Her parents ran a farm at Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders, where, like older brother Eddy and sister Isabel, she went to the local primary before being sent to St Leonards school in St Andrews. They couple shared lunch after the shoot. Tobias Tennant, son of the 2nd Baron Glenconner, and his wife, Lady Emma Cavendish. “She wasn’t trying to be a model,” said Philip Treacy, “to be fabulous, to be cool, to have a rock-n-roll boyfriend: She was disdainful of that circuit. "Through her long career in the industry she remained a figure of fascination and inspiration for each new generation, perhaps because of the way she effortlessly stepped in and out of it at her own choosing," she continued. Photos. The wide-eyed, gangly young writer Plum Sykes had also been enlisted on the hunt and remembers the “tiny little passport photo” that was submitted to Isabella, of Stella with her septum ring. Tennant hoped for six months’ profitable work – she was candid about being in modelling for the money, earned by her attitudinous slouch, unseductive catwalk locomotion, free-ranging elbows and a resting face not meant to ingratiate. Rob Picheta, CNN Published 7:33 AM EST, Fri January 8, 2021 Link Copied! © 2023 BBC. The fashion designer attributed to her resemblance to Coco Chanel. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. According to her family, she died by suicide after struggling with her mental health. British supermodel Stella Tennant dies at age 50 - Insider Stella Tennant killed herself after struggling with mental health problems, her family have revealed. Anyone can read what you share. [3] Read about our approach to external linking. Tennant was "a beautiful soul, adored by a close family and good friends, a sensitive and talented woman whose creativity, intelligence and humour touched so many", they said. News of her death was confirmed only months after their split and just five days after her 50th birthday. Tennant, the . By 2.90 4.17 /5. Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, A Look Back at Supermodel Stella Tennant's Most Iconic Fashion Moments. 1624. Her look chimed with the decade’s androgynous cool. [16][17] She also modelled frequently for other influential fashion photographers of the 1990s, including Mario Testino, David Sims and Mark Borthwick. Stella Tennant, British supermodel and fashion nonconformist, has died ... She had recently had her nasal septum pierced, which was an unusual look for models at the time. Stella Tennant's Return to Fashion In 2002, Stella strikingly returned to the Chanel fold, shooting the fashion house's Spring-Summer 2002 campaign for Karl, down at the designer's Biarritz house. “I cannot tell you how intimidating it was! Stella Tennant modelling in Paris in 2003. From there, Tennant was a regular muse of Meisel’s, shot by him most recently for the December 2018 cover of British Vogue. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 'There's nothing better than growing old together. Meet Anaheim's All-Star Female Escorts! - OC Weekly Cecily Lasnet - The Daughter Of Stella Tennant - British Vogue Just before the world went into lockdown last winter, Mr. Piccioli cast Ms. Tennant for the coveted opening spot in his couture show. Arthur Elgort/Condé Nast, via Getty Images. Her creativity continued unabated. Ms. Tennant’s offhand ease with duality — particularly of class and gender — kept her in demand throughout the decades with designers including Valentino Garavani, Alber Elbaz, Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs and Gianni Versace (whose family, in a statement on Tuesday, called her the designer’s “muse”). [3] She worked for haute couture names like Valentino, and Dior by John Galliano and with photographers Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber, Paolo Roversi, and Tim Walker. Born in London on 1970, Tennant was known for her androgynous sultry looks and aristocratic heritage. [20] During the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, Tennant, along with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, was one of the British models wearing fashions created by British designers specifically for the event. The couple then moved to an 18th-century house on the Scottish borders, where – between modelling jobs - Tennant grew her own vegetables and raised four children, Marcel, Cecily, Jasmine and Iris, now in their teens and early twenties. She will be greatly missed. She had had a unique look since childhood – chopped her own black hair urchin-tousled, flaunted the punk clothes her older sister forwarded from London and wore a nose ring. The truth is, Stella didn’t have to try: She not only possessed but she defined the indefinable “it.” “She looked like a fashion sketch from the 20s,” says Sykes, “with that small pixie-ish head, amazing bone structure, and the ectomorphic body type.” Karl Lagerfeld was one of her legion admirers, responding to her beauty, intelligence, and lineage, and in 1996 booked her on an exclusive Chanel contract, ushering in a new willowy paradigm for the house, evocative of Ines de la Fressange in the 1980s, in the wake of the voluptuous blonde Claudia Schiffer. Kashmir battles alarming drug addiction crisis, Why the city that never sleeps is slowly sinking. British model Stella Tennant took her own life after being "unwell for some time", her family has confirmed. [16] She also appeared in numerous other advertising campaigns, including Calvin Klein, Hermès, and in 2002 in an influential campaign for Burberry. [11][21], In 2016, Tennant and Lady Isabella Cawdor premiered a new ready to wear collection they designed for the gunmaker and clothing retailer Holland & Holland. (Her farmer father offered to lead her round his bull pen.). LONDON -- Stella Tennant, the aristocratic British model who was a muse to designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, died suddenly at the age of 50, her family said Wednesday. Stella has featured on the cover of several leading fashion magazines, both as a model and for her contribution to the fashion industry. She didn’t care—of course, that was part of the appeal.”