Supermodel single mum
At 35... twice the age of her catwalk rivals
SHE’S at an age when most models are thinking about retiring rather than beginning their careers.
But for 35-year-old single mother Elaine Harris it’s all been plain sailing since becoming the face of a luxury super-yacht company.
Her striking looks were considered perfect for an advertising campaign by London-based Glider Yachts, whose high-performance customised sports day boats can cost as much as £1 million, and she now has fashion shoots lined up in Dubai, Monaco and Cannes.
The former marketing manager had her first taste of modelling three years ago when she appeared in a photoshoot as a favour for a friend, six months after giving birth to her daughter Salina.
Her 5ft 7in, size 10 figure sets the Scot apart from more conventional skinny models in their teens.
But at London Fashion Week last year she strode out on the catwalk for couture label Kolchagov Barba, whose designs are worn by celebrities ranging from Sophie EllisBextor and Katherine Jenkins to Dannii Minogue. Dundee-based Miss Harris, whose break came in 2014 when she was a finalist in the UK’s Top Model competition, said: ‘If someone had told me I was going to have a daughter then my life would change overnight and I was going to be a model, I would have laughed.
‘Everyone loves a good underdog story, and all the rules about modelling I seem to have broken.’
But while she does not believe being older is a setback, she understands that casting agents are looking for a specific type and does not take it personally if she is turned down.
She said: ‘I can take criticism a lot better now, constructively, than I did at 15 and 16. As a teenager you might look at other models and want to be slimmer or taller but I feel I am quite confident in my own skin.’
She admits juggling her new career with parenthood is challenging as she raises Salina, now three, on her own. But she reflects: ‘All Salina knows is me doing that type of work, so I am quite lucky that she can come around to shoots. She enjoys it.’