Cara Delevingne – Fashion’s New “It” Girl

Every once in a while, there’s a face that comes along in the fashion world that leaves the rest of the world breathless once discovered.

The world first took Cara Delevingne seriously in 2011 when she was seen in ad campaigns for Burberry and H&M. And after just two years, she was named model of the year last November at the British Fashion Awards. And it was an award that was well earned. She's been photographed by Mario Testino for the cover of British Vogue; she's appeared in ad campaigns for Chanel, Burberry, and H&M, among others; and she seems to have walked almost every runway in New York, London, Milan, and Paris for most major designers.

Recently she’s been seen in a small role in the film Anna Karenina alongside Keira Knightly and on the Victoria's Secret ramp modelling the Pink line for teens.

But even at only 21 years old these milestones and achievements, revered in the fashion industry, hardly seem to encompass the powerhouse that is Cara.

She has “the” look; the delicate mouth, the elfin cheekbones, the bushy eyebrows that need no introduction. Then there's her colourful lineage and background straight out of a movie script: her grandfather, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, was a prominent newspaper executive; her eccentric mother, Pandora, a personal shopper; her father, Charles, a handsome man about town; and her older sister Poppy, also a successful model and socialite.

But perhaps the best part of Cara, the part that her facial features and body language epitomise so intriguingly, is that punch-to-the-gut personality that make so many of the headlines about her. She’s witty, quirky, and enchantingly unpredictable.

A perfect fit for the fashion world, Cara gives the photographer what they want before they even realize they want it. She’s a photographer’s dream, daring and experimental, and has even gone pretty much nude in November last year for a shoot with Nick Knight for SHOWstudio and Garage magazine. She always manages to be classy and sultry – a combination not easily achieved.

Renowned photographer Mario Testino has called her “the new Kate Moss” – but this wild-child who cites Charlie Chaplin as her style icon and the Milan-based street-wear brand You Need This Shit as a favourite label – isn’t replacing anyone in the fashion world but is carving out her own niche.