| Abbey Lee Kershaw | |
|---|---|
Abbey Lee in Diane von Furstenberg's fashion show. |
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| Born | 12 June 1987 Melbourne, Australia |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1] |
| Hair color | Platinum Blonde (dyed, she is naturally light ash brown) |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Measurements | 32-24-35 (US), 82-61-89 (EU)[1] |
| Dress size | 34 (EU), 4 (US) |
| Agency | Next (London, New York, Paris, Milan) Chic Management (Sydney) 2pm Model Management (Copenhagen) 62Models and Talent (New Zealand) |
Abbey Lee Kershaw (born 12 June 1987 in Melbourne, Australia) also known as Abbey Lee, is an Australian fashion model.[2] Following several years of success leading up to the 2011 fashion seasons, V magazine dubbed Kershaw a supermodel.[3]
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As a child, Kershaw says she was "always in the hospital." When she was four she suffered from meningitis and had to have two spinal taps. She also had a tumor on the knee, and several broken bones from climbing trees.[4] She "grew up with 42 nationalities" explaining in an interview that her primary school of 150 children was very multicultural. She then attended the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy. She later went on to win the Australian 2004 Girlfriend Model Search.[5] After high school, in 2005, she moved from Melbourne to Sydney to begin modeling. She lived 100 meters from the beach and it was while at the beach where she got scouted by Chic Management's Kathy Ward,[6] the model scout that also discovered Miranda Kerr and Samantha Harris.[7] She signed with Chic Management within weeks.[8]
In 2007, Kershaw signed with Next Management and by March had moved to New York City.[8] On 11 December, Models.com named her the “Next Superstar”.[9]
Kershaw made her debut in the 2008 New York Fashion Week, managing to walk a total of 29 shows for designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and notably closing for Rodarte.[10] For her first time in Milan Fashion Week, she was booked as a Gucci exclusive.[11] Later that year, in September, she fell in her high heels at the Rodarte show in New York.[12] Then, a month later in Paris, she fainted at the Alexander McQueen show from wearing a super-tight leather corset.[13] Regardless of these two incidents, it did not affect her from booking more runways shows.[12][13] Kershaw was one of new faces to appear on one of the fourteen covers of V magazine's fall issue.[14] On 15 November 2008, in Miami, she made her international TV appearance at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, modeling in the Pink Planet segment.[15]
Kershaw has starred in the fragrance ads for Gucci's new "Flora" scent since 2008.[16]
In November 2009, Fashion TV placed her first in their First Face Countdown for Spring/Summer 2010. Kershaw had to sit out the fall 2009 shows due to a knee injury: she had torn ligaments and could barely walk.[5] Kershaw was featured in the explicit shoot for the French magazine Purple Fashion published fall/winter 2009.[17] The infamous spread, shot by photographer Terry Richardson, caused outrage in the blogosphere, where Richardson was accused of cajoling the girls for his own sexual satisfaction. In his defense, Kershaw said, “Terry doesn’t force girls to do anything they don’t want to. He puts you in a G-string in a pile of mud because you want to do it. You touch yourself because you want to. For me, that shoot was the truth about how things were between us both, and I felt good doing it. I’m not ashamed of it — why should I be?”[4] After skipping the fall 2009 season owing to a knee injury, Kershaw reappeared in Milan Fashion Week, opening D&G to having the first and last looks at Fendi and Versace, prompting New York Magazine to name her "Milan’s Top Model".[18] On 1 December 2009, for the second time, she participated in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but this time she had three outfits, modeling in the "Star Trooper," "Pink Planet", and in the "Enchanted Forest" segment.[19]
In 2010, Kershaw was heavily in demand for campaigns, shoots and shows.[4] Kershaw was featured in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Terry Richardson,[20] and the 2011 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Karl Lagerfeld. In March 2010, it is announced that she will be the face of Chanel's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ready-to-wear ad campaign. This news comes after she closed the Chanel Spring 2010 couture show, and opened the Chanel Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ready-to-wear show.[21] In November, for the fourth time, she became the cover model of Australian Vogue (her previous covers of the same publication were in March 2010, March 2009, and September 2008).[22]
She took her own self-portrait for the new Rag & Bone Do-It-Yourself ad campaign spring 2011 along with models Sasha Pivovarova, Edita Vilkeviciute, and Lily Aldridge.[23] She earned $100,000 as an exclusive for Chanel, walking for their spring-summer collection in Paris.[24] She skipped New York Fashion Week for London.[25] V Magazine's "The Discovery Issue" crowned Abbey Lee Kershaw as the new Supermodel.[3] The magazine called Kershaw "the biggest fashion export from Down Under since Elle Macpherson joined the ranks of Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington."[26]
As of June 2011[update] she ranks fifth on the Top 50 Models Women list by models.com,[27] and is ranked 21st on the "Top Money Girls" list by models.com.[28]
Kershaw has been on the May 2011 cover of Numero, photographed by Tom Munro.[8]
She is friends with models Daisy Lowe, Freja Beha Erichsen, Rebecca Seidel and Catherine McNeil.[5] She has a pet lizard named Annie Hall.[4] Kershaw has 10 piercings in total: on her nose (her left nostril), on the nipple, a pierced belly button, and seven on her ears. She also has various tattoos, including; a small peace sign on the palm of her hand, an owl on her middle finger, the symbol for Gemini on her ankle, and a tattoo reading "truth", hidden on the inside of her bottom lip. She has recently added two on the side of her stomach done in white ink. Kershaw is also an artist who does abstract painting and uses oil pastels.[29]