In the past, other boyfriends haven’t been as enthusiastic.
“There have been times where it’s been like [adopts whiny voice]
‘Oh, you’re going to work again?’ Or, ‘Oh, are you going to be
shooting in a bikini again?’ When you’re a career-driven person,
it works best when your partner is equally as excited for you and
supportive. And that’s what Jason is. He’s my biggest
cheerleader and I’m his.”
Brand Rosie, of course, is big business. In 2018, Huntington-
Whiteley placed equal third (alongside Chrissy Teigen) on
Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s highest-earning models,
raking in $16 million, behind only Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss.
Signed to a London modelling agency at 16, Huntington-
Whiteley has worked for Victoria’s
Secret, Burberry, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton,
Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. But
from the beginning, she’s always kept
one eye on the business side of things.
“Early on I realised modelling could be
a short-lived career,” she says plainly.
“I’ve always felt conscious that the
industry can use you; it can eat you up
and it can spit you out and I felt very
strongly that no-one was going to have
my back like I was.”
She always hated waiting for the
phone to ring, but some years were
quieter than others. She wanted to work. “I’d be sitting around
waiting for work and it was just so desperately uncomfortable for
me,” she recalls. “I like to work, I’m a hustler, and it was always
something I felt really uncomfortable with – this idea that I was
leaving my career in the hands of other people, letting them make
the decisions for whether I got a job or not.”
In 2012, she branched out into design and retail; her Rosie for
Autograph range of lingerie, activewear and beachwear,
designed for the iconic British retailer Marks & Spencer, has sold
more than 11 million items since its launch. A beauty range was
launched in 2016. There have even been a couple of forays into
film – 2011’sTransformers: Dark Of The Moonand 2015’sMad
Max: Fury Road. “Modelling has given me so much. It’s given me
the opportunity to pivot into something else for myself long-term,”
says Huntington-Whiteley. “I’ve gotten to make my own money,
I’ve gotten to be independent.”
She says the #MeToo movement was a moment of reckoning
for the industry. “The industry has changed but it needs to continue
to change dramatically,” says Huntington-Whiteley, firmly.
“Looking back now, I remember as a young model there were
things that happened and situations and environments I found
myself in that were, frankly, not okay. Environments I wouldn’t wish
on anyone and that were not okay by today’s standards.”
As a young model, she remembers finding it “really difficult” to
speak up for herself. “A lot of that comes down to being a new
model and you’re just young, and there’s naïveté, but there’sa certain level of advantage taken by people when you’re a
young woman in this industry,” she says. “It took many years to get
to the point where I would speak up for myself, but I finally did. As
a young model it was really hard to have your voice heard, to
stand up for yourself, to say no, to know what the boundaries are.”
At 31, younger models often call her wanting advice. “I didn’t
have a mentor, and I think back to when I was 16, 17, 18... I wished
I could have had five minutes with one of the top models,” she
says. “So I feel quite mother-henny talking to young girls. If I can
help them in any way, it’s my pleasure to do that.”
Huntington-Whiteley credits her “pragmatic” mum Fiona for
giving her a solid grounding. “She’s very realistic, she’s very
honest and upfront. And I think those traits
carry through with me.” She’s right –
despite her extraordinary beauty and LA
polish, it’s easy to imagine her downing
a pint in a pub or tramping through the
muddy fields where she grew up, in the
English coastal county of Devon. She was
one of three children and enjoyed “a very
basic, middle-class upbringing”. “We
didn’t have everything, but we didn’t want
for anything either.”
A love of beauty and fashion showed
itself early. She remembers covering her
bedroom walls with posters of Gisele
Bündchen, Kate Moss, Gemma Ward and Lily Cole. As part of
a media course at high school, she produced her own fashion
magazine. “I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of fashion
and beauty, absolutely obsessed; if I could go into every woman’s
handbag, I would!” she laughs. (Her current style crushes include
Elizabeth Taylor, Diane Kruger and Lily-Rose Depp.)
That longstanding affinity with beauty inspired Rose Inc., which
now comprises a “small but mighty team” of six women based in
LA. She wanted an online forum where people could go to ask
questions and be among a community of beauty-obsessed
friends. “I love makeup and I wear makeup every single day,
whether I’m on set on a photo shoot or if I’m heading out the door
to run some errands or take some meetings or be with my family,”
she explains. “For me it’s like part of getting dressed in the day.”
She wanted the site to feature products that are practical and
easy to use (“I want products that are going to solve problems for
me very quickly”), sharing the latest items she’s passionate about,
along with profiling experts and even offering up her own makeup
tutorials for fans, which she’s recently expanded to include
in-person events. “I want to explore each person’s individual
approach to beauty and I don’t want to shame it whatever way it
is, I want to celebrate it,” she explains. “I have so many more plans
for the site. I’m excited about what we can do next. There’s so
much to look forward to.”
So much for the Paris agent who once said her career “would
be over at 26”. Huntington-Whiteley is just getting started.E142
“When you’re
A CAREER-
DRIVEN person,
it works best
when yourPARTNER IS
SUPPORTIVE”
COVER STORY