SPOTTED IN THE FREE STATE
Star model has the last laugh over schoolboy taunts
Free State farm girl Ansolet Rossouw was in fine form at the South African Style Awards at Sandton City’s Diamond Walk, scooping the category for the most stylish model. She has been featured in Vogue Germany, Document, LOVE magazine and the South African edition of Elle.
● Every time Free State farm girl Ansolet Rossouw walks onto an international catwalk, she rubs the map of Africa tattooed on her arm. “It reminds me that I’m an African and different,” says the 19-year-old model.
It is barely three years since Rossouw caught the eye of a modeling boss in Bloemfontein, and before long she made her debut on the ramp at a Dolce & Gabbana show.
Tonight she’ll be celebrated at the SA Style Awards at Sandton City Diamond Walk.
Scooping the category of most stylish model, she says her success “is just a girl’s dream becoming reality sooner than expected”.
She recalls her clumsy start as a model at the Dolce & Gabbana show when she was
16. “I was walking like a baby giraffe trying to find its feet. I had never modelled before and I didn’t know how to walk.”
Since then, she’s walked for luxury labels such as Valentino, Fendi, Chanel, YSL and Max Mara.
At school Rossouw was teased about her big ears. “In grade 9, they used to call me a jackal. Boys used to say to me no one wants to date a jackal.”
The name-calling now far behind her, Rossouw is on the cover of the latest Vogue Beauty Japan, and has been featured in Vogue Germany, Document, LOVE magazine and the South African edition of Elle.
Thoughts of being a model crossed her mind when she was young “but as a girl somewhere at a farm in Bloemfontein, the thought goes away very quickly”.
Then Fanie Nel from FanJam model agency in Cape Town saw an Instagram photo posted by a friend of Rossouw’s. She ignored his request for her parents’ contact details “for like three months”.
Nel eventually made contact with her parents, and they agreed to bring her to Cape Town for a meeting.
“My father Dirk is a very traditional Afrikaner man and when they first told him I have to go to New York his response was ‘nee f*k man’, but he had to put his trust in Fanie.”
Nel is also the man behind faces such as Behati Prinsloo and Chané Hüsselmann.
“Ansolet has unique features that you can’t ignore and when I saw her on that photo, I knew I had to sign her up,” he said.
Nel said he’s impressed by how humble she still is.
“Walking next to Bella and Gigi Hadid and still be humble says a lot about how she was raised.”
Remaining a farm girl at heart, Rossouw walks barefoot, even in the French capital, Nel said. “I said, ‘Ansolet this is Paris,’ and she said, ‘So what?’ ”
Bloemfontein is still the base from where she travels to all her international gigs.
The founder of the Style Awards, Jillian Grogor, said Rossouw’s story was very inspiring.
“It is good for young people to know that you can become anything you want despite your imperfections. She’s heading campaigns globally and that’s what the awards are about.”
I was walking like a baby giraffe trying to find its feet
Ansolet Rossouw Speaking about the first time she modelled on a catwalk at the age of 16 — at a Dolce & Gabbana show