girl crush - stella tennant

If my last girl crush post on Sofia Coppola was all about personal style and good taste, then this one on Stella Tennant is more about her looks and aura as a model. I love her cool gaze and elegant features, and how she perfectly embodies for me a mix of classical beauty and street edge. She lent a dignity to all her pictures without ever seeming stuffy, and though she has a signature expression (level gaze, few smiles), I find her surprisingly versatile. She wears clothes remarkably well - she can pull off the most outlandish ensembles and maintain a sense of control over the look, and in the most average of editorials, she makes otherwise so-so outfits shine.

I remember first coming across her when she replaced Claudia Schiffer as the face of Chanel, and I thought it was so refreshing, so different from the flashiness of the 80s', and finally there was a look I could identify with, Stella Tennant brought in the kind of stark, offbeat elegance that went so well with the clothes of my favourite designer (forever and ever) Helmut Lang, whom I also discovered around the same time. Fittingly, she was married in Helmut Lang (to photographer David Lasnet). I wished I had a better picture (I have it somewhere, but can't find it to scan); you can't see the straps of the dress that caused her grandmother (the Duchess of Devonshire to call her "the bandaged bride").

It's hard to just choose a few photos to post - there are lots of good ones spanning a long period (she's managed to stay relevant, and she's 39!). She's done a a lot of work with Paolo Roversi (my perennial favourite) and here's one I posted a while back.

And then here's a Chanel one from 1998, because it made such an impact on me. It changed the way I looked at Chanel.

And here's one of those classic English countryside style ones that UK and US Vogue seem to fond of putting her in - I picked one from US Vogue that included her really cute children (I think she has four).

Images from tfs; style.com; own scans