A Male Model’s Journey to the Edge and Back

How a pimply Canadian farmboy rose to conquer the runways of Paris and Milan, then fell into a downward spiral of days-long drug trips, perpetual partying and a very public breakdown.

Photos by Brad Horrigan | Illustrations by Marco Gallo

“I showed up to a casting call on acid once,” he says with a dry smirk. I’m talking to Matt Gordon, a male model who’s worked the runways from Paris to Milan. “I had this friend who was a trust fund girl. She came to Paris fashion week with a book of acid. We decided to do fashion week on acid.” They agreed to drop it with his roommate, a fellow model who had never tried it. “I remember him looking in the mirror and screaming ‘I’m a monster.’”

The next morning, Matt was woken up by his agent on the phone.

“You’ve got a casting call in an hour.”

Matt got himself dressed and headed out the door. As soon as he walked outside, he realized he was still tripping. “Everything looked beautiful,” he says. “All the colors were so vibrant.”

The casting call was filled with the usual mix of tall, slim boys with high cheekbones. Matt was asked to walk for the designers: “Walking in a straight line was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

To Matt’s sur…