Interview on WWD

The cast of the new Steven Meisel-directed ck one campaign took to London to host the U.K. leg of the MTV Push program of live music events that the brand sponsors. Alice Dellal and Pixie Geldof handled the turntables during the night, and Lara Stone, the face of Calvin Klein, played host at east London’s Village Underground club, where new artists including Alexis Jordan and Katy B performed. Ahead of the party, WWD caught up with Stone to chat about the campaign, as she had her makeup done backstage.

WWD: How are you feeling about hosting [the MTV Push event]?
Lara Stone: I’ve never done anything like this before so I’m quite nervous. But I think because it’s ck one, really it’s quite relaxed — at the end of the day it will be fine.

WWD: Did you have involvement in choosing the acts?
L.S.: No, I didn’t actually but I’m very excited to hear everybody play….I can’t lie. I like more kind of old music. They’re the future of music.

WWD: What was it like shooting the ad?
L.S.: Oh yeah, it was so much fun, I think it was such a great concept to put everybody together in this box, and you can’t see anyone filming you or taking your picture, so all your inhibitions go away.

WWD: Were you together with the whole cast when you were shooting?
L.S.: Yeah, we were there [in New York] for four days. The first day was a bit like, “Who are all these people?” you know, and now we all get along great.

WWD: Were you aware of the original ck one commercials when you were shooting the ad?
L.S.: Yeah, of course, because when I was little, 12 or 10 or something like that, I remember ck one was my first perfume, I was obsessed with it. I had to have it. I had to buy it at every shop we went to, I was like, “I want my perfume, I want more, I want more!” So it always meant so much to me, so that’s why it’s pretty crazy to be a part of that.

WWD: Do you think hosting will lead to other things outside modeling?
L.S.: I never gave it that much thought to pursue acting or anything, but I would definitely be a Bond girl if they asked me. For sure — I would make a great evil Bond girl!

Interview on The Observer

Lara Stone: ‘I think naughty photoshoots suit my personality’

With her iconic gap-toothed pout and fuller figure, Lara Stone has become the most dominant supermodel since Kate Moss. Here, the one-time wild child talks candidly about her unlikely emergence, settling down with David Walliams and why she – a size 8 – is uncomfortable as the poster girl for curvier women

The first time I saw the Dutch model Lara Stone she was lying, bleached out and ill, in a metal hospital bed clinging to Agyness Deyn. She looked awful and beautiful at the same time. The image was part of a fashion story that photographer Steven Meisel shot for Italian Vogue in 2007, inspired by the rising trend for young celebrities such as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan to check into rehab. His photos showed supermodels like Sasha Pivovarova and Deyn being dragged along hospital corridors by guards, shivering through cold turkey and sitting through group therapy. The story featured many top models, some of the best-known faces in the world, but something about Lara’s fragility and unusual beauty stood out.

It’s there in the flesh when I meet her this July, though the circumstances couldn’t be more different. We’re in her suite at the Adlon, an opulent hotel next to the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin, famous for its many celebrity guests but perhaps most famous for the time Michael Jackson dangled his baby son Blanket over one of its window sills in 2002. Twenty-six-year-old Stone is dressed in a glittering gold sheath dress. She’s here for Calvin Klein’s presentation at Berlin Fashion Week, an event held at Die Münze, the former German Mint, for 700 guests and which costs more than $1m to stage. She’s one of the guests of honour alongside actors Zoe Saldana, Diane Kruger and Kelly Lutz. They all appear in Calvin Klein’s new ad campaigns, but only Stone appears in three.

“One of my career highlights is the first time I saw myself on a massive billboard in New York when I did Calvin Klein Jeans [in 2007],” she says. “Oh my God, it’s me! Massive and half-naked! It was a special feeling.”

Over the past few years she has become one of the most in-demand models in the world. Somehow Stone now represents everything that fashion is interested in: a slightly serious demeanour, a fuller figure (she’s a size 8 to the standard model size 6), a heaving bosom (cup size 34C), even the gap between her front teeth. This season the diastema has become such an essential for models that girls are apparently having dental surgery to acquire one; even the Wall Street Journal has reported on the trend.

