By Sacha Strebe, fashion editor, Gold Coast Bulletin. First published 8/9/2010.
SHE’S been modelling for ten years, but Jess Hart is only just making her mark.
The New York-based gap-toothed girl from Melbourne was once named the new Miranda Kerr when she hit the Victoria Secret catwalk, now she’s taking on the newly-wed brunette again as Myer’s secret weapon against retail rival David Jones.
“It is kind of funny how I’ve been modelling for ten years and it’s only just beginning but it’s really exciting for me, I keep saying I can’t believe it,” she said.
“It’s phenomenal for me, it’s so good to be representing Myer because I have always grown up with Myer, I have always looked up to people like Deborah Hutton.”
Even still, the thought of Jess Hart becoming a household name, similar to her Myer idols, is `surreal’ to the statuesque star.
“It is surreal that’s exactly what it is, it’s kind of like I have to pinch myself, except for when I’m here because I am pretty much being punched more or less rather than pinched, but it’s great, it’s fun,” she said.
The 24-year-old loves her new New York home, but she’s hardly ever there.
“It’s funny because living in New York you always seem to be travelling, like working everywhere but New York it just a base,” she said.
“I have a contract with H&M which keeps me super busy I am flying everywhere with them, I am working with a lot of European clients, again it’s funny I’m in New York but everyone’s European or Australian, I’m flying in and out for everything.
“It’s great, I am busy, I travel a lot so I am in and out, but I love it there, so it’s home for now but I will always move home – eventually.”
Jess has been named as Myer’s Hart attack, unleashed as the retail giant’s latest towering supermodel ambassador to take on Miranda Kerr.
But Hart is genuinely stunned and humbled by the title.
“That is an honour for me because not only am I being brought on to represent Myer it’s humbling because it’s me, you know what I mean,” she said.
The Melburnian maven made her model mark thanks, in part, to a Vogue Australia cover in March 2008 and the former style bible exclusive shot a fashion editorial as soon as she landed back in Australia.
“I shot Vogue straight off the plane it was a great way to go into it,” she said.
“I was with Vogue for a long time and shot the cover, then I stepped outside the box for a while and I think I am one of the very few that have been let back inside the family,” she said.
“Definitely everyone is so great in there and everyone is the best of the best to work with and it was good.”
While she is loving life in the big apple, she still misses the creature comforts of home, especially the laid back lifestyle, family and friends.
“Silly things like vegemite… the beach – Australia is one of a kind,” she said.
Much of the 24-year-old’s appeal is her style blog that documents her personal fashion sense and New York city life.
Recent blog pictures show a very relaxed Hart being silly back home in a Sydney park with a girlfriend posing in their Seafolly bikinis – a direct plug for the swimwear label she fronts.
“In the park we try and pretend we’re at the beach but we’re at Central park, you know in the middle of the city, so you know, those kind of things,” she said.
While the blog is just added work on top of her hectic model schedule, she loves the creative outlet.
“It adds a lot of pressure on top of everything else I’ve got going right now but it’s something that I really love doing and it’s creative, it’s fun and I love taking pictures,” she said.
“I love how much people love it, it’s really nice that everybody likes it.
“I mean you look at how many people are looking at it and it’s just, I mean, that’s a Hart attack in itself.
“It’s like I said, pressure but it’s worth it as a creative outlet.”
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