Erin O'Connor was born and brought up in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, England and went to Brownhills Community School (now Brownhills Community Technology College/Brownhills C.T.C). She was raised Catholic and her father is from Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. On a school trip to the Birmingham Clothes Show she was spotted by a scout.
Her first published pictures were by Juergen Teller for a 1996 issue of i-D. She has modelled on the catwalk for John Galliano, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Prada, Versace, Miu Miu, Jasper Conran, Giorgio Armani, Julien MacDonald, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Badgley Mischka, and Dolce & Gabbana. She has worked with many leading fashion photographers including Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Steven Klein, Nick Knight, Mario Testino, David Sims, Bryan Adams, and featured in magazines including Vogue, W, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Harpers & Queen, i-D, and Visionaire. She was on the January cover of British Vogue. Since 2005 she has been one of the faces of the British high-street chain Marks and Spencer and in 2008 she launched the haircare line model.me for Toni & Guy, alongside Jamelia and Helena Christensen. She is signed to Tess Management in London.
Karl Lagerfeld has described her as "one of the best models in the world".
In March 2003, O'Connor was featured in a three-part Channel 4 documentary This Model Life. She writes a column for London Fashion Week paper The Daily Rubbish, contributes a regular blog to the British Vogue online, has written
for The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, and wrote and presented a documentary on fashion, Erin's Model World, for BBC Radio 4. In 2009, she appeared as a mentor and judge on the Irish reality TV series The Model Agent for RTE 2.
On 20 May 2009, she officially opened the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (University of Dundee) VIP degree show preview night, "Designs on the Future", featuring amongst the various disciplines, a fashion show of work from both jewellery and textiles final year students. In 2007, The Sunday Times considered her to be the 39th richest person under 30 in the United Kingdom, with an estimated wealth of 12 million pounds
O'Connor is the vice chair of the "British Fashion Council" and runs the "Model Sanctuary," an area of relaxation for catwalk models between shows.
In 2001 she appeared as herself in the "Paris" episode of Absolutely Fabulous.
See below for a clip from a CNN documentary on Erin.