Stone’s ascent was started with appearances in a number of controversial fashion stories – like the 2007 rehab shoot – that ran in French Vogue, V and other cutting-edge magazines, but which made the jump into the blogosphere and the mainstream media. These shoots were purposefully inappropriate, featuring models in blackface or beating men to a bloody pulp. They were the perfect showcase for Lara’s wicked, frightening but mesmerising looks. “I think naughty shoots suit my personality,” she tells me. “I don’t mind doing a straightforward fashion shoot, but it’s more fun when there’s something naughty in it.”

At the same time she gained mainstream credibility by starring in ad campaigns for major fashion houses such as Givenchy and Jean Paul Gaultier and appearing on the catwalk for Chanel, Prada and Stella McCartney. This ability to switch from high-end to cutting-edge fashion is rare – especially in a model whose looks are as distinctive as Stone’s.

The image she presented as her fame grew was complemented by the frank interviews she gave. She asked an i-D magazine journalist in 2008 to stop asking questions about her tits and said that men had started wolf-whistling her when she was 11 because she used to wear short skirts and crop tops, but she hadn’t understood why. And she was convinced that Morrissey had written “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” about her. In 2009 she told British Vogue that she’d started a group with her girlfriend called the We Hate Men But We Can’t Be Gay club. She said that drugs weren’t a problem because she’d already tried everything back in Holland, but that she’d checked into rehab in Cape Town, South Africa earlier that year because she’d become a “complete alcoholic”. She told Interview magazine that she got through the last two rounds of fashion shows prior to rehab with drinks in her bag and that, when drunk, she thought it was funny to go up to people and slap them in the face.

By the end of 2009 it was impossible to miss Lara Stone. She was called “fashion’s It girl” by W magazine and “girl of the year” by British Vogue. She’d had an entire issue of French Vogue dedicated to her. The only other model to receive a similar honour was Kate Moss, who guest-edited the magazine in 2005. The comparison with Moss was starting to be made more frequently. In the 90s Moss had found fame as part of a wave of new waif-like models who replaced the 80s Amazonian supermodels. Stone is very much the poster girl for the new curvier women who are coming into fashion. Both are notable for possessing a unique look.

Despite the fashion industry’s adoration, Stone said that while she didn’t mind the comments about her teeth (the French considered such a gap to be good luck), she objected to the constant references to her weight and shape. She felt pressured to diet because of it and felt self-conscious when shooting in swimwear.

“It shouldn’t necessarily be all about size,” she says now. “I think it should be about diversity, because it’s boring if everybody looks the same. In the real world there are so many different shapes, sizes, colours and backgrounds. I don’t know how much I personally had to do with any of it, but I think it’s great that things are changing.”

At this stage in her career, Moss sealed her fame by dating Hollywood movie star Johnny Depp. Stone made a more unexpected love match when this year, on 16 May, she married British comedian David Walliams. He might not be the husband you would have imagined for her if you’d looked through her portfolio, but the pair looked blissfully happily as they wed at Claridge’s in London in front of family and friends, including Tom Ford, Mario Testino, Barbara Windsor and Christopher Biggins. Toasts were made with popcorn rather than champagne in deference to the bride’s sobriety, and a synchronised-swimming team performed for the happy couple at the reception at Shoreditch House.

“He makes me laugh,” Stone has said of Walliams, with a line that brings to mind Jessica Rabbit. “He’s a proper gentleman. He’s a bit mean, but in a good way.”

Both have since said they’d love to start a family. Stone recently said she’d like to have “little gay boys”.

Despite her recent meteoric rise, success didn’t come easily to Stone. Raised in the quiet village of Mierlo in the south of Holland, she was spotted aged 14 on the Paris metro while on holiday with her parents (she has an English father and Dutch mother) and little sister.

“In school I was always the funny-looking, tall, skinny kid that got made fun of because of my weird teeth. When someone comes up and says you should be a model, it’s the last thing you expect to hear.”

