Daria Werbowy is known around IMG, the powerful agency that represents her, as the "reluctant supermodel." According to her agent, Jen Ramey, the 24-year-old, 5-foot-11 stunner, who was raised in Mississauga, is still incredulous about her star status. So, although Daria has strutted countless runways in her spectacular career, her walk tonight across the stage of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto is likely to be her most heartfelt. (Ironically, it might also be one of her more awkward struts: She broke her foot during a recent sailing mishap.)
Daria, who revived the term "supermodel" well after it fell out of fashion, is being inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame along with seven other super-achievers, including Michael J. Fox, Bryan Adams, James Cameron and k.d. lang. She's not the only model to have received the honour: The legendary Linda Evangelista, who hails from St. Catharines, Ont., also got her star a couple of years ago (and will introduce her good friend Adams tonight.)
What I find compelling about Daria's story is that she's the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who came to this country when she was only 3. As a child of Eastern European immigrants myself, I feel privileged to introduce Daria and present her with this award.
The Werbowys certainly did one heck of a job raising their daughter. Not only is she one of the most grounded models I've met, she's also one of the most determined: to reach out beyond a world fraught with superficiality and help us understand the artistry and humanity behind the artifice.
"They really taught us kids to value what we had," Daria told me this week. "But I guess their biggest lesson was teaching us to have no fear."
She may be shy, but you would never know it. Whenever I see her backstage, even in the most pressure-filled situations, she is always happy to chat. "I think she's one of the coolest people in this business and that's because she's one of the most normal you will ever meet," her Canadian colleague, Romanian-born Irina Lazaraneau told me in Paris this summer. "She still has a soul."
While Daria's rise seems meteoric, it took time. She was an awkward 14, already 5-foot-11., when the mother of a schoolmate suggested she try modelling. One of her early agents, Toronto's Elmer Olson, says he knew Daria was bound for stardom. But the year she headed to New York for fashion week, 9/11 happened.
She didn't try modelling again until 2003, when a tour on Marc Jacobs' runway and a Prada campaign catapulted her into the international spotlight. The rest is fashion-model history. Last year, Forbes listed Daria as the ninth-highest-earning model in the world, with a $3.5-million paycheque.
This past spring, the former high school art student and avid painter joined forces with Lancôme to create a limited makeup line that will help fund an arts program for Brazilian children. Daria hopes to see this initiative reach global status. "As a model, I have a voice as well as an image," she told Fashion Television recently. "Now maybe I can change some stereotypes about models."
Daria was only a year old when I started covering the fashion scene. Over the years, I've watched a whole generation of models come into the fray and learned a lot about the true nature of beauty. Truth be told, when it comes to models, I rarely see the type of beauty that leaves a lasting impression.
But every once in a while, I do spot an especially brilliant star in that twinkling sky. And that's what makes this job so gratifying.
Jeanne Beker is host of Fashion Television.