Supermodel Daria Werbowy's Next Move

face of Céline is contemplating a second career—on the other side of the lens

EASY CHIC | Clockwise from left: Werbowy captured by street-style lensman Tommy Ton, 2013; as the face of Lancôme, 2014; in a 2011 ad for Céline, photographed by Juergen Teller Tommy Ton/Trunk Archive; Lancôme courtesy of Firstview.com; Courtesy of Céline

IN A FEW HOURS, Daria Werbowy will board a plane to Peru. She's not bound for a shoot— Mario Testino has already photographed her in the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco wearing haute-trekker garb—but rather intends to spend a couple of weeks in the Amazonian jungle working with a local family to establish a school. "Peru is kind of like my second home," says the Ukrainian-Canadian, who has been traveling regularly to the country for the past five years, in between starring in ad campaigns for Prada, Balenciaga, Salvatore Ferragamo, H&M and cosmetics giant Lancôme, where she has been on contract for nearly a decade.

Photos: Daria Werbowy Models Luxe Urban Clothes

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In fact, Peru may be more like a fourth home, if one also considers Toronto (where she grew up and began modeling at age 14), New York City (where she spends two months a year working, never consecutively) and her current residence in bucolic West Cork, Ireland. And that's not counting her many-months-long expeditions to destinations such as India and Iceland. "If I'm not moving around I feel strange," says the 30-year-old model, who has appeared on the cover of international issues of Vogue over 50 times. In 2008, she stepped away from modeling full-time after realizing that its relentless schedule would never permit her the peripatetic existence she craved. "If you live a fast-paced life, it's easy to lose touch with things that are important," she says. "At the end of the day, I wasn't happy, so I pressed the eject button." Werbowy now uses her free time to surf, sail and practice yoga, as well as work on projects that make use of her art school education, such as the restoration of renowned Irish music venue Connolly's of Leap. "If I'm working, I'll work hard. When I take time off, I take time off hard."

Extended vanishing acts are risky for anyone who earns millions of dollars a year in an industry where visibility is tantamount to livelihood (and where most models see shorter career arcs than professional athletes). But Werbowy's unavailability—as much as her fawnlike features, almond-shape eyes, and much-imitated tomboy style—has only cemented her status as a fashion favorite. In March, Kate Moss styled her for Moss's first official story as British Vogue's contributing fashion editor. And in recent seasons, Werbowy has acted as a kind of advertising proxy for cool-girl designers Isabel Marant and Phoebe Philo of Céline. She's also unafraid to use her body as a canvas, whether lying on a bed of nails for one of Helmut Newton's final shoots before his death in 2004 (she recalls him complaining she was "too skinny") or posing nude for a 2011 French Vogue calendar. "I still get self-conscious in front of the camera," she says, "and for some reason my coping mechanism is to take my clothes off."

 

 STYLED TO A TEE | Clockwise from left: On the runway for Balmain's spring 2010 collection; shot for American Vogue by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, 2011; The Last Magazine, by Camilla Akrans, 2008; Shot by Patrick Demarchelier for British Vogue, 2013 Courtesy of Firstview.com; Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott; Patrick Demarchelier/Vogue The Conde Nast Publications LTD; Courtesy of the Last Magazine 

 

Still, Werbowy doesn't rely on risqué images to earn "likes" on her inscrutably named Dotwillow Instagram account. Instead, she uses social media as a platform to publish the artistically minded photographs she takes on her trips. She's considering photography, initially a hobby, as her second career. And this September, she unveils her first professional assignment: eight images for French shirt company Equipment that she styled, modeled and shot. Evoking Cindy Sherman, the ads show her in a Joan Jett–style wig, as a platinum-blonde futuristic flower child and in six other guises. "I'm interested in our obsession with identity, so this was a way to challenge myself with my own," Werbowy says. She's also discovering that such projects satisfy her yen for adventure. "Photography scares me big time," she says, before heading off to catch her plane to the South American rain forest. "I think it's important to do the things that scare you the most."