Gigi Hadid covers the March issue of Elle, mostly to promote her new fashion line, Guest In Residence. It apparently features a lot of cashmere and slouchy, high-end sportswear. Gigi is a single mom to Khai, and she doesn’t reveal much about her coparenting relationship with Zayn Malik after their relationship fell apart spectacularly in the fall of 2021. I actually admire how Gigi handled all of that – she got a lawyer, she got safe, she figured things out, she kept working. Anyway, you can read the full Elle piece here. Some highlights:
Pregnancy refocused her priorities: “I got pregnant and I really started to think about what I wanted after, when the world opened back up. It kept coming back to just a more stabilized schedule where I’m not in a different country every week. This [work with Guest In Residence] is very stabilizing. I have an office that I come to. I know everyone here. I don’t have to look a certain way to show up. It’s a different experience for me, and it was the right time because I was ready for that.”
Joining Netflix’s ‘Next in Fashion’ as co-host alongside Tan France. France is a friend, so “it felt like a safe place for me to take the plunge. But Netflix was not easy on me. They really put me through an audition process. I respected that, and it made me feel good when I got the job. I felt like I had earned it in their eyes, and so that gave me the confidence to go for it. You get a sense of impostor syndrome and you’re like, ‘Okay, are they just giving me this show because I have a lot of followers?’ The fact that they really questioned my intentions for being on the show helped me jump into it headfirst. If they think that I can do it, then that gives me more confidence than maybe I would’ve had otherwise.” The show has helped draw out seemingly hidden traits in Hadid as well: “People say I’m funny. I don’t know, but I think that the more time I’m given, then the more I’m able to be goofy.”
Dealing with the scrutiny and criticism: It’s about “realizing that nothing really matters. Serena Williams once told me, ‘Nothing stays in the press longer than three weeks.’ You can feel like your life is ending,” Hadid notes, but “if it’s a mistake, then it will pass. I think it’s about not taking yourself that seriously and being like, ‘When I am on my deathbed, I’m not going to remember that one awkward interview from when I was 19.’”
She & her sister Bella are both in therapy: “There are different things that we probably both deal with on different sides, but there’s always going to be something that comes together.”
Setting boundaries: “Setting boundaries, even if that’s with the paparazzi—going over and saying, ‘Hey, what’s up? I know we’ve seen each other from across the street for five years, but when I’m with my kid, please don’t point the camera this way.’ Sometimes you have to be assertive, and that doesn’t mean that it’s rude. It’s setting a boundary.”
Dealing with Hashimoto’s disease: “When it’s a really cold shoot, it takes a lot of time for my body to recover temperature-wise, and it can make me shaky.” Shoots in the heat can also take their toll on her. “One of the boundaries I have is that I have to tell my team when I need rest. They’ve always been understanding and encouraging of that, and then besides that, I think I’ve just learned to make it work for me, and what helps me get through the day and do my best.”
Having a daughter: “Having a daughter, although it shifted my life to make me really want to feel more settled, has also really made me appreciate the chaos as well. Being at shows and shoots and just being in the city again; being around friends [after] becoming a mom, with everyone also coming out of COVID—I have an appreciation for both sides of it.”
It’s always felt like Gigi doesn’t enjoy the pace of modeling – she doesn’t like all of the travel, she doesn’t like the whirlwind start-stop hustle of it. I’m happy for her that she’s begun to carve out her own way of existing within the industry, setting boundaries for what kinds of editorial work she’ll do, how she’ll travel, and when she would rather just stay in one place. It’s also kind of funny that Netflix really made her audition for Next in Fashion – they were like “girl, you’re not going to nepotize your way onto this show.”
Covers courtesy of Elle.
If anything would make one realize they need a stabilized schedule it’s a pregnancy. Not everyone sees this at a sign.
And a bunny suit.
The friendship between Gigi and Serena Williams really does not get talked about much but Serena has been in her life since Gigi was 14 and Serena is one of her confidants and advisors on surviving the chaotic life of fame.
I didn’t know much about Gigi but have been a huge fan of Next In Fashion. Happy to say I loved the addition of Gigi to the show and think it’s even better now! She and Tan have such great energy together and you can really see her passion and personality. It’s such a great show regardless. I wish her all the best.
Same! She’s great on the show!
My guess is having a child and having an relationship turn abusive and toxic altered her perspective on certain things. Her position as a celebrity didn’t protect her from it, so it may have changed her priorities dramatically to realize how superficial a lot of industry is when faced with an actually serious situation. It is, of course, a privilege to be able to choose a different direction and carve our a new space in the industry with her connections, but one may as well take advantage of what privileges one has.
As somebody with Hashimoto’s, though, I’ll say it definitely sucks. She got lucky in the sense that she didn’t get the weight gain issues I did, given her chosen industry, but the shift in energy levels was insane for me. I went from being able to pound out 1-2 hour gym sessions to struggling through an hour of them. Even if you’re on the medications to replace the thyroid hormone, it definitely does a number on your overall metabolism. I’m glad she mentioned the temperature issue because it’s not one I saw highlighted much and really threw me. My body just cannot tolerate extreme heat and cold anymore. The ability to regulate is definitely impacted.
Something that was revelatory to me about Gigi on the show, she’s always asking how someone else is, asking do you need help. Very involved in an outward, other-thinking way. I think that says a lot about a person.