But she decided to pursue the suggestion. She entered a modelling competition held by the Elite agency, and though she didn’t win she was taken on by the company. Stone moved to Paris at the age of 16 and was soon kicking her heels in a flat with other models, woefully underemployed. But that early rejection doesn’t seem to have bothered her.

“There were many years when I wasn’t working, but I was having fun – I was 16 and I was living in Paris on my own. I didn’t want to move back in with my parents so I stuck it out. If I hadn’t, I might be working at McDonald’s,” she explains pragmatically.

In the end, she switched modelling agencies to IMG and her fortunes promptly changed. She started to get prestigious work in 2006 at the age of 22 – old for a model. Riccardo Tisci, head designer at Givenchy, was her first champion: “Lara had this incredible vulnerability about her – so sensitive I just wanted to cocoon and protect her.” He also says she has a “dry, wicked sense of humour”. She made her first catwalk appearance for the fashion house in 2006 and became the face of Givenchy in 2007. Then Tisci introduced her to Carine Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue, and that really was it. “We get along very well,” says Stone of Roitfeld. “She’s a bit naughty and she doesn’t like rules.”

Now that Stone appears in the British tabloids’ paparazzi shots as Mrs David Walliams as frequently as she does in French Vogue as a muse to celebrated stylists and photographers, I wonder what she thinks of the press interest.

“Well, it’s strange. In a way it’s flattering because most people do write nice things – thank God; in other ways it’s funny and sometimes it’s just horrible. I really do not enjoy being secretly followed around on a boat when on holiday or having cameras pointed up my dress.”

Stone gamely smiles her unique and highly lucrative smile for the cameras at the Calvin Klein event that night in July, but disappears before the end of the party. By the time we catch up again in September, she’s added two more Vogue covers, one British, one French, to her collection. She appears on the 90th anniversary issue of French Vogue wearing nothing but a mask, gloves and a choker – everything but her now iconic gap-toothed pout and impressive cleavage is obscured.

She admits she finds interviews quite hard to do. “Most people just ask the same questions. I start to feel really stupid after a while saying the same things over and over again.”

It’s a very sensible reaction to the situation Stone finds herself in. Her skill for posing and her fascinating looks have propelled her to her position as one of the world’s most celebrated models, but she is not responsible for, and really shouldn’t be expected to explain, the vagaries of fashion, which have deemed that her particular assets are so right for our times. How can one woman explain why boobs are considered chic right now or what it is about her smile that makes designers swoon?

In fact Stone has spent her summer in the most unzeitgeisty way possible. For the last few months she’s been a housewife, she says. “My husband has been super busy all summer, so I’ve enjoyed taking care of him as best I could.”

We speak just before the Paris Fashion Week party held in honour of French Vogue’s 90th anniversary at the Hotel Pozzo di Borgo. The party’s theme is the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut. But Stone has an admirable perspective on the event’s importance in her list of things to do that week. “Well, I’m going to Disneyland tomorrow – that’s always exciting and the happiest place on earth! And I’m excited for French Vogue’s masquerade ball this Thursday. How fun – a masked ball! And we’re seeing my family next week in Holland, so that’s always great.”

It’s somehow pleasing that she’s as equally excited to go to Disneyland as to the most important party during fashion week.

Designer Marc Jacobs has cast Lara Stone in ad campaigns for Louis Vuitton, and he compares her to the great models such as Naomi Campbell and – of course – Kate Moss, girls with personalities and individuality who have idiosyncrasies. He’s right, and there’s every chance that, if she wants to, Stone will have a career just as long, lucrative and influential as the original supermodels. Where he’s wrong is to compare her to anyone else at all. It’s easy to think of her as the new Kate Moss. But this year’s model is simply the inimitable Lara Stone.

(via tigerrouge)

Interview on NY Times

A Quick Dresser in the Right Job (by Karin Nelson)

LARA STONE, model and new face of Calvin Klein.

