Stella’s carving out a brand new career... but she’s still a star in the fashion galaxy
SHE almost gave up modelling when she became a mother but later admitted she couldn’t find a better part-time job. Now at the age of 43, former Vogue cover girl Stella Tennant is proving she still has what it takes as a supermodel after being asked to feature in two international fashion campaigns by Versace and Moschino.
The aristocratic beauty, who lives in Edrom, Berwickshire, appeared to be developing her interests in a different direction last year after launching a sculpture business with her sister Issy, 49. Trading as Tennant & Tennant, their first major exhibition is due to be held in London in September.
But those who thought she’d ditched high fashion for grafting in a workshop on the banks of the River Tweed are about to be blown away by the British icon’s latest looks.
Moschino has reunited the model, whose mother is the renowned painter and gardener Lady Emma Tennant, sister of the Duke of Devonshire, with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Karen Elson and Saskia de Brauw for its autumn/winter range.
She has also been hand-picked by Donatella Versace to be one of the label’s faces, her hair slicked back and dressed in black leather.
Miss Tennant was discovered in her early twenties when she was photographed by Steven Meisel for Vogue magazine. As a regular model for Chanel, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, she has earned millions.
At the beginning of 1998, however, and pregnant with her first child Marcel, she announced she was retiring from the industry.
After daughter Cecily was born in 2001, she dipped a toe back in the fashion world, saying: ‘It seemed incredibly incompatible before I had children, but once I started working, I realised it’s a brilliant job. I don’t have to work if I don’t want to. I have long holidays and it’s not nine to five. I haven’t found a better part-time job.’ Her youngest daughter, Iris, was born in 2005, by which time she made it clear she was keen to return to her two passions, gardening and sculpture. Tennant & Tennant produces lamps, mirrors and chandeliers inspired by the flora and fauna of the Borders. Miss Tennant said: ‘I like getting things made – going to the foundry, seeing how we are going to make a branch for a chandelier, seeing how these things come into being.’
The exhibition will run at 49 Lambs Conduit Street, London, from September 12-14.