Welcome to Fashion Industry Broadcast’s Top Ten countdown for our upcoming TOP MODELS ‘It Girls’ Vol. 61 series involving the biggest names in the modelling world. We love giving you a little taste of what we’ve been up to, so each week we’ll be counting down to the launch of our brand spankin’ new glossy.
Talent powerhouse in a size-6 frame, Abbey Lee Kershaw (known professionally as just Abbey Lee) is a serious force to be reckoned with. Born on June 12, 1987 in Melbourne, Australia, Kershaw is the quintessential local girl who has gone from strength to strength on an international scale. She is the daughter of Ken Kershaw, a Victorian Football League player with both Richmond and Hawthorne. After winning Girlfriend magazine’s Model Search competition in 2004, the young beauty moved north to Sydney to focus on modelling full-time and developed a thirst for success.
She was initially signed with Next Management in 2007 and by March of the same year had taken her ambition to the glittering prospects of New York City. With deep set eyes, a jutting jawline and china-doll lips, Kershaw made her international catwalk debut for Oscar de la Renta and Rodarte in 2008 at New York Fashion Week, and caught the attention of various industry style-setters from there. No stranger to accidents and a self-dubbed klutz, Kershaw said that she spent most of her childhood in a hospital. Her first fashion fall’s occurred later in the same year of her catwalk debut, initially at the Rodarte show in late 2008 where she slipped in her high heels, and then during the Alexander McQueen show, where she famously fainted in her overly tight corset. This clumsiness became a trait that defined the young model, and even became something to be loved for, as her relatability rendered her more human to the average fashion follower than some of the other seemingly infallible beauties that dominated the industry.
Kershaw’s most other notable first appearance included as a “Gucci exclusive” for Milan Fashion Week, and this led her to the pinnacle of all model’s careers: a spot on the highly-coveted Victoria’s Secret catwalk as an Angel for the ‘Pink Planet’ segment of the show. Her first Vogue Australia cover was released in September of 2008, and has been followed by two more editions in 2009 and 2010. In the second release, Kershaw was additionally given a double-feature spread that celebrated her successful transition into the acting world from the modelling one she had already conquered. Her roles to date include as Sarah in Neon Demon (2016), Anat in Gods of Egypt (2016), and The Dag in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) alongside fellow ‘It Girl’ Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Despite her success as an actress, Kershaw has stated that she has no plans to pursue it further, preferring instead to follow a career in therapy. The wide-eyed starlet’s most successful campaigns include modelling for Alexander Wang, Anna Sui, Chanel, Gap and Calvin Klein overseas and Portmans within Australia. Kershaw’s mother agency, Next Models, represents her in all of the fashion capitals of the world, including Paris, London, New York and Milan – solidifying her status of one of the most successful global girls of the moment.
Kershaw has suffered from a torn ligament in her knee for the better part of half a decade, and this has severely restricted her capacity to walk the runway, and missed entirely every autumn show of the year 2009. Instead, Kershaw diligently pursued work in front of the camera, most notably for the controversial photographer, Terry Richardson, where she was photographed in sexually suggestive poses for Purple magazine. Whilst Richardson came under a great deal of criticism for his role ‘exploiting’ young women, Kershaw defended him vigorously. Of the incident, she said: “Terry doesn’t force girls’ to do anything they don’t want to. He puts you in a G-string in a pile of mud because you want to do it. You touch yourself because you want to. For me, that shoot was the truth about how things were between us both, and I felt good doing it. I’m not ashamed of it – why should I be?”
Awards for Kershaw include Milan’s Top Model by New York Magazine, Next Superstar by Models.com and “the biggest thing to come from Down Under since Elle McPherson” by V Magazine, a huge accolade in and of itself. In 2010, Kershaw was included in the Pirelli calendar which was photographed by Karl Lagerfeld in France, and she has also been cast as the face of Gucci’s ‘Flora’ perfumery range. In her spare time, Kershaw regularly goes second-hand shopping and credits one of her favourite outfits, a simple black lace dress, to the past-time.
“I see potential in everything,” she said about the hobby.
“It’s about opening your mind to what you can do to the garment: because they’re cheap, you can cut them or stitch them and if you stuff up, it’s fine… it’s only two dollars.” Kershaw has a pet lizard named Annie Hall, sports 10 different piercings and tattoos over her petite frame, draws abstract paintings and is a drummer in a small-time Australian band.
Stay tuned for our upcoming TOP MODELS ‘It Girls’ Vol. 61 coming soon!
