When she was 18, Emily Senko snuck out of her parents’ house in Winnetka to answer an open call for models at the Ford agency in Chicago. When she returned home, she surprised her mom and dad with the news that she’d been signed on the spot.

It wasn’t long before the New Trier graduate was getting noticed by fashion’s establishment—nabbing ad campaigns for Calvin Klein and editorials for Vogue—and was packing her bags for New York.

Senko, now in her early 20s, can be spotted on high-fashion street-style blogs and the world’s major runways, including Paris, where she walked in this spring’s shows for Chloé, Dries Van Noten, and Chanel.

At Chanel, she wore Karl Lagerfeld’s frayed, sand-colored interpretation of the house’s iconic suit.

“There’s nothing like walking to an 80-piece orchestra playing Bjork and the Verve,” says Senko, who had a preshow audience with Lagerfeld himself.

“It was just breathtaking.”

Photography: (Left) Firstview/Picturegroup; (middle, right) Courtesy of Ford Models Chicago