. Huntington Beach, CA. Stella Tennant took her own life after struggling with mental health Gianni Versace with Ms. Tennant at the finale of his spring 1996 haute couture show in Paris. People v. Tennant, California Court of Appeals. Stella wore Helmut Lang’s first wedding dress, and when her grandmother, the Duchess of Devonshire, first saw her in it she exclaimed, “Oh darling! "Stella had been unwell for some time," a spokesperson for Tennant said. “Steven Meisel sent Stella for a go-see to my design studio, and I immediately cast her in my spring ’94 show as an aristocratic punk princess,” the designer Anna Sui said. “I didn’t really know if I wanted to open the door and see what was inside,” she said. Antonia Paget For Mailonline 'And that's how I met Stella,' he recalled in an interview with the New York Times Magazine in 2011. People v. Tennant :: :: California Court of Appeal Decisions ... I was so nervous that the rice kept falling off my fork. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. Through it all, Stella remained, as I noted in 2001, “one of the most grounded people in the industry,” and her personal style was electrifying. She appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2018 and still modelled on the catwalk – opening the Valentino couture show in January 2020. Ms. Tennant walking with the designer Karl Lagerfeld in the Chanel Métiers d'Art show in Paris in 2011. At those Paris shows, Stella admired Olivier Theyskens’s Rochas woman who she found “serene, a bit supernatural. (Though they never went as far as her thermal layer; she always wore a warm vest beneath those sweaters and shirts from Paris or Milan.) The morning after the night before, 17-year-old Cecily Lasnet — the eldest daughter of model Stella Tennant — reports from Paris on her own experience of attending Le Bal, choosing her Chanel couture gown and how she and her fellow debutantes make for thoroughly modern young women. The runway regular ruled the catwalks for all the high-fashion brands over the past 30 years, including Chanel, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier. People Obituary: Stella Tennant, supermodel with aristocratic Scottish roots Stella Tennant, model and sculptor. Stella and Lasnet separated a year or so ago. In doing so, Mr. Lagerfeld noted the very English Ms. Tennant’s likeness to the incomparably Gallic founder of that fabled house. [11][18], Tennant married French photographer and osteopath David Lasnet in the village of Oxnam, Roxburghshire, on 22 June 1999. Her first shoot made the cover of British Vogue in December 1993, which Mrs Tennant later said came about 'by accident', and at the end of that day's work she was asked to do a Versace campaign in Paris, which ended up as the cover of the Italian edition. By Liam Hess December 23, 2020 Stella Tennant, the iconic British model famed for her statuesque beauty and inimitable personal style, has passed away at the age of 50. The. Stella’s father, Tobias William Tennant, meanwhile, was the son of the 2nd Baron Glenconner, and younger brother of Colin Tennant, the 3rd Baron Glenconner, who bought the Caribbean island of Mustique with a youthful inheritance and transformed it into the playground of rock and real royalty. Bassignac Benainous/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images. “Lambing and ewes, blood and guts and sex.”. Her family confirmed her passing in a statement obtained by The Guardian on Dec. 23. [16], Tennant appeared on fashion catwalks for Shiatzy Chen, Bill Blass, Dior and Chanel. Tobias Tennant and his wife Lady Emma—daughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife Deborah, the youngest of the famous high-society Mitford sisters. Stella Tennant death: Model's best pictures | The Independent Mrs Tennant was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah Mitford, one of the well-known aristocratic siblings, who died in 2014. A famous anecdote saw Tennant show up to the shoot with a nose ring, much to the surprise of the Vogue editors—it was her refusal to remove it that endeared her to Meisel, who invited her to model for him the next day in a Paris shoot for Vogue Italia. © 2023 Condé Nast. Unusually for a fashion star, Tennant stayed faithful to her home territory. Tennant was born in 1970 as the youngest of three to the Hon. She liked the small, close teams of the 90s, and learning at fittings about clothing crafts. In a statement, her family said it was "a matter of our deepest sorrow and despair that she felt unable to go on.". View Address. On the runways, Tennant made regular appearances for Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, as well as the likes of Jean-Paul Gaultier and Versace. Tennant and Lasnet were wed in 1999 in the small village church of Oxnam in Roxburghshire. So it is a matter of our deepest sorrow and despair that she felt unable to go on, despite the love of those closest to her. Along with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, Ms. Tennant was chosen to represent English fashion at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. The nose ring eventually went too—Stella had worn it for a meeting with representatives of one of the world’s leading beauty brands and they had assumed the agency had sent the wrong girl. The news of Tennant’s untimely death was confirmed earlier today in a statement released by her family—including her husband, the French photographer David Lasnet, and her four children, Marcel, Cecily, Jasmine, and Iris—who asked for their privacy to be respected. Lauren Cochrane Thu 7 Jan 2021 07.58 EST Last modified on Thu 7 Jan 2021 08.30 EST Stella Tennant killed herself after struggling with mental health problems, her family have revealed. Ever pragmatic, Stella would jokingly confide that her motivation to walk the runways was that every step she took represented another acre of the fantasy Scottish or Chilean estate she wanted to buy. Are a Testament to Her Legacy. He made the coments in a candid interview about their marriage nine years before her death. