Stella What did next
SHE HAS FOUR MILLION FOLLOWERS AND DATES KRISTEN STEWART, BUT STELLA MAXWELL IS REFRESHINGLY DOWN TO EARTH. SHE’S ALSO THE NEW FACE OF PINKO
when asked about role models, Stella Maxwell immediately references Angelina Jolie in the 1998 biographical HBO film Gi. Ina it, Angelina plays real-life supermodel Gia Carangi, who was outspoken about her bisexuality in 1970s New York during the AIDS epidemic – and it was the film that catapulted Angelina into the Hollywood stratosphere.
It’s perhaps fitting that the Belgian born, Northern Irish model would be inspired by such a woman. While Stella – who has modelled for clients as diverse as Versace and Victoria’s Secret and has four million Instagram followers to boot – has never publicly ctsotwamri lmigehntted on her sexuality, she has been dating Kristen Stewart for the past two years. Before that, she dated Miley Cyrus. But like Gia, Stella is a female model in the public realm who is an advocate for LGBT rights.
‘There are many interpretations of family,’ says Maxwell, who lives in Los Angeles with girlfriend Kristen and the dog they adopted together last year – a caramel-coloured mixed breed called Trip. ‘I met him at the neighbourhood pound,’ says Stella. ‘I loved him from the moment I saw him and I am so happy he is part of my family.’
The 28-year-old, who was raised in Belgium before moving first to Canberra in Australia, and then to Wellington, New Zealand, aged 14, was scouted at school – a friend of a friend asked her if she had ever considered modelling. Up until that point, she hadn’t, although with her gazelle-like limbs and textbook model looks, it was perhaps inevitable that she would end up on the catwalk. Ever modest, Stella insists that she was simply ‘lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time’.
She walked her first catwalk show – for Victoria’s Secret – in 2014 at the age of 24, and swiftly gained her ‘wings’ the following year. Since then, she has become one of the modelling industry’s most recognisable faces, gracing the cover of countless ig,n art na edrzn ii a sat aioreng au ll maraognaz in es, including the runway, walking for brands such as Balmain and Marc Jacobs.
She’s equally clocking up campaign mileage, fronting the Pinko campaign this season, along with advertisements for brands such as Roberto Cavalli, The Kooples and Max Factor – she was ‘stoked’ when she got the Max Factor gig, having always been ‘really excited about make-up’. And last year, she was named Model of the Year at the Fashion Awards in Los Angeles – she arrived at the event and walked the red carpet with fellow VS Angel Lily Aldridge.
And while she says modelling is hard, Stella is ‘thankful every day for the opportunity… lots of people have harder jobs [than mine]’. To de-stress, she meditates and practises yoga. She also allows herself indulgences and insists her ethos is to ‘go with the flow’ – she regularly eats doughnuts and cites her Uber account as her greatest extravagance. ‘Possessions are an illusion,’ she says of her unmaterialistic lifestyle. ‘We come into this world with nothing and we leave this earth with the same.’