Bella Hadid on the Cannes red carpet dilemma
Bella Hadid’s month has been busier than most with appearances at both the Met Gala and Cannes Film Festival. However, she has downtime lined up over the royal wedding weekend when she – along with countless millions – will tune in to watch the proceedings.
“I’ll be watching the royal wedding for sure,” she told us. “It’s part of history that I want to really understand. I think Meghan is so sweet and so adorable. They’re just so cute together. I see photos of them all the time and that is relationship goals for sure.”
Talking at the launch of her new Magnum campaign with Alexander Wang at in Cannes, Hadid is now the proud owner of her very own, self-designed ice cream, as well as the world’s most luxurious leather cooler bag which retails at an impressive ￡900. She admits that the opportunity for a fashion model to indulge in ice cream felt like too good a job to turn down.
“I’ve never been able to eat ice cream on set before,” she laughs. “It was such an amazing experience. We had the best time. I love Alex to death. He’s so much fun and I’m so glad we could do this and be in Cannes together.”
Of course, being a guest at Cannes Film Festival requires a high-octane wardrobe – something Hadid has always excelled at, be it in a thigh-baring sexy Alexandre Vaulthier red dress or a champagne-coloured Dior gown. With so many events to attend, how does she decide what to wear?
“I bring everything; I’m a terrible packer,” she admits. “I think, ‘what if I get cold at night or on the flight?’ So, I bring five cashmere sweaters. I like to change it up and it differs according to where I’m going and what mood I’m in. Sometimes I only want to wear black, sometimes I want to wear a rainbow dress. It depends what my vibe is. I’ve always loved fashion and I don’t care if anyone likes what I wear. I’m finally comfortable with the things that I want to wear. That’s what fashion is all about – if you’re happy with what you’re wearing then nothing else matters.”
Hadid is a rare thing in the fashion world in that she is has a fearless, chameleon-like approach to style. One minute she’ll channel her inner Cher Horowitz in a 90s-inspired ensemble, the next she’ll opt for an oversized retro tracksuit. Then, in the evening, she might choose a black leather Gareth Pugh gown a la the 2018 Met Gala.
“It’s important to push boundaries and over the years I’ve done that,” she says. “Perhaps, there have been a few times that I’ve gone overboard, but I like to do whatever makes me feel good and a lot of the time that is pushing the boundaries. I like to put on random things that sometimes work and sometimes don’t and everyone hates it.”
Indeed, one of the requisites of being a high-profile model today is having a tough skin. The rise of social media has meant that models have more of a voice than ever before, but with online exposure comes the trolls and cyber-bullies. It’s a pitfall of the job that Hadid is still grappling with.
“It sticks there for a while,” she says of the negative comments that she receives. “You gotta get a scrub, then an exfoliate and then you got to scrub it off. My stepdad always said to me; ‘You can’t read 100 good comments and then one bad comment because the bad comment will always stick.’ You can read 100 good comments, then one bad and think you’re a horrible person because one person said it. I’m trying to not read them which is pretty hard. It is just… it’s really hard.”
Hadid might be at the top of her model game now, but it sounds as if one day she might move back to her photography roots (she studied at the subject at Parsons in New York). While she’s toying with the idea of acting – a common idea among models – it seems as if there will soon come a time when she’ll feel ready to forgo the limelight.
“I would love to eventually start acting but I like doing stuff behind the scenes,” she said. “I wasn’t always in front of the camera, my sister always was. I always did photography and I never left my house without my camera. Just being behind the scenes makes me really happy. Maybe I’ll write a book. I wouldn’t want it to be about myself; it would be non-fiction.”
Whether she turns novelist or photographer, it would seem that Hadid is no one-trick pony.
You Might Also Like
Solve the daily Crossword