WHAT I’M WEARING NOW A Calvin Klein dress from their prefall collection. I’m loving white right now because I’m feeling very tan. The shoes are Alaïa. Most of my shoes are Alaïa. My husband gave me the necklace for my birthday. I wear it everyday. It’s Margiela. He surprised me with it.

STYLE CREDO I’m usually in jeans and a T-shirt and flats. I like quite minimalist clothing. I always feel awkward in bright color or prints, although I have been trying to wear more color, and it’s really not as bad as I thought. In the evening I like to dress more sexy. I have a few of those really skintight little Alaïa dresses that I love. It’s only recently that I started to enjoy getting all dressed up for a night out. But I still like to keep it simple. I hardly ever need more than half an hour to get ready.

ON MAKEUP I don’t use that much. Just cream and some mascara. I always love the idea of red lips, but it doesn’t really work on me. It comes off, gets on my teeth.

ON MY WEDDING DRESS It was perfect for me, thanks to Riccardo Tisci, who knows me so well. It was very romantic without being too sweet. And sexy, but in a very simple, understated way. I know it sounds cliché, but I found it timeless. I’m sure I’ll still love it in 50 years. It was perfect.

CURRENT OBSESSION Cupcakes. I love the ones from Primrose, a little bakery near my house in London.

(via ny times)

Interview for Folha de Sao Paulo

I AM A BIT MEAN, SAYS LARA STONE, THE MODEL OF THE MOMENT.

FOLHA: Is it hard to be a model these days, with all that pressure to have a perfect body?
LARA: I don’t care about issues like being thin or healthy, I do not do exercises. The most important is to be happy about yourself. If one start being obsessed about those things you go crazy.

FOLHA: What kind of difficulties did you face to become a model?
LARA: Many. Being alone, fear of being rejected, gown up too fast, spend to much time on planes and in places where you don´t know anybody.

FOLHA: How was to replace Madonna for LV?
LARA: I was excited but nervous at the same time. Now I think it is not a big deal, it was just a natural transition.

FOLHA: What do you think about being compared to Brigitte Bardot?
LARA: I would not compare myself to Brigitte, after all she was one of the most beautiful women of the world. I think she is an icon but radical because of her polemic opinions and sometimes racist.

FOLHA: The photographer Bruce weber said you are ” big, mean and gorgeous “. Do you agree?
LARA: No. I am not big, I am a bit mean and I do not consider myself pretty.

Interview by JD Vision

It’s ironic that I’m always going on about who my favorite girls are and I’ve yet to pay tribute to the one that sits at the top of the list. Sure, I’ve mentioned how laid-back she is, that she’s “cool as ice” and of course her photos appear all throughout my backstage coverage for V Magazine. But it is for those same reasons that I just always assumed it was clear, that for me, it doesn’t get any better than Lara Stone.

Laying on the couch exhausted from a late night, I was thrilled to learn that my favorite little Dutch girl was not only in town, but right around the corner. She popped by for a smoke and some Thai and we got to catch up on what’s been goin’ down with Ms. Stone as of late.

So…What Up Lara Stone?

JD: So Lara, I don’t know if your aware but I actually wrote about you my first season backstage before we knew each other.
Lara Stone: No way, you did?
JD: Ya, I said I shared a smoke backstage at Calvin with this cool-*** dutch chick.
LS: I didn’t see that. The good Ole days
JD: A lot has changed for you since then.
LS: Ya it’s been crazy.
JD: Crazy good or crazy bad?
LS: Crazy very good. I love being busy.
JD: Well you are crazy, but my favorite kinda crazy.
LS: Thank you dear.
JD: I love that on your myspace page you posted the video of when you infamously “stumbled” at Lagerfeld.
LS: Stumbled? It was a full on fall.
JD: Well I had never seen it until recently, so it makes sense now why you mentioned to me backstage this past spring, that you were scared of the runway. And now I know why. Still scared?
LS: Yes, cuz my feet are too little.
JD: So where exactly are you from anyways?
LS: Mierlo, Holland
JD: How has modeling been for you?
LS: Long
JD: And how old are you now?
LS: 23
JD: Your tits are amazing. What are those 34B?
LS: 34C
JD: What kind of guys do you like?
LS: Hot naughty ones.
JD: So where shall we go eat?
LS: I don’t know, we’re in your neighborhood, you tell me.
JD: What do you like to eat?
LS: Spicy.
JD: Who’s your favorite backstage photographer?
LS: Jim or James and Abso. And I like the other blond too.
JD: Uh…I’m sitting right here.
LS: And you. Its never the same backstage without you.

