French Valley Model Becomes 'Sullen Angel'

Modeling is not new to Stevie Christine Love, but her recent accelerated rate of success is.

Love, 22, of French Valley, started modeling when she was 3 years old, but her career blossomed in the past five months.

Love worked in print modeling before for a pool toy company called Intex, but a less-than-ideal situation last fall sent her diving into bikini modeling.

Love listened to suggestions from friends and family and entered a bikini contest in Palm Desert.

She hoped to make a splash, but the judges left her high and dry. She failed to place.

The defeat only hardened her resolve. “I know I won’t win every competition or modeling contract, but when I don’t, I’ll know I didn’t really want to anyway," she said in a recent interview.

She made a promise to herself to keep going and to set her sites on more desirable and lucrative modeling opportunities.

Love began searching and applying for various companies that held more promise for her. Her efforts were not in vain, and weeks later, she was invited to participate in a modeling competition for Sullen Clothing.

She was thrilled with the offer to participate. “Sullen was perfect for me,” she said. “It’s an Art Collective, and I fit the image that they want to portray perfectly.”

The Sullen Clothing contest turned out to be an incredible experience, and Love
immediately took a liking to the other models.

She won this competition and became a "Sullen Angel."

Since then, more doors opened for Love, and the offers have been coming to her with increasing frequency. She accepted a few so far, but she is being selective.

One company that she agreed to model for is “Fresh Peaches,” a company that designs custom bikinis. She also recently participated in a fashion show that featured La Rouge Bikinis and Oakley Sunglasses.

Love is determined to become a model for an energy drink company in the future, but admits that sports and fitness modeling are other types of modeling that she would equally enjoy, she said.

Love shares that there are two models in particular, Sabina Kelley and Bernadette Macias, that she admires and who both give her the inspiration.

While waiting for her golden opportunity, Love, who is the oldest of four children, is content to look at each offer as it arrives, represent the Sullen Clothing line, do her own art work, tool around French Valley on her long board and work at her job as a server and bartender trainee at Skybox, a sports bar in French Valley.

She realizes that soon her life will change when the right offer arrives, but for now she's happy to be the best sister she can be. “The only thing that I love more than my life and what I’ve recently accomplished is my two brothers and two sisters. They are my world,” she said.

- By Karin Scholz