Suki Waterhouse credits the French look of dark suits without a shirt underneath, tousled locks and striking red lips for renewing her confidence as a woman.
But when it comes to the people, the British model, singer and actress says French snobbery led to her being canceled from a fashion show because she “looked too frumpy.”
As she quickly shaved her legs for a show for label Fendi in Paris last year, the 32-year-old said: ‘There’s nothing worse than turning up to a fitting straight off the plane with no shaved legs because the French are so judgey.
“I got canceled from a show because I showed up to a fitting that didn’t look very good.”
It comes as her fellow British models Lily Cole, 36, and Edie Campbell, 33, also walked out on fashion shows having canceled them after being deemed ‘too fat’.
Victim of snobbery: Suki Waterhouse says French snobbery led to her being canceled from a fashion show because she ‘looked too scruffy’
Resting: Model Ms Waterhouse is seen eating in her latest YouTube video
Front row: While quickly shaving her legs for a show for label Fendi in Paris last year, the 32-year-old said: ‘There’s nothing worse than showing up to a fitting, straight off the plane, with no legs shaved, because the French are so to be judicious’
Ms Waterhouse, who has modeled for high-end labels such as Hugo Boss and Burberry since she was 19, opened up about her treatment in France during a video on her new YouTube channel. In one clip, the star, who is expecting her first child with Batman actor Robert Pattison, 37, says: ‘French people look at me like p*****. They say, ‘Go away, Englishman,’ I’m so ashamed.’
It is not the first time Ms Waterhouse has spoken out against the unrealistic expectations the fashion industry places on models. Last year she said: ‘(I remember) an initial pressure to change myself a lot. If you were anything else, you’d be sat down and told you weren’t going to do any shows.”
Fellow model Ms Campbell, who has worked with Chanel and Hermes, was told by a brand that she was ‘too big’ to open their Milan Fashion Week show. She said: ‘And by ‘too big’ I don’t mean too famous. I mean too fat.”