Some of you have sold clothes on Depop that are now adorning the most in demand model in fashion and you don’t even know it. In an interview with Rob Haskell for Vogue, Bella Hadid shared that a lot of her wardrobe at the moment is vintage pieces she buys on the online resale app and that one of her great joys is seeing her rating on the platform. “I don’t know if anybody knows it’s me, but it’s always like, very sweet buyer! Awesome buyer!”. I guess you’ll never see one of her DMs on @depopdrama. (Recently, New York magazine speculated that Bella was behind the account @princesspeach310 because many of the buyer’s purchases – including a 90s neon bikini, keyhole flares and a 00s Ed Hardy tee – have been spotted being worn by the model in her own Instagram stories after being sold).
Bella gets pretty candid in her Vogue cover story. Often considered one of the kindest people in the industry, her cool-yet-serious-and-scary modelling persona is something of a red herring. “The majority of the time when I meet people, they say, I just didn’t think you were going to be nice, that you were going to be this mean, scary dragon lady, or some kind of a sexbot,” she says. “That’s just not me, and if people have a better understanding of who I am, then I feel less alone within myself.” She also added that the scary aesthetic works as a kind of shield and armour in what can be a difficult industry.
Elsewhere Bella shared her regret at getting a nose job at the age of 14 – “I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” she says. “I think I would have grown into it” – and that she’s over all the rumours she’s had additional plastic surgery and filler on her eyes, jaw and lips. “People think I fully fucked with my face because of one picture of me as a teenager looking puffy. I’m pretty sure you don’t look the same now as you did at 13, right? I have never used filler… I have no issue with it, but it’s not for me.”
She says that the constant judgement and critique of her body and ability has led to imposter syndrome, body dysmorphia and anorexia. She now says her relationship with food is under control, but still struggles to look in mirrors. She also shared that burnout and “suicidal despair” just before the AW21 fashion shows last year caused her to cancel work and seek treatment at a holistic treatment program in Tennessee. “For so long, I didn’t know what I was crying about. I always felt so lucky, and that would get me even more down on myself. There were people online saying, You live this amazing life. So then how can I complain? I always felt that I didn’t have the right to complain, which meant that I didn’t have the right to get help, which was my first problem.”
During AW22 Bella was once again the absolute moment, stealing the show at Fendi, Versace and Ludovic de Saint Sernin shows amongst others. It seems she wants to be more involved in the behind-the-scenes process of modelling, photography and fashion though. “I am production, I am creative, I’m figuring out what hair and makeup are doing, I’m helping with styling. I love to be a part of that process. Sometimes I think I love everything except being in front of the camera.” She adds that she would love to one day start her own fashion magazine, which we just know would be major.