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Well Lara Stone is certainly having a moment. Womens Wear Daily reports today that Stone has booked a triple exclusive with Calvin Klein, as the advertising and runway face of Calvin Klein Collection, ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans for the upcoming Fall 2010/2011 season. The Dutch native isn’t the only model in the campaigns (Australia’s Abbey Lee Kershaw is one of several others who feature, in Kershaw’s case, in cK Calvin Klein). But according to WWD it’s the first time “in years” that the company has used one model across three brands – and the newspaper suggests this could propel Stone’s career “into the stratosphere”, given that Calvin Klein contracts were pivotal in launching the careers of several other models, including Christy Turlington and Kate Moss. But Stone is already the world number 1 on models.com, having just dethroned Brazil’s Raquel Zimmermann from the top spot. Her success and in particular, the Calvin Klein coup, are interesting for several reasons.
In March (although not screened until early April), in talking about his decision to cast several 30 and 40 plus models in his Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show, Calvin Klein Collection creative director Francisco Costa told Australian current affairs television program Today Tonight that “the 16 year olds are fantastic, they’re fresh...” but that older women “represent some kind of truth”.
Later that month, a New York modelling agent hinted that “Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and trade them in for a 2-4 … a sign of the times indeed”.
This must presumably have been around the same time that busty, size 4 Stone was being earmarked for the campaigns.
Where does that leave 16 year old Monika Jagaciak, who had previously booked two back-to-back Calvin Klein campaigns? Without a Calvin Klein campaign this season, that's where. Although Jagaciak did in fact open the FW1011 Calvin Klein womens runway show, which featured plenty of other teenagers, notably Australia’s Julia Nobis, who was booked as a runway exclusive.
So is it a victory for the "older, curvier" woman?
Forty year-old Emma Balfour, who recently returned to modelling after a long break, is tipped as a new face of Céline.
Stone is still just 27. But she has hit the top of her game after being in the business for at least 12 years - perhaps longer. Stone was reportedly scouted at the age of 12.
And her curves do look to have proven problematic in the past.
In the January edition of US Vogue, she spoke of her battles with her weight, which saw her resort at one point to popping pills, which made her "heart race". Stone also talked about a 2009 stint in rehab for alcoholism, but apparently places no blame on the fashion industry.
Stone told the magazine:
“What they say is ‘curvy,’ but you know they mean fat...It’s depressing when the clothes don’t fit and you are always the odd one out....I was on a shoot just last week and the stylist took out this tight corset dress and said, ‘Here, put it on,’ and I was like, ‘Who are you kidding?’ There was no way, so that was very rude of her. It’s like, come on, she’s a woman; whether you’re buying jeans at the mall or wearing couture, you know what it’s like for clothes not to fit. It’s not an easy kind of rejection, because it’s very personal. It’s you, your body. You take it to heart.”
With lucrative advertising contracts piling up and recently wed to Little Britain star David Walliams, who’s having the last laugh now?
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