(via jdvision)

LARA STONE’S CHRISTMAS LIST

We asked Lara for her wish list from Santa. Lara said:

1. A pair of orange Hermes cashmere socks
2. A suite at the Eurodisney Hotel
3. An airplane
4. A big fat bunny
5. A puppy
6. Holland to win the World Cup
7. A Chanel motorbike

(via thelovemagazineblog.wordpress.com)

Interview for W Magazine - July 2009

Were you interested in fashion before you got “discovered” by the model agent’s wife in the Paris metro?
Um, no. I thought modeling was a big joke because I was just a funny-looking teenager.

You moved to Paris when you were sixteen. Were you ever homesick?
I wasn’t homesick too much. My family used to travel a lot when I was little and I always wanted to be on my own. We would be on holiday somewhere and I would just tell my parents, “I’ll meet you back at this church in two hours.” And they would let me wander off on my own. I just wanted to figure it out by myself.


You just moved to London from New York. When you’re not working, what do you do with yourself? Any hobbies?
No! What qualifies as a hobby, anyway? I don’t collect stamps. I want to learn how to cook. I got all these cookbooks the other day. But I don’t have any patience. I had a barbecue at my house for my friends, and I figured I could do a barbecue, but all these flames kept coming out and then inside [the meat] was all raw. It was gross.

You’re curvier than many other models. Did you ever feel pressured to change the way you look?
I guess so. When I first lived in Paris I was a lot skinnier, and also a lot younger. It’s still like that, [the girls] are skinnier and younger. I mean, it’s not so great for me. It is a bit of pressure. I’m still working enough as it is—but I don’t want to be the only fat one. If you know what I mean.

The irony, of course, is that you aren’t fat at all.
I never really know what to say about the whole body thing. I try not to obsess, really. Most things fit, and then sometimes things really don’t fit, and they have a seamstress fix it. I went through kind of a big change a few months ago, and I decided I really want to be healthy, not just skinnier but healthier.

Do you talk about the pressure to look a certain way with other models?
Never very seriously. Usually, their reaction is that they wish they had tits like mine.

Numero #106 September 2009

FASHION IS… About making people really, really ridiculously good looking.
EMERGING TALENT… Is talented, hopefully.
INDIVIDUALITY IS… A necessity.
THERE’S TOO MANY… Really annoying people, spiders, rules, “Designers”, Americans with spandex and fanny packs, people who look up to Paris Hilton (although she is always nice).
DID YOU KNOW… Holland is the most amazing country in the world?
I SCREAM WHEN… I’m on a plane or at Euro Disney.
I DANCE LIKE… An idiot.
CAKE MAKES ME… Fat and happy.
IF I COULD… I would be invisible. Or I would invent a time machine, or something that would get rid of all cables… I hate cables.
I HAVE NEVER… Been happy at an airport, had sex on a plane, dated my friend’s ex boyfriend or behaved myself.
MY DREAMS ARE… Always really disturbing.
MY VICE IS… Smoking, coffee, swearing, being grumpy, Appeltaart.
I SUCK… Yes.
I LIVE EAST… Because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I wasn’t constantly surrounded by super trendy people! No, I was homeless and needed a place to live.
I WOULDN’T PAY FOR… Sex, a cat, a boob job, to see Brüno again, to go bungee jumping, a house in Mierlo, anything pink…
MY MUM… Is really good at ‘knock down ginger’ in the middle of the night (when you ring somebody’s doorbell and run)! My mum, dad and my sister are amazing and I love them more than anything in the world.