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A supermodel who didn’t get lost in the dazzling world
| Reading time: 3 minutes
Stella Tennant became known as the face of Chanel in the 90s
What: REUTERS
Her beauty was fresh and androgynous, her origins aristocratic: with her gaze, the Scottish woman shaped the ideal of beauty of the grunge era. For the former Chanel ambassador, however, her family soon counted more than fashion. An obituary.
She had a face that told stories. Karl Lagerfeld saw a resemblance to Coco Chanel, independent magazines such as “The Face” underlined her changing genderlessness in shots with bright lights and no makeup, “Vogue” emphasized her aristocratic grace, swan neckline and perfect cheekbones. She was also an aristocrat: Stella Tennant was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and Deborah Mitford, the youngest of the famous and scandalous Mitford sisters.
The native of Scotland brought exactly the right resume for a career in fashion. But more than her origins, it was her androgynous appearance that made her the perfect face for the transfigured consumer society of the 90s and one of the most important top models of the grunge era. As it became known the day before Christmas Eve, he died on December 22 at the age of 50 for reasons unknown until now.
Stella Tennant, 1997
Quelle: Getty Images / Rose Hartman
Tennant, who has rarely appeared as a model in recent years, embodied, like fellow British model Kate Moss, the rebellious and conceited spirit of a fashion chapter that followed the glamor and fitness craze of the 1980s. This was clear in his first major session, which took place with one of the most influential photographers of those years.
Steven Meisel selected her in 1993 for a series in British “Vogue”, photographed the sculpture student with a nose ring and immediately caused a mini-scandal. Her success in fashion was already sealed: a campaign for Versace followed, Alexander McQueen made her a muse, and Lagerfeld hired her exclusively as an ambassador for Chanel.
The Chanel de Lagerfeld show in 2011. By his side: model Stella Tennant
Source: dapd / DAPD
Everyone loved the combination of a short, boyish haircut, sour facial features, and a long, slim body, a look that was particularly suitable for experimental sessions. Photographer Tim Walker, known for his ornate productions, portrayed Tennant in Italian “Vogue” as a princess lost in a fairytale forest. Unlike many of his colleagues, Tennant provided little material for the paparazzi photos and the boulevard pages.
She was not lost in the promises and temptations of this dazzling world, but instead married in 1999. With her husband, French photographer and later retrained as an osteopath, David Lasnet, she was drawn to the Scottish no-man’s-land, where the couple raised four children until they met. separated last August after 21 years of marriage.
Stella Tennant, at the British Fashion Awards 2011. In the 90’s she was represented as an icon of “heroine chic”
Quelle: Getty Images / Dave M. Benett
Tennant, as strangely remote and cold as her beauty sometimes seemed, seemed at the same time likeable, down-to-earth, a woman who preferred to stomp the muddy roads of Scotland in rubber boots and in an interview with American ” Vogue “imitated her grandmother’s strident sayings. This made her the perfect designer for the traditional British company Holland & Holland, for whom Tennant had been photographed in recent years in stiff wool skirts, tweeds and tank tops that she had designed together with her co-designer Isabella Cawdor.
When she shared the wisdom of fashion over the years, she spoke of the frugality that comes with age, that comfort counts more than anything else, and that she only buys five new pieces a year. In his closet there is still a lot from the 90s, he told The Guardian in 2019. “I’m very happy that thanks to my children they have had a second life.
Stella Tennant’s first life came to a surprising end just days after her 50th birthday.
