Stella Tennant

She was just awarded "L'Express Styles" as one of the influential people in fashion. Yet Stella Tennant, apart from her beauty, has nothing of an ordinary top model.

The granddaughter of the Duke of Devonshire, himself Lady Di's cousin, did not plan to become one of the most requested models of the 2000s. Tennant was finishing her studies at London's Fine Arts when she met a Vogue photographer, Steven Meisel, who asked her to pose for a series of photos for the magazine.

Tennant may well be a part of the aristocracy, but as she was not in direct line to inherit, she was without money. So she accepted to pose for Meisel, despite the fact that she was passionate about sculpture and that fashion did not interest her. This is how she came to be pushed into a world she did not know.

She quickly realized that the staggering sums she was being offered to walk for the biggest designers corresponded to the salaries of high-ranking models, which she was not. She learned the hard way during her first show for Versace when she had to walk next to the top models at the time, i.e., Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, etc.

During the rehearsals, she realized that she did not know how to handle 20cm (8") heels and she frantically chewed gum to try to calm down. She was told, "No, thank you" and did not walk. However, her porcelain skin and punk hair quickly made her an atypical figure in the business and the big designers fell under her charm, a charm made of a mix of aristocracy and irreverence.

It was her grandmother who passed this on to her, the eccentric Duchess of Devonshire, a coquettish woman who loved to personalize her designer outfits without caring what others would think. Tennant's highbred beauty and fiery temperament seduced Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano, and she became a Chanel icon, then a Dior.

Tennant began to impose her own way of doing things very quickly, however. She has never felt like an object, but more like a muse. She does not participate in the star system, nor compete to pose for a particular photographer, nor run from casting to casting. People come looking for her. She is a real "lady," a sort of anti-Kate Moss, full of a certain elegance mixed with derision.

She married an American photographer, had 4 children, and lives in her Scottish château. She is 34, yet continues to walk for Chanel, pose for Dior and work with Chaumet. For her, all this is more like art than modeling, however, because she feels she communicates with the designers and that together they create her look.