Interview

The success of Lara Stone–easily the most in-demand model in the business right now–is more than a little surprising. In the sea of slender, pubescentlooking models that currently predominate, she is a singular creature: 26 years old; gap-toothed and wobbly on high heels; her silhouette, feminine and curvy and clearly accented by breasts; her eyes brimming with a kind of feral attitude and personality and sexuality.

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Like many models, the Dutch-born Stone started working as a teen (in her case, after being discovered on the Paris Métro while on a family vacation). She entered the Elite Model Look contest, and though she didn't win, Elite signed her anyway. By 1999, Stone was living in a models' apartment with other struggling 16-year-olds, going on casting calls and traveling to secondary markets to make money. But six years later, Stone still hadn't gotten her big break. She was booking regional catalog jobs, and had little experience with either major editorial or runway work. In fact, it wasn't until 2006, when Stone switched management agencies to IMG, and was chosen by Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci to walk in his fall couture show, that she began to get steady work-at the ripe old age of 22. Since then, she has walked in shows for practically every major European house, including Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Lanvin, and Fendi, and has become a muse to designers such as Tisci and Karl Lagerfeld. "When I first met Lara, she had this incredible vulnerability about her-so sensitive I just wanted to cocoon and protect her," Tisci says. "I'm so happy to see her where she is today; she's so strong you get the impression that nothing could stand in her way. She's a real modern icon. Lara has the most incredible character that thankfully remains real and untarnished by the fashion system. It's so reassuring to see someone as successful as Lara keep her feet on the ground. Actually, I think one of the things I love most about Lara is the fact that she hasn't lost her ability to laugh at herself: She has a very dry, wicked sense of humor." Adds Lagerfeld: "She made shape trendy and invented a kind of new girly femininity."

Stone has appeared in dozens of advertising campaigns and been featured in virtually every major fashion magazine-including French Vogue; she has developed a close relationship with editor Carine Roitfeld, and the magazine devoted an entire issue to her. (She stirred some controversy last fall when she did a feature in blackface for the magazine.) She also made international news recently after revealing that she had checked herself into a rehab facility last year, and again in January, when she got engaged to her boyfriend of less than a year, David Walliams, a star of the British comedy show, Little Britain.

Marc Jacobs, who worked with Stone on the spring/summer '10 campaign for Louis Vuitton, recently spoke to her from his studio in Manhattan, having just returned from Paris. He was in the midst of busily preparing his namesake collection for his always highly-anticipated show at New York fashion week when he connected with the London-based Stone, who was on a job in St. Barts.

MARC JACOBS: Hello? Is this Lara Stone?

LARA STONE: Yes, it is.