Diamond Girl: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley joins forces with Nirav Modi
The new face of the haute jewellery brand talks about privacy, positivity and the value of friendship
Watching Rosie Huntington-Whiteley enter a room reminds me of a scene from Weird Science, John Hughes's classic 1985 teen movie about two teenage boys who use a computer programme to create their dream woman. After a low-budget freak storm and some unconvincing software hacking, the duo's fantasy superbabe, played by Kelly LeBrock, blasts into their bedroom in a cloud of pink mist. The boys are left speechless, mouths agape; never before have they witnessed such perfection.
Should a remake ever be made, Rosie H-W would be a shoo-in. I've seen how the model/ actress can silence a room, or at least momentarily tame the rambunctious celebration of a high-profile store opening into a muted hum. Her preternatural beauty is truly transfixing, even for a crowd of discreet press people well trained in the art of looking indifferent in the presence of an A-lister.
It's September and Huntington-Whiteley is attending the opening party of the Nirav Modi boutique on Old Bond Street during London Fashion Week. She's the new face of the haute jewellery brand, along with the Indian actress Lisa Haydon and the Romanian model Andreea Diaconu. As she glides past guests to greet Modi, the eponymous diamantaire and creative director, I notice how heads turn and conversations hush. It's a high-luxe version of that Weird Science moment; instead of pink mist, she is surrounded by precious jewels, including pink Argyle diamonds, a signature stone of the Modi maison.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The party moves on to an exclusive dinner at 5 Hertford Street, the opulent private members' club in Mayfair, with Moorish-inspired interiors by 1980s fashion designer Rifat Ozbek. I'm guided to a dimly lit room that appears to be clad in every flavour of Fortuny fabric imaginable, from damasks to tribal stripes. The soporific atmosphere sets a magical tone: when Huntington-Whiteley appears and kisses me on both cheeks, I'm instantly under her spell. She's wearing a sheer black bustier and loose-fitting black trousers by Anthony Vaccarello, with high-carat accoutrements by Nirav Modi: cascading diamond earrings and a scintillating necklace of petal-shaped Jasmine-cut diamonds arranged in dahlia formations. I find myself awkwardly inspecting her collarbone.
"Can you see? The necklace hasn't got prongs or claws so the diamonds look like they're floating on my skin, which is very special," she says, as she encourages me to look closer. I feel like the class geek who's just befriended the most popular girl at school, despite me being ten years the elder.
Sparkles and stunning looks aside, Huntington-Whiteley immediately appears sensible and sharp-witted, with an obvious warmth and sincerity. During our chat, she touches my knee intermittently to put me at ease and, of course, to make me feel good about myself. You can be as media-trained as you like, but nothing matches natural perspicacity and charm. "The biggest lesson I've learnt over the years is the importance of keeping a positive outlook," she says. "By that, I also mean putting positive energy into everyone you meet and making people you meet feel good because that's what they remember. It's how you make people feel."
The 29-year-old's accent is genteel and smoothly British. She speaks unfalteringly, without meaningless fillers – no "likes" or "you knows" – and, more surprisingly, there's no rising inflection to her voice despite the fact she has lived in Los Angeles for the past six years and spent most of her career travelling around the world. No doubt it helps being engaged to British actor Jason Statham, her partner for the past five years and Hollywood's eternal tough guy. His gruff accent would have surely scared off any inkling of adopted "uptalk", but it's clearly been no match for Huntington-Whiteley's polished English. At one point, she uses the word "stuff" and quickly corrects the colloquialism.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
"I grew up in Devon [she was raised on a farm in Tavistock, close to the border with Cornwall] and my mum used to work in a local jewellery shop down there," she says. "She would bring home these beautiful catalogues and books from Sotheby's, showing all the pieces going to auction. We used to marvel over the jewellery. It was something very 'mother-daughter'. To be here today, wearing such stunning stuff - such stunning jewellery, well, I have to remember those little things from my childhood."
It is this ability to connect with people, to be at once sexy and dynamic as well as down-to-earth and "normal", that has catapulted Huntington-Whiteley from supermodel to superpower brand. Her irresistible elixir for success is an equal mix of sex-bomb appeal and girly wholesomeness. It's no wonder that this year she ranked fifth – along with US model Gigi Hadid – on Forbes's annual list of the world's highest-earning models.
