In April, model Gigi Hadid was traveling to London to shoot an ad for Tom Ford eyewear when she noticed that Patrick Schwarzenegger — son of Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kennedy offspring Maria Shriver — tweeted that he’d also be in the English capital.
“I texted him and said, ‘Hey I am going to London for work, let’s get dinner,’ ’’ says the 19-year-old stunner. Neither of the pair mentioned why they’d be across the pond.
However, the purpose of their trips became quite evident when Gigi walked on set the next day — and came face to face with the hunky Kennedy scion.
“It’s funny — when we got the Tom Ford [job], you’re not allowed to talk about it,” recalls Gigi, who is relaxing on a couch in the Madison Square offices of her agency, IMG Models. She wears a white blouse with sheer panels and green shorts that show off her athletic frame, honed by years of riding horses and playing volleyball. Her beachy blonde locks are exactly what you would imagine for a girl who graduated from Malibu High School.
While it was amusing for Gigi and Schwarzenegger to discover they were working together, it’s simply a snapshot of what’s going on in fashion right now, as the progeny of prominent models, actors and TV personalities are hot commodities — making the industry virtually play like an episode of “Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.”
There’s Kendall Jenner, half-sister of Kim Kardashian, who recently dropped her last name and is one of the most sought-after catwalkers working. Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Alec, has starred alongside Gigi in a Sisley ad. Ireland’s cousin Hailey Baldwin (spawn of Stephen) is a model with Ford. Audrey Hepburn’s granddaughter, Emma Ferrer, graced the cover of September’s Harper’s Bazaar. And even Gigi’s younger sister, Bella, signed with IMG Models last week.
Gigi and Bella’s mother is Yolanda Foster, a Dutch model who is best known as one of the current stars of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Their father is wealthy real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid, though Yolanda is now married to mega music producer David Foster, who has worked with Céline Dion and Whitney Houston and who used to be married to Brody Jenner’s mother.
Though Gigi, who stuns with her sea-green eyes and bee-stung lips, has appeared on her mom’s show doing photo shoots while Yolanda frets over her daughter’s diet and workout routine, don’t expect the 19-year-old to star in her own spinoff anytime soon. She’s taking care to distance herself from the “Housewives” franchise and focus on her red-hot fashion career.
Unlike most models, Gigi fluidly moves between the high fashion and sexy swimsuit worlds. She appeared in the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was tapped for the cover of CR Fashion Book — the vanity publication of high fashion’s high priestess, Carine Roitfeld — in February and appears in the current issue with her shapely breasts poking through a white T-shirt.
“I think what’s been fun and exciting about my career is that I have been able to go from Sports Illustrated to high fashion, and that’s been a big part of why I love my team at IMG, because they push me to do things that I never thought I’d be able to and made connections with people that I never thought would have been interested in working with me,” says the media-trained Gigi.
A Guess girl as a baby and again in 2013, she is also a favorite of Tom Ford, who has featured the 5-foot-10 stunner not only in the aforementioned eyewear campaign, but also ones for his fall clothing line and Velvet Orchid perfume — which found her nude and coyly covering her breasts with her arms while her curls framed her face. This spring she was photographed naked rolling around in white sheets on a train for VMAN. She has no problem with being in the buff, telling the Daily Summer, “If you look at sculptures from hundreds of years ago, everyone’s naked. It’s not a bad thing.”
Fully clothed, Gigi made her New York Fashion Week debut last February, walking for Desigual and Jeremy Scott, and will no doubt grace the runways again this week.
“I do mostly print, and runway is a less common thing for my career, but I have a lot of fun doing it,” she says. “We want to be selective with what I do.”
Gigi started modeling for Guess when she was only 2, but Yolanda put her daughter’s career on hold in favor of school, volleyball and horseback riding.
Which isn’t to say she didn’t live the unusually privileged life of a kid with parents in the entertainment industry.
“No one knows this,” she says, taking a deep breath and clasping her knees, “but I sang background in a Josh Groban Christmas album when I was 9.” Her stepfather discovered Groban years ago.
“First we did ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ and I did a voice-over and played a little girl who was waiting for her dad to come home,” she says. “Then I sang background on ‘Little Drummer Boy.’ ”
Just don’t expect an encore performance.
“I am going to leave the music to my stepdad,” says Gigi, who is, however, taking acting classes.
In 2011, she signed with IMG and says she’s grateful for the gap in her modeling résumé.
“My mom wanted me to wait and that was one of the best things she could have done for my career. I’ve made all of the connections at the right time,” says Hadid, whose enviable network includes her own fashion fairy godmother, Roitfeld, and photographer Steven Meisel.
When she isn’t in front of the camera, Hadid, who now lives in Soho, is riding horses upstate or studying criminal psychology at the New School — an interest that is fueled by binge-watching crime shows. “Yes, I watch ‘Dateline,’ ‘Forensic Files’ and now I am getting into more cheesy stuff, like ‘Bones,’ ‘CSI,’ ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ ” she says. “I have probably seen every episode [of SVU].”
Hadid, who claims she doesn’t like to spend money, enjoys walking around her neighborhood, window shopping and indulging her guilty pleasure: food.
“Pancakes, french fries and pizza,” she says ticking off her junk food list. “Artichoke pizza is my favorite [but] I can be very disciplined when I need to be.”
Ireland Baldwin, the celebuspawn model who has courted controversy with amorous photos of her and bisexual rapper Angel Haze, is one of Gigi’s best friends.
“Ireland is one of the most free-spirited people I have ever met,” she says with her eyes lighting up at the mention of her friend. As for the Jenner girls, Kendall and Kylie, “We are friendly,” Gigi insists. “There is no competition. Someone who wants a Kendall-looking model isn’t going to want me in the end, but those girls are great.”
Though she and Kylie do share a pop star ex: Hadid dated Australian pop star Cody Simpson until the pair reportedly broke up this summer after dating for less than a year.
Asked if she has her eye on any celebrity, she says no but notes that potential suitors have to get past her gate keeper. “If they want to date me they have to go through [model agent] Luiz [Mattos].”
But there is one man who doesn’t need to be vetted — Guy Fieri.
“For Sports Illustrated, we played a volleyball tournament against celebrity chefs in Miami. I heard on the loudspeaker, ‘Guy Fieri is here.’ I almost couldn’t breathe,” Gigi says. “I don’t get star-struck except for celebrity chefs and Olympic horses. I was just trying to find his hair and thought, I really want him to see me serve an ace. I love his shows.”
So to sum it up, her career aspirations are? “I’d like to work with Karl Lagerfeld and Guy Fieri!”