and gun metal earrings and other complex pieces during her three passes down the runway. She did it in four-and-a-half inch patent leather heels.

"I almost died a couple of times walking in those," she said. "Your feet turn numb. But, you just don't think about it and go in the zone."

In Look's opinion, Leblanc performs beautifully and professionally on the runway and in front of the camera.

"She has a really strong posture and a very strong way of holding herself," Look said. "She's really focused until the end of the shoot or the end of the show and she works really hard, which I really admire in anyone."

Professional photographer Patrick Kane photographed Leblanc shortly before Look's fashion show. He contrasted Leblanc's intense urban mystique with an empty white suburban townhouse as a backdrop.

"She has really great eyes," Kane said. "When I met Gabby I knew pretty much that I was going to work with her eyes and her face and play with that to get a sense of who she is. Her look is very unique."

As serious as Leblanc appears in Kane's portraits, her expression betrays the hint of a mischievous and playful smile.

"You can really express yourself through photography," Leblanc said. "I'm pretty laid-back. I'm fun. I like to communicate with people."

Whether Leblanc is modeling haute couture clothing or no clothing at all, she always brings confidence, creativity and self-respect to the shoot.

"I don't mind doing nude just as long as it's not really trashy," she said. "People have different opinions on what art is. Some people can think a huge orgy is art. But it's just not something I want to do. I'm into some fetish photography. Nothing pornographic."

Leblanc has posed for semi-nude portfolio pics that she is submitting to a variety of prominent websites that mesh with her artistic values. She plans to pursue more runway gigs as well.

"The thing about runway modeling is I have tattoos and I kind of regret them in some ways because it would be nice to get into really high fashion and high fashion is not really supportive of some of them," she said. "Especially my grim reaper tattoo."

Look agrees tattoos can be an obstacle for a young model interested in high fashion, but added that it's not enough to terminate the dream of a high fashion modeling career.

"There have been high fashion models in the past who have had really prominent tattoos," Look said.

"If you have the capability to transform yourself into a specific mood and do it really, really well, then I believe that limitation can be overcome."

Look plans to hold her next fashion show in Montreal or Toronto. When she does she plans to bring Leblanc with her.

Leblanc is leaving for Vernon, B.C. this month to complete her Grade 12 diploma at Okanagan College. After that, she plans to continue her modeling career while studying to be a veterinary technician.