In a nutshell, she is both alluring and likeable. She may have perfect bone structure, pillowy lips and a killer bod, but she's also a sweetheart. This makes her an ideal brand ambassador for anything ultra-feminine, such as diamonds, or indeed pretty lingerie, as demonstrated by her incredibly successful make-up and lingerie lines for Marks & Spencer's Autograph range, which she also helps to design. She is also the new global brand ambassador for Ugg Australia, a role that compounds her sexy "girl's girl" image.
She may be easy-going and unaffected, but Huntington-Whiteley is hugely protective of her private life and friends. Her relationship with Statham is strictly a no-go subject. "My private life is, frankly, the most sacred and important thing to me," she says. "In the end, that's all that matters - it's something I like to keep close to my heart. I suppose it's quite selfish," she adds, with a laugh.
One of her closest friends is fellow British expatriate and stylist Cher Coulter; the two can often been seen getting up to mischief on the model's Instagram account. "I'm actually somebody who has a small friend group," she says. "Maybe it's because I grew up in Devon. I wouldn't call myself an overtly social person.
"I get my energy from being with a few really great friends. They're like my 'ride or dies', you know?" she says, slipping in a little Americanism.
Indeed, you have to earn your way into this girl's heart and that comes from proximity and trust. "I like to keep people in my working life close; those I really have a great time with and trust. For me, that's the most important thing in a friendship - being able to share private and intimate moments with that person. That's how I let people into my inner circle. If I can't say that, then they stay on the periphery."
For the new Nirav Modi campaign, Huntington-Whiteley worked with one of her heroes for the first time: the veteran photographer Peter Lindbergh, who is credited with pioneering the cinematic portrait in fashion editorials. She describes the shoot as the "perfect day" and a "special time in my career", which prompts me to ask if she thinks of anyone in the industry as a mentor. The model has, after all, worked with many of fashion's brightest lights, from Burberry's Christopher Bailey, who chose her as the face of the brand when she was 21, to editor Katie Grand, who cast her as a flame-haired Veronica Lake lookalike for the September 2010 cover of Love magazine, which is still one of Huntington-Whiteley's favourite portraits.
Since those formative years, the list of photographers with whom she has collaborated is positively encyclopaedic; from Mario Testino and Mario Sorrenti to Jean-Paul Goude and Ellen von Unwerth. Add to this all the inspiring chief executive officers and creatives she has met along the way, not to mention Hollywood stars, and I'm curious to know who has given her the best advice along her stratospheric journey from modelling to empire-building. Given her strong-mindedness, I wonder if she's even taken heed.
"People love to dispense advice, don't they?" she whispers, mischievously. "I think you have to be careful whose advice you take on because ultimately, somebody's advice is their own perception and their own projection on to you. Really, the best advice is to be true to yourself. Being happy, having great people around you and laughing - and understanding the importance of exercise," she adds, in mock school-teacher fashion.
Thankfully, Huntington-Whiteley is far too British and self-effacing for preachy lectures on health and wellbeing. Instead, she's a great believer in tenacity and good old "grit your teeth" decisiveness. "I think that all great things in life come from going that little bit further and pulling yourself out of your comfort zone," she says. "If you asked any athlete, or someone who has lost a lot of weight – anyone who has achieved their dream – they will have had to have been disciplined and focused in some way and to have made sacrifices. For me, those are the important components of success."
Before we leave each other and take our seats for dinner, Huntington-Whiteley suddenly remembers a favourite adage: "What's the saying again? Oh yes: 'You can always start your day over.' I like that idea." She can't remember who shared it with her, but what does that matter? As she enters the dining room, all eyes are on her once again. It may not be weird science, but her positive energy is pure alchemy.
Alexandra Zagalsky is a London-based journalist specialising in luxury, art and travel. She began her career working on a cultural guide for English-speaking expats in Paris, where her first major break was an interview with Lionel Poilâne, the late baker of Saint-Germain-des-Prés famed for his signature sourdough loaves. Returning to London in her early 20s, she went on to write for not only The Week but also The Art Newspaper’s Art of Luxury supplement, The Telegraph and The Times, as well as art and design platforms including 1stDibs’ Introspective Magazine and the magazines of the V&A, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. She studied fine art and art history at Goldsmiths, University of London and continues to explore travel journalism through the lens of art, craftsmanship and culture.