Above: Top, £1,785 and skirt, £2,569, both Alberta Ferretti; bracelets, £800 each, Lanvin

Speaking to a supermodel is always daunting; part of the allure is their aloofness, hence Arizona Muse, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss rarely giving interviews. And it’s no different with Joan, as I overhear her telling her agent that she wants to “get to the point where I don’t have to do interviews, like Kate”. But I needn’t have worried; when we sit down for a conversation at the end of a long day of shooting, she is the consummate professional, upbeat and chatty as she grins at the prospect of me hearing her “girly voice” when I replay the tape.

Despite her meteoric rise, there were times when Joan seriously doubted herself. Born in 1988 to a Puerto Rican mother and a father from the US Virgin Islands, she grew up on a farm and started her career doing local modelling competitions. After seeing how beautiful she is in the flesh, it’s hard to believe she lost. “Sometimes being a loser is OK because it shows you need to be really determined to get what you want,” she muses. “When things come too easily, you don’t know what it means to work hard for it.”

This isn’t just rhetoric. After completing her degree in psychology at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico, she moved in with her aunt in Queens, New York, and did catalogue work for companies such as US department store Nordstrom. It took her two and a half years to get a London agency, investing her own money to travel to the UK when no agency would pay to see her. “I thought there was something wrong with me that I had to change. I was typecast as African American and that was it. But then I met my agent Kyle [Hagler] and he said I needed to explore my Latin side as well. Why should I feel that I’m just one thing? I’m both [Latin and black] and it’s important for everyone to remember that.”

These days, Joan is revered for her unique beauty. She cites being chosen as the first Latina face of Estée Lauder as her greatest career moment. It’s an achievement she hopes will help inspire other young Puerto Rican girls. “I’m showcasing to the world that beauty is everywhere, even if you come from a little island in the Caribbean. We don’t all look the same.” Personally selected and shot by Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi’s autumn campaign, the legendary designer describes her as having “incredible golden, glowing skin that made her look like some Etruscan [ancient Italian civilisation] beauty.”

As we move on to this season’s dramatic new look, she becomes visibly excited. “Erdem, Emilio Pucci, McQueen; I can’t wait to have them all in my closet,” she declares. “What we do in fashion is so creative and it’s great to be a part of it. It’s a show, it’s entertainment and I think it’s great that it gives people the opportunity to imagine.” And what about romance, is that important to her too? “Absolutely,” she says with a grin. “Everyone should be romanced.” Joan’s eyes light up as she tells me about a road trip to an isolated cabin in the woods that her boyfriend, entrepreneur Bernard Smith, 31, organised as a surprise for her. “I also do romantic things for him. Before I go on a trip, I cook food and leave it in his fridge with a note saying ‘I love you. Open the fridge.’”

Inspirational

The woman in black