Edie Campbell: more than a pretty face

On Sunday, she took a plane from Mauritius (where she was shooting for a future issue of Vogue Paris) to London, where she lives. On Monday, she was on-set at dawn. On Tuesday, she was booked for Paris. On Wednesday, she had another job in London. On Thursday, she touched down in New York for Fashion Week. On Friday, we were booked to interview her at 3pm (Paris time, 9am New York time) but we got a text two hours before: “Call me anytime. x”; she had warned us the jet lag might wake her up early. And of course, this week’s schedule goes for the rest of the year. Welcome to the world of Edie.

On her industry success, this says it all: Models.com, the point of reference for the modelling industry that counts each model’s every appearance in newspapers and magazines, ad campaigns and catwalks, named her amongst their Industry Icons. They describes their Icons as the girls “who have built stellar careers” as “one of the industry’s preferred stars”, with at least seven years’ professional experience under their belt; they are “the true model’s models and their endless stream of power bookings reflects that”. At the time of writing, there are only 16 of these icons, spread over two categories: The Establishment and The Next Generation. With Edie, at 27 years old, in the second category, Stella Tennant, another British model that she is often compared to, features in the first, with the same aristocratic beauty and privileged upbringing amongst a well-educated milieu.

Her family’s involvement in the fashion industry is worth mentioning: her grandmother was a model, her younger sister, Olympia, is one too, and her mother, Sophie Hicks, worked as an editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Tatler and British Vogue, not to mention her work with Azzedine Alaïa, with whom she collaborated with on collections and a photobook.

Edie grew up in London, attending some of the top schools, and spending her summers in Northamptonshire, where her family rented a cottage every year next door to a riding school. Her mother suggested one day that she try it out, and Edie quickly became a skilled rider; horse riding-connoisseurs will be impressed to learn that she regularly competes in horse shows such as the Gucci Masters and Glorious Goodwood. Even now, when she is not on set, you can find her in the stables, with her horses Dolly, Tinkerbell and – we’re not making this up – Armani.

Edie was still a teenager when she appeared in a feature in British Vogue on young Londoners to watch out for, but her career was properly launched with a Burberry campaign alongside Kate Moss. In the space of just a few seasons, she was appearing in all the magazines and major runway shows.

She bagged campaigns with Saint Laurent, Miu Miu and Fendi, and walked the runway for Chanel, Chloé, Marc Jacobs, Versace and Stella McCartney. She was photographed by Mert & Marcus, David Sims, Juergen Teller, Inez & Vinoodh, Craig McDean and Mario Sorrenti. The over-riding memory of her early days, is “I remember feeling nervous, even wanting to leave once or twice. It’s not easy, learning to be self-aware in front of a camera when you’re so young.” When she received the British Fashion Award for Model of the Year in 2013, she accepted the award with a characteristically tongue-in-cheek quip: "Models don’t usually speak. This could mark the end of my career.” Classic English humor - but also the wit of a young girl with a good head on her shoulders, debunking the unfortunate cliché of models having no brains. “It doesn’t bother me too much, because being underestimated isn’t such a bad thing. You can always surprise people with your intellect.” The first few years of the model’s career were full-on, as she had to fit shoots around her studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London, where Edie got her degree in art history. We’re sure the very switched-on Sophie Hicks had something to say about Edie’s career in fashion. “Of course, my mum influenced me. Thanks to her, I always had respect for the industry, I knew how to appreciate it, without letting the downsides affect me. I also arrived on the scene with some knowledge about the history in fashion. It absolutely helps to have some forewarning.”

And self-assurance also came into play when she published an open letter to the fashion industry in WWD in November, a month after the sexual abuse allegations against US producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced. "When the Weinstein affair appeared in the press, I straight away felt like something important was happening, that people were going to be able to talk about things in a way that they had previously been too embarrassed, ashamed or frightened to do. And I thought that fashion should go through the same process. I have never experienced that kind of abuse, but it does exist, it happens.”. In her letter, Edie gets to the root cause of a problem that she calls ‘artist-genius complex’: "if you are creative, and if your work is good, you will be forgiven anything. You are given carte blanche to express that creativity, whatever your means of expression may be. And if that creativity only flows after midnight, and if it only responds to semi-nude young men or women, then so be it.” She told Vogue Paris: “the quality of their work makes them untouchable. Their behavior is not questioned, they cross boundaries and nothing happens, their talent means that we turn a blind eye because their talent sells. We have talked a lot about power over the past few months as more and more allegations came to light, but power exists because it is supported by an agent. Fashion is a business.” She continues. “We live in a world in which people confuse success, power and strength. When you reach the top, you find individuals who abuse their position. Have I ever been sexually abused? No. Have I or my agent ever been screamed at? Yes. And that’s a problem. The fact is that at 27 I’m strong enough to deal with it, but 17-year-olds can’t go through that without being affected. And that’s also why I wrote the letter. I have hope that things can change, it seems like everyone is asking whether certain behaviors are ok, if a certain way of acting is normal or not. This individual questioning is going to evolve into industry-wide introspection.”. When asked what the word ‘professionalism’ means when you’re a model, she hesitates, sighs and gives a bored little laugh. “It’s hard to be completely professional, because this job is so intense that the line between the personal and the professional is often very slim. Being professional doesn’t just mean turning up and smiling, you also have to be able to perform on demand, which is far from easy.”.

Last year, Edie needed to take a break. She went to ground at Christmas and re-emerged in March, to catch her breath. Outside of modeling and horse-riding, she has also started writing and has worked with a couple of magazines, including Love. But she’s come back to the camera. Why? “Because fundamentally, I like making fashion. It’s so much fun for me, I’m still excited by the idea of working.”. She goes on to say that her permanent enthusiasm is they reason why she is still being booked. So, imagine that she has a daughter one day, who wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Would she let her? “Of course, if she wanted to. Fashion has been an incredible opportunity for me, I don’t see any reason to deprive anyone of it. I believe in the dream of fashion. But that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t question herself from time to time.”