Photo: Bruce Weber / Courtesy of CR Fashion Book
One year ago, Gigi Hadid was just another high school senior playing volleyball in sunny California. Today, Hadid has become a near-overnight sensation and one of the fashion industry’s bona fide It girls.
It was Carine Roitfeld who helped put the 19-year-old’s career into overdrive, leading to covers for CR Fashion Book and Harper’s Bazaar, Tom Ford campaign shoots, and a spot on Chanel’s runway. “I was drawn to her right away because she was so different, and I love girls that are different—different from me, different from what everyone has seen before,” Roitfeld told Style.com. “I knew immediately that she was going to be a star. It is not just the look or the personality, but the feeling you get when you meet them. You believe they have what it takes, and so you do everything to make it happen for them.”
Hadid has branched out on her own and landed major work in the past few months, including her recent Maybelline New York contract, continuing work with Guess, and a new role with Victoria’s Secret Pink.
With a killer work ethic, a sense of humor, and humility—and famous friends like Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner, who make frequent cameos in her Instagram selfies—Hadid has landed the Model of the Year Award at tonight’s Daily Front Row Fashion Los Angeles Awards.
The newly minted supermodel talked candidly with us about her jitters while auditioning for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, dancing to Britney Spears with Taylor Swift, and how she spent an entire night bawling over a breakup hours before her Tom Ford campaign shoot.
