Stella Tennant
It happened by accident. According to Stella Tennant, her triumphant modelling debut in 1993 was a fluke. Then 23, Tennant had submitted a couple of passport photos to the fashion assistant at British Vogue for an upcoming shoot profiling a group of unorthodox English roses. With her aristocratic heritage and a bull-ring septum piercing, Tennant was the epitome of blue-blooded British cool. Still, she was shocked when she found out she’d been booked for the “London Girls” shoot. The call came through while she was on holidays in the Scottish Highlands, working on an art piece made of sheep’s wool from her family farm.
Tennant nervously took an overnight train back to London for the shoot with famed fashion photographer Steven Meisel (who had just worked with Madonna on her) and stylist Isabella Blow. “Stella came off the train smelling like goats,” Blow would later recall in an interview about that fateful shoot. “She reminded me of a farm animal. Her beauty was in her eyes – she was absolutely wild, like a wild bird, a tomboy who’d never worn a dress.”
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