To make herself stand out, she experimented with make-up, and studied shoots in international magazines, teaching herself how to pose and project different personas.
One of the first people to give her a break was local designer Tan Yoong who loved her looks and pushed for her to appear on the cover of Her World wearing one of his creations. Tan - who always art- directs shoots of models wearing his designs - remembers her well.
"She had the X factor. More importantly, she had a great attitude and was very hard-working. She would listen carefully and would always give me what I wanted," he says.
While she started making some headway, it was not until she ventured abroad that she became sought-after here.
Mrs Fong-Chalopin was modelling for an Emanuel Ungaro fashion show in Singapore when the French woman in charge of the event told her she should try her luck in Paris.
So she did, without telling anyone.
"I only told my parents the night before I left. I was not sure what I was doing. I didn't want to become afraid or give anyone a chance to talk me out of it. If nobody knew what I was doing, nobody would know if I failed too."
It was a big move for an 18-year-old who spoke no French. But Mrs Fong-Chalopin returned a short while later, with a big confidence boost.
"There was interest in my looks there. I knew I could stay and find work and I knew what to do if I went again."
She did just that, and was soon modelling for the likes of Dior and Chanel. Not long after, she started getting offers to model in Milan as well.
That period in her life, she says, has become a blur.
"Everything happened so fast. I was just working and working," she says.
It was not all easy-peasy. The scene was not only competitive but also bitchy and fraught with temptations, she says.
"I was alone and I knew that to survive, I had to stay out of trouble. It was very important to me that I didn't have to call anyone for help. Anyway, who would come for me? They didn't even know where I was."
She had a simple philosophy: "Whenever things were not going a certain way, I would say 'no'. It's easier not to put yourself in a situation than to get out of it.
"Could I have gone farther if I had taken risks? Maybe. But I'm happy with the choices I made."
