As Cara Delevingne’s departure from Storm Models becomes official with the removal of her profile from its website, the model is at a crossroads of opportunity – so which way will she – and should she – go?
The most obvious focus for the 22-year-old would be films – which she’s been vocal about having a passion for – and the coming year is set to be a big one for her. Beginning in 2012 with a small role in Anna Karenina, Delevingne’s acting career has grown exponentially ever since.
She has five films currently in post-production – Tulip Fever, London Fields, Paper Towns, Kids In Love and Pan and recently began filming Suicide Squad in Toronto, part of a franchise that could run and run if successful. She will start filming Luc Besson-directed Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets next year – and with good reviews for the small roles she’s undertaken already, she could soon eclipse other model-turned-actresses, including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Gemma Ward, who are yet to taste widespread critical acclaim. Celebrated actresses including Charlize Theron and Cameron Diaz were once models, so could Delevingne one day lose the “model” tag altogether, as they have, gracing magazine covers as an actress alone?
Pursuing a career in music is also an option for the talented drummer and singer, whoperformed with Pharrell at the recent Chanel cruise show in Salzburg. Although she’spreviously taken to the stage with friend Rita Ora, she had her first experience of singing super-stardom at the weekend when she and several other famous friends (Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss among them) joined Taylor Swift on the Hyde Park stage in front of more than 65,000 fans. Her girlfriend, singer-songwriter St Vincent, could also give her advice and industry contacts – not that Delevingne doesn’t have plenty of those already.
Like fellow British supermodel Kate Moss – who has also dabbled in music – Delevingne has lent her name to a designer collaboration. Following in the footsteps of Moss for Topshop and Huntington-Whiteley for Marks & Spencer, she created a hugely successful capsule collection for Mulberry – credited at least in part with buoying the brand during a disappointing year – and another such collection, lucrative as they usually are for the name concerned, could also be on the cards.
While some models – raise your hand Gisele Bündchen – step down from the catwalk entirely, Delevingne could choose to mirror the career of models including Alessandra Ambrosio, Liberty Ross and Naomi Campbell who only walk for designers with whom they have a special relationship. Alternatively, she could build relationships – as she has done in the past with Burberry and YSL – with a select number of brands, becoming a brand ambassador in the way that Miranda Kerr has done following her step back from full-time modelling.
Knowing Delevingne, however, she could choose to keep as many balls in the air as possible and just enjoy the madness. And if we were good at as many things as her, we might just do the same.