What He’s Wearing: Bulgari – The New York Times

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Jon Kortajarena has modeled for some of the biggest fashion names on the planet, including Versace, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Tom Ford. They certainly helped shape his sense of style.

But when he considered watches to collect, that direction came from his greatest influence: his mother.

“For my 21st birthday she said, ‘You are an adult now, you need a good watch.’ It was a rite of passage,” said Mr. Kortajarena, now 32. And his mother, a hairdresser, had saved to buy her son what she considered the best: a Bulgari. “It was like a baptism into my adult life,” he said.

The native of Bilbao, Spain, stumbled into modeling as a way to travel. His family was skeptical, and a bit worried, but he told them he would give it a year. Fifteen years on, he said quite modestly, “it went pretty well.”

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