Childhood & Early Life
She was born on August 12, 1992, in Hammersmith, London, UK, to Charles Hamar Delevingne and Pandora Anne Delevingne (née Stevens) as the youngest of their three daughters. Her father is an English property developer.
Her paternal great-grandfather Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood, was a Canadian-born British lawyer and politician who remained the last Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1920 to 1922.
Her maternal grandfather, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, chairman of ‘English Heritage’ and publishing executive, was grandson of Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronetan, a newspaper proprietor. Janie Sheffield, her maternal grandmother, was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.
Chloe and Poppy Delevingne are her two older sisters of whom the latter is an English model.
President of ‘Condé Nast International’, Nicholas Coleridge is the godfather of Delevingne while her godmother is English actress, author, and columnist Joan Collins.
She was raised in Belgravia, London, one of the most posh areas around the globe. She studied in central London at the ‘Francis Holland School’ and completed her GCSE examination.
At 16 years of age, in pursuit of studying drama and music, she started attending ‘Bedales School’ in Hampshire, however left it after a year to follow her sister Poppy’s footsteps into the world of modelling.
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Career
She made her debut in modelling at 10 in a Bruce Weber editorial shot for ‘Vogue Italia’.
She was spotted by the founder of ‘Storm Model Management’ Sarah Doukas which led her to sign with the model agency in 2009. After working a year in the industry she booked a paying job and underwent casting or visual interview for two seasons before her career took off.
Her catwalk debut happened in February 2011 ‘London Fashion Week’ where she appeared in Burberry Prorsum autumn/winter collection. The September 2011 ‘London fashion Week’ saw her modelling for Burberry Prorsum 2012 spring/summer collection as also opening and closing the proceedings.
She was spotted again, this time by Christopher Paul Bailey of ‘Burberry’ which led her to be cast in the spring/summer 2011 campaign of the British luxury fashion house.
In 2012 she cat walked in many fashion events including in ‘New York Fashion Week’ for Donna Karan, ‘Rag & Bone’, Jason Wu and Tory Burch among others; in ‘London Fashion Week’; and in Burberry Prorsum Womenswear autumn/winter 2012 show.
The 2012 ‘Paris Fashion Week’ where she ramp walked for seven shows including that of Stella McCartney, Nina Ricci and ‘Chanel’ saw an inceptive professional association between her and Karl Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director of ‘Chanel’.
She garnered immense fame walking for different big names and fashion houses of the industry in such a short span of time and was described by ‘Vogue’ as their 'crush of the season'.
While prospering in modelling, Delevingne made her debut in big screen with the 2012 historical romance film ‘Anna Karenina’. She essayed the role of Princess Sorokina in the film that starred Keira Knightley and Jude Law among others.
Furthering her modelling career in 2013 she appeared in many events and cat walked for the likes of Jason Wu, ‘Rag & Bone’, ‘Mulberry’ and ‘Giles’ among others. She ended the year by appearing in ‘Victoria's Secret Fashion Show’ on November 13 that featured performance by Taylor Swift among others.
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In 2014 she opened and closed the Chanel Haute Couture Spring 2014 Show and the Topshop's 'Unique S/S 15' collection. She also opened Fendi's F/W 2014 collection for Karl Lagerfeld and closed Burberry's show in Autumn/Winter 2014 Collection Showcases in ‘London Fashion Week’.
Her TV debut happened in June 2014 with the concluding episode of a series of self-contained TV plays titled ‘Playhouse Presents’. There she played the character of Chloe and had the opportunity to share screen space with veteran English actress Sylvia Syms.
Her other acting endeavours of 2014 include the British psychological thriller film ‘The Face of an Angel’, a 90-minute comedy television event, ‘The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night’ and a short film by Karl Lagerfeld titled ‘Reincarnation’ for ‘Chanel’.
She designed a fashion collection for ‘DKNY’ that released on October 15, 2014. She also designed several collections for ‘Mulberry’ of which the last one released on June 3, 2015.
She became the new face of ‘Yves Saint Laurent Beauté’ and the new brand ambassador of ‘TAG Heuer’ in January 2015. That year she closed the showcase of Paris-Salzberg collection of ‘Chanel’ on March 10, 2015, and also closed its re-show on March 31 that year in New York.
Meanwhile she featured in many advertisement campaigns of renowned brands, fashion houses and designers that include ‘Mulberry’, ‘Zara’, Marc Jacobs, ‘Chanel’, ‘Topshop’, ‘John Hardy’, ‘Disney London’ and many others.
Her profile was removed from website of ‘Storm Model Management’ on June 8, 2015 as she decided to concentrate on acting. Later in August she cited the development of skin condition psoriasis as a main reason for such crucial decision. Meanwhile in July she appeared on American Vogue’s cover.
The film that gave her real breakthrough was the American mystery, comedy-drama ‘Paper Town’ that released in the US on July 24, 2015. It became a commercial success garnering $85.5 million worldwide and fetching her two ‘Teen Choice Awards’.
She was also remarkable in the American superhero film ‘Suicide Squad’ that released in the US on August 5, 2016. The film that starred Will Smith and Jared Leto was a box office hit garnering $745.6 million worldwide. It earned Delevingne another ‘Teen Choice Award’.
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Other films of Delevingne included ‘Pan’ (2015), ‘Kids in Love’ (2016) and ‘London Fields’ (2016). Her upcoming movies scheduled for a 2017 release includes science fiction action film ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ and historical drama ‘Tulip Fever’.
She also featured in music videos of many artists including that of Bryan Ferry in his tracks ‘Shameless’ and ‘You Can Dance’ from the 2010 album ‘Olympia’; and that of Taylor Swift in the track titled ‘Bad Blood’ from Swift’s studio album ‘1989’ (2014).
Personal Life & Legacy
She is a bisexual and was romantically associated with American musician Annie Clark renowned as St. Vincent, the latter’s stage name. This relationship was confirmed by Delevingne in June 2015 and lasted till September 2016. Earlier she was linked to English singer Harry Styles.
She has dyspraxia and candidly mentioned her depression attack at 15 years of age in an interview with ‘Vogue’ in June 2015 - "I was hit with a massive wave of depression and anxiety and self-hatred, where the feelings were so painful that I would slam my head against a tree to try to knock myself out.”
Delevingne, an animal lover, auctioned her ‘TAG Heuer’ watch thus raising £18,600 for ‘WildCRU’ after the male Southwest African lion Cecil was killed in 2015.
