Stella Tennant

Stella Tennant
Stella Tennant in 2018
Born(1970-12-17)17 December 1970
London, England
Died22 December 2020(2020-12-22) (aged 50)
Duns, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Occupations
  • Model
  • fashion designer
Years active1993–2020
Spouse
David Lasnet
​
​
(m. 1999; sep. 2020)​
Children4
Parents
  • Hon. Tobias Tennant (father)
  • Lady Emma Cavendish (mother)
Modelling information
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1]
Hair colourBrown[1]
Eye colourBlue[1]
AgencyDNA Model Management (New York)
VIVA Model Management (Paris, London, Barcelona)
Mega Model Agency (Hamburg)[1]

Stella Tennant (17 December 1970 – 22 December 2020) was a British model and fashion designer,[2] who rose to fame in the early 1990s and had a career that spanned almost 30 years. From an unconventional aristocratic family, she worked with Helmut Lang, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and Gianni Versace.[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. Over the years she appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Hermès and Burberry.

Tennant won VH1/Vogue Model of the Year Award in 2001, Model of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards and the Contribution to British Fashion award at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year 2016 awards; she was also inducted into the Scottish Fashion Awards Hall of Fame as Model of the Year in 2012.[4] At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she was one of the British supermodels, with models Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, walking the runway in the closing ceremony.[5]

In 2016, she co-designed a collection with Lady Isabel Cawdor for the Chanel owned London-based brand, Holland & Holland. She also ran Tennant & Son, a line of hand-knitted cashmeres and a luxury homewares company with her sister. For the last decade, she has devoted most of her time to looking after her four children and promoting sustainable causes.[6]

She died on 22 December 2020 shortly after her 50th birthday.[7] Her family announced the following month that she had died by suicide after being unwell for a prolonged period.[8]

  1. ^ a b c d "Stella Tennant". models.com. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Model Profile – Stella Tennant". Free BMD. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  3. ^ Pithers, Ellie (23 December 2020). "Legendary British Model Stella Tennant Has Died". British Vogue.
  4. ^ Coffey, Helen (24 December 2020). "Stella Tennant: A life in pictures from 1970–2020". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022.
  5. ^ Karmali, Sarah (13 August 2012). "Olympic Closing Ceremony – Christopher Kane suit Stella Tennant supermodel segment". British Vogue.
  6. ^ Pithers, Ellie (23 December 2020). "The Fashion World Pays Tribute To The Inimitable Stella Tennant". British Vogue. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  7. ^ Horwell, Veronica (25 December 2020). "Stella Tennant obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).