Stella: How I swapped the catwalk for country life (and why I never want my kids to be models)

SHE graces the catwalks of London, Paris and Milan and spent several years in the buzz of New York.

But supermodel Stella Tennant has now told how she gladly swaps the glitz and glamour of fashion capitals for life at home in the Borders.

The 45-year-old, who first made her name in a 1993 shoot for British Vogue, continues to be a much sought-after star of her profession.

But the mother-of-four has revealed she actively discourages her children from carving out a career in the ‘fickle’ industry that made her famous. Instead, she wants her four children, aged 11 to 17, to focus on their schooling.

Miss Tennant returned from New York with her family 13 years ago and moved into a sprawling manor house near Duns, Berwickshire, just 40 miles from her roots in Hawick.

She said: ‘The first summer we had in Scotland, the older two just played at the back door with some gravel and a hosepipe, and were really happy, because it was more than they had in New York.

‘The younger two are much wilder and free. And we’ve got a vegetable garden at home. There’s nothing better than doing your own homegrown stuff.’

And while Miss Tennant may still sport trendy clothes and a designer handbag, she finds the Scottish climate demands a practical addition: ‘A vest, always a vest.’

When she began modelling, her air of aristocratic beauty was perhaps unsurprising, given that she is the granddaughter of Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who was the last surviving Mitford sister until her death in 2014.

But it was the combination of Miss Tennant’s striking looks and punky style that made her a perfect subject for photographer Steven Meisel in the Anglo-Saxon Attitudes shoot for Vogue when she was 22.

Since then, she has consistently worked alongside the top names in fashion and has been the face of both Chanel and Versace.

Yet despite her success she maintains a pragmatic approach to the highly-competitive world that saw her rub shoulders with the likes of Kate Moss – and this awareness means she will not encourage her children to do likewise.

In an interview with ES Magazine, she said: ‘I’m very much discouraging them from pursuing ideas of modelling. They’ve got to get on with school. Education is really important. Never more so than now.

‘Modelling is the most fickle thing ever. It’s not something that I would ever recommend someone to try too hard to do, because it either happens or it doesn’t.

‘It’s out of your control – that’s the problem with it. You might be offered stuff, and that’s great. If you’re not offered it? Forget it.’

When she works these days, it is usually just a couple of days at a time and weekends are ‘pretty sacred’.

She added: ‘It’s very visible, but it’s not a full-time job. Occasionally, if I’ve been working in the holidays, the kids come with me on trips, so they’ve seen a bit of what my working life is really like. But the house is not full of magazines. I’m in my mid-forties, I’ve got kids, I live in the countryside... I’m really on the periphery. I can dip into it, go back home and it’s another life.

‘But it’s so different being a young model now. You have all the pressures of social media. You’re expected to be involved with all kinds of projects and exposing so much of yourself constantly. I would hate that side of it.’