Bazaar Beauty Profile: Daria Werbowy
A Thing of Beauty. Daria Werbowy's meteoric rise to supermodel-dom is topped with her recently inked contract with beauty giant Lancôme, but she isn't about to ditch her tomboy past for the red-carpet life just yet. By Josephine Fairley.
Rugby. It's an unlikely sport for a supermodel who's just landed a plum multi-year contract with an über-make-up brand (Lancôme), joining a long and distinguished list of faces (Isabella Rosselini, Uma Thurman and Lizzie JAgger). Okay, so we're talking women's rugby - but don't kid yourself that's in any way a fluffy version. Throwing back her head, 22-year-old WErbowy laughs: "I think girls are worse - hair-pulling, pinching ... You know how competitive women can be - our cat instincts come out. We had ambulances at virtually every match." Actually, in between modelling assignments, Werbowy - who's moved to the fashion epicentre of Manhattan from Ontario - is currently searching for a local league, so she can keep up her favourite sport. Suggest that a broken nose might not be such a smart career move for a girl who's just won the supermodel lottery, and she answers, with perfect seriousness: "Oh, you can't stop doing things because of your job. I still snowboard; I still throw myself off ski jumps and land in a tangle. I sailed all the time and skateboarded when I was a kid and was a total tomboy, so I can't shake that off ..."
Werbowy should be allowed her indulgences, perhaps (even if they are on the dangerous side). She's modelled since age nine - "catalogues, extra work, mostly". Then at 14, the willowy, cornflower-blue-eyed beauty won a modelling competition; the prize was a contract with the prestigious agency IMG Models New York. At 17, after high school, Werbowy was ready to take up modelling full-time, hitting the catwalks during the exact same week that two planes flew into the World Trade Centre. But after that somewhat inauspicious start, she's now working non-stop, starring in fashion campaigns for Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, Ridley Scott's commercial for Prada, and runway appearances for you-name-it-they've-booked-her: Versace, Fendi, Burberry, Calvin Klein - and on and on and on ... "I sometimes feel like a 22-year-old trapped in a 40-year-old's life!" smiles Werbowy, somewhat ruefully. "I've grown up so quickly. My friends call me up to say, 'so-and-so is dating Bobby' and 'Ricky did this to Suzie', and I'm like, 'I have to run, I'm off to my accountant!' But I figure, if I make the most of the opportunities I'm given now, I can have my wild and crazy years in my 30s and 40s."
Initially, Werbowy looked upon modelling "as an easy way to make money and finance my art studies". Now, those studies are on hold; though she may not yet be on the same radar screen as Naomi, Linda and Cindy (who are all still working their cashmere socks off at 30-something-and-the-rest), model biz insiders point out Daria's already a one-name brand - having ditched the "Werbowy" for work (probably because nobody can pronounce it). And yes, at a time when the catwalks are dominated by exotic girls with cats' eyes and panther-like grace, whose names end in "-ova", "-vitch" or "-insky", Werbowy's got the requisite Slavic heritage (of Ukrainian origin, she was born in Poland but her parents moved to Canada when she was three).
"I had a very normal upbringing, which I think keeps my feet firmly on the ground. I go home to visit whenever I can, and stay up late making perogies [Polish pasties], beet soup and cabbage rolls with my mum. It's still my favourite food." Not for this 1.78m-tall beauty is a starvation diet, then. "I think it's important to have everything in moderation. I love, love, love chocolate - white chocolate, especially. But I also eat a lot of salads, and mostly I shop at a little organic market near my apartment in the West Village, or the farmer's market on Union Square if I'm not working."
Nowadays, she's cooking for two. That's herself and the cat. "'The Cat With No Name' - he's an Abyssinian kitten, and I haven't decided what to call him yet." A boyfriend substitute, perhaps? "Well, it's hard to have a relationship in this business. When people start recognising you, it's a weird thing: you start to question why they want to get to know you ... basically, I'd like to reincarnate River Phoenix or Jeff Buckley [a promising singer-songwriter who drowned during an evening swim in 1997], please!"
Meanwhile, she is enjoying every globetrotting minute of a stellar career - Paris and Milan (for the collections), Bora Bora (fashion shoot) and her favourite destination is so far, Marrakesh: "the smells, the sounds, it's like all your senses are heightened, and the energy is amazing. And great shopping! I bought 10 carpets, nine of which are in storage because I have no space in my apartment for them!" But in refreshing contrast to her all-expenses-paid, first-class working life, she recently roughed it out in Ireland for three weeks. "A gypsy road trip with my best friend; we slept in a camper van, drove along the coast, swam in the ocean, didn't shower. It was fabulous!" (She has been quoted as saying "my hair looks better when it's a little dirty" - but perhaps that's taking it to extremes ...) Alongside the Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Chloé, then, there are dozens of pairs of Earl jeans, and several boyish leather jackets, the spoils of her regular Saturday flea market foraging.
Ultimately, she would like to sail around the world: Lancôme might just have a future Ellen McArthur on its books (for two months a year, until a couple of years ago, Werbowy taught sailing to problem ghetto children). "But I think Lancôme would [get] a little upset if I took off now!", she acknowledges. That art degree ultimately beckons, too (so she can study her heroes Warhol, Picasso and Bacon). Meanwhile, for now, you'll find Werbowy buried in Herman Hesse's Siddharta or Colin Wilson's The Outsider (a study of Camus / Nietzsche / Dostoevsky and others), rather than a glossy magazine, while hair and make-up put the finishing touches to that flawless skin, ready for her close-up.
Of course, if daredevil Werbowy has her way, they might well soon be slapping on the camouflage for rugby-induced bruises and scratches. But I can't help thinking that even with Lancôme Maquicomplet Complete Coverage Concealer, a broken nose might be something of a challenge to disguise.
), I present to you the full article on Daria Werbowy.
