Fashion model Irina Lanskaia, professionally known as Irina Lansk, has been nominated for Best International Fashion Model at the New York Fashion Awards 2026, marking a significant milestone in a career that has taken her from the business and technology world of Silicon Valley to fashion runways across the United States.
The New York Fashion Awards recognize professionals across modeling, fashion design, styling, photography, beauty and other creative disciplines. Lansk’s nomination comes after several seasons of runway and editorial work across major U.S. fashion markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and California.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lansk built her earlier professional career in business consulting, technology and startup entrepreneurship. Fashion had long been a creative interest, but after turning 30, she made the decision to pursue modeling professionally in California and gradually shift her focus toward the fashion industry.
Since then, Lansk has appeared in runway productions including Art Hearts Fashion, The Bureau Fashion Week and Runway 7, and has worked with designers including Giannina Azar, Kenneth Barlis, Pierre Laborde and Angelo Estera, among others. Her work has included runway presentations, editorial shoots and fashion-week appearances across the United States.
For Lansk, the New York Fashion Awards nomination represents more than an individual career milestone. It also reflects an unconventional professional journey between two industries that rarely overlap — business and fashion.
“For years, my professional identity was connected to business, technology and startups, while fashion was the dream I kept on the other side of my life,” said Lansk. “After 30, I decided to take that dream seriously. Being nominated for Best International Fashion Model feels like confirmation that changing direction does not mean starting from zero – everything you have built before becomes part of who you are and what you bring to the next chapter.”
Her business background continues to influence how she approaches her modeling career. Lansk says the strategic thinking, persistence and ability to build projects from the ground up that she developed in the startup world have become equally important in navigating the fashion industry.
At the same time, modeling offered something different: a form of visual and creative expression that had been largely absent from her earlier professional life.
“Business taught me how to build and how to think strategically,” Lansk said. “Fashion taught me to take creative risks. I realized I didn’t have to erase one part of myself to become another.”
Her nomination comes as Lansk continues expanding her presence in the U.S. fashion industry, with a particular focus on runway, editorial fashion and visual storytelling.
The milestone also carries a personal significance for Lansk as a mother.
“I want my son to grow up knowing that your life does not have to follow one predetermined path,” she said. “You can spend years building one career, discover that you want something completely different, and still have the courage to go after it. It is never too late to take your own ambitions seriously.”
For Lansk, that message extends particularly to women who may feel pressure to have their careers and identities fully defined by a certain age.
Her transition into modeling after 30 challenges the traditional idea that fashion careers must begin in the teenage years and illustrates a broader message of professional reinvention.
The New York Fashion Awards 2026 ceremony will bring together nominees and professionals from across the international fashion and creative industries in New York.
Lansk is nominated in the Best International Fashion Model category.
About Irina Lansk
Irina Lansk is a San Francisco Bay Area-based fashion model with a professional background in business consulting, technology and startup entrepreneurship. After transitioning into professional modeling in California in her early thirties, she has appeared in U.S. fashion productions including Art Hearts Fashion, The Bureau Fashion Week and Runway 7 and has worked with established designers across runway and editorial projects. In 2026, she was nominated for Best International Fashion Model at the New York Fashion Awards.
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