Twenty years ago, a 19-year-old Devon native named Rosie Huntington-Whiteley made her Victoria’s Secret runway debut in a polka-dot bra and briefs, carrying a stuffed polka-dot dog, with a polka-dot duvet trailing behind her. This cutesy girl-next-door look helped to catapult Huntington-Whiteley from Teen Vogue favourite to Burberry face, bona fide lingerie designer, beauty entrepreneur and blockbuster movie star. Now, after hanging up her Angel wings in 2010 to focus on building her own Rose Inc empire, she’s back in the Victoria’s Secret fold.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Victoria’s Secret debut in 2010.
KMazur
“Delighted” is how Huntington-Whiteley feels now, returning to the runway a decade and a half later. In the back of a cab en route to her fitting in LA, she can’t delve into the details of the feathered, rhinestone-studded tulle extravaganza she might wear as the final look will be a collaboration between the model mogul and executive creative director Adam Selman, who cut his teeth in the underwear business at Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty. What has long been fixed is Huntington-Whiteley’s fitness regime. “It’s really about consistency because I’m a gym girl—I’m always training and taking care of myself,” the model says, who credits strength training (it gets competitive in her home gym with husband Jason Statham) as the backbone of her workout routine. “I’m about to turn 40 next year; I look at my body, and I have so much appreciation for having had two children. For me, it’s really about feeling strong and fit, as opposed to thinking about a number on the scales or on a measuring tape. Competence builds confidence.”