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, © 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. She also became a mainstay of Alexander McQueen’s runway spectacles, walking for some of his most celebrated shows, including spring 1996’s “The Hunger” and spring 1997’s “La Poupée.”. The model's final fashion show — the Valentino Haute Couture runway — at Paris Fashion Week in Jan. 2020. Not the right Jeanne? , updated The model married the photographer David Lasnet in 1999, after meeting him on a shoot. Jeanne Tennant, 75. Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham and fellow model Naomi Campbell were among those to pay tribute after her death was announced last month. Tennant, who first trained as a sculptor after completing a degree at Winchester School of Art, was unsure about modelling at first but she soon became one of the most sought-after names. And by the time she entered the fashion fray, Stella was no teenage neophyte, she was a remarkably grounded and intelligent young woman, with her own agency and an objective perspective on the industry. She just looked amazing in a boiler suit—she had that incredible glamour.” “She had a nose ring—quite rusty—and it was very frightening,” Isabella Blow told me, “She reminded me of a farm animal. Known for her androgynous look and short pixie hairstyle, Tennant's bold style captured the attention of the late Karl Lagerfeld, who named her a face of Chanel in 1996. She seemed well, but did say she was very worried about [the impact of] Covid [on fashion] because she thought it might mean she never worked again. STELLA TENNANT'S family have confirmed the supermodel's cause of death at the age of 50, revealing that she tragically took her own life in an emotional statement. Vogue. She will be greatly missed. "I said I wasn't going to model after having my son," she told the Wall Street Journal in 2012. Arrangements for a memorial service will be announced at a later date.'. That same year, Tennant debuted the head-turning Chanel micro-mini bikini during the label's Haute Couture show, which went on to become a famous look in the pop culture history of runway fashion, referenced by many and worn by Kim Kardashian West, who modeled the look on Instagram over two decades later. A global fashion event celebrating the best of British arts & culture, Photographed by Iriving Penn, Vogue, March 1996. If they admired her beauty, designers also banked on her ability to embody multiple fashion archetypes. (The pair would marry later that year, with Tennant wearing a memorably minimalist Helmut Lang gown for their wedding in Scotland.) Stella had already met David Lasnet, then a photographer’s assistant, on a Mario Testino shoot. “She was not really a model,” he added. [9] Stella was the great niece of the flamboyant socialite Stephen Tennant, and was directly descended from Bess of Hardwick, a notable figure of Elizabethan English society,[9] and a fourth cousin, once removed, to Diana, Princess of Wales. Last modified on Wed 21 Apr 2021 15.11 EDT. “Stella came off the train from Scotland smelling of goats,” Isabella Blow chortled down the phone to me. Model Stella Tennant dies aged 50. Tennant was part of a wave of British models who broke through during the Cool Britannia era of the mid-1990s. Tennant and Lasnet – who retrained as an osteopath – separated in August after more than 20 years together. Stella Tennant: Family confirms model's death was suicide While Tennant was first known for her signature tousled pixie haircut, androgynous features, and commanding six-foot-tall presence—as well as her longstanding creative relationships with fashion legends from Steven Meisel to Karl Lagerfeld—her passion for sculpture, environmental causes, and her home country of Scotland were what eventually became closest to her heart. In an interview with The Telegraph, the supermodel's family paid tribute to "a sensitive and talented woman whose creativity, intelligence and humor touched so many". She was so smitten that when they sat opposite each other at lunch “the rice kept falling off my fork,” as she recalls, “I had to give up eating.” And when Testino teasingly told her to stop flirting with the assistant, she turned beet red and he realized that she really had been seriously flirting. Ten Unknown Facts about Stella Tennant and Her Death So it is a matter of our deepest sorrow and despair that she felt unable to go on, despite the love of those closest to her," the statement continued. Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham and fellow model Naomi Campbell were among those to pay tribute after her death was announced last month. Tennant is pictured above in a 2001 photo shoot for Vogue magazine. “To some degree, doing up properties has replaced my desire for making things,” noted Stella in 2003. [6], She died suddenly on 22 December 2020 shortly after her 50th birthday. Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images CNN — British supermodel Stella Tennant took her own life last month, her. In the late 1990s, Karl Lagerfeld signed her to an exclusive contract as the face of Chanel. She was still a student at Winchester School of Art when she caught the eye of the fashion writer Plum Sykes at British Vogue. 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