The flame-haired British supermodel takes Vogue back to Oldham, to reflect on her Northern upbringing, being bullied at school, her meteoric rise in the modelling world and her new life in Nashville.
Elson’s rise, however, wasn’t without its challenges. “I was bullied a lot. Nobody expected anything of me,” she tells Vogue in this rare, intimate documentary. “I’ll never forget, they all laughed at me. Everybody [at school] coming up to me and saying: ‘You’re not fit to model socks.’ But I wanted more.”
Homeward Bound With Karen Elson
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I haven’t shared a lot of my past; it’s almost like this dirty secret.
“
“My first thought when Vogue asked me to return to Oldham was panic,” Elson reveals. “Why do I not like going home? Whenever I come back here, I’m confronted with what I left, everything that I ran away from essentially… I’m bigger than this, I’m going to escape, I’m going to get out of here,” she adds, in a moment of nostalgic reflection. “That was the dream.” It was a dream fulfilled that also led Elson to another… the pursuit of music. Below, the video in full.
Fashion proved an escape route for Elson and the ‘more’ she craved came in the form of a landmark breakout Vogue Italia cover in February 1997, on her 18th birthday. “That was the shoot that essentially made my career,” she explains. The super has appeared on the catwalks of Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs (which she did while pregnant).
Elson’s rise, however, wasn’t without its challenges. “I was bullied a lot. Nobody expected anything of me,” she tells Vogue in this rare, intimate documentary. “I’ll never forget, they all laughed at me. Everybody [at school] coming up to me and saying: ‘You’re not fit to model socks.’ But I wanted more.”
Supermodel and singer-songwriter Karen Elson was just 16-years-old when she was signed to Boss Model Management in her hometown of Manchester. Her career in fashion soon soared, with more than 35 Vogue covers to date and multiple global campaigns for Miu Miu, Dior, and Louis Vuitton, with many landmark moments. And she’s never looked back — until now.
“My first thought when Vogue asked me to return to Oldham was panic,” Elson reveals. “Why do I not like going home? Whenever I come back here, I’m confronted with what I left, everything that I ran away from essentially… I’m bigger than this, I’m going to escape, I’m going to get out of here,” she adds, in a moment of nostalgic reflection. “That was the dream.” It was a dream fulfilled that also led Elson to another… the pursuit of music. Below, the video in full.
Watch now
“My first thought when Vogue asked me to return to Oldham was panic,” Elson reveals in this uniquely personal video. “Why do I not like going home? Whenever I come back here, I’m confronted with what I left, everything that I ran away from essentially… I’m bigger than this, I’m going to escape, I’m going to get out of here,” she adds. “That was the dream.” That dream also led Elson to pursue music.
In tandem with her modelling success Elson is a committed philanthropist, working with Save the Children in Syria and the
Ivory Coast.
The film explores her private archive, sharing her original test shots, personal memorabilia and never-before-seen letters from her family as modelling took her around the world at such a young age.
KAREN ELSON
VIDEO
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Supermodel and singer-songwriter Karen Elson was just 16-years-old when she was signed to Boss Model Management in her hometown of Manchester. Her career in fashion soon soared, with more than 35 Vogue covers to date and multiple global campaigns for Miu Miu, Dior, and Louis Vuitton, with many landmark moments. And she’s never looked back — until now.
15:41