Heidi klum: the model turned mogul

“Vito is an amazing teacher of all that is new now,” gushes Klum who has invested millions in art. “I have many beautiful paintings. My accountant is probably not as enthusiastic about

them.”  Klum and Schnabel live together in Los Angeles but jet across the globe, spotted partying in St Tropez, St Barts, New York, Paris, Switzerland, the Cannes Film Festival, the US Open

tennis tournament and at Wimbledon.  “I’m very much in love,” she says, dismissing the 13-year age gap with her 30-year-old beau. “It is not about age. We have an amazing connection. We have

fun together and we love each other. That is really all that matters.”  Schnabel has become part of the team that helps guide and shape Klum’s brand. “I owe a lot to the team and I

appreciate what each one does,” she says. “I never yell but I never let things go. If something goes wrong we sit down, we talk about it, we brainstorm, we figure out how we can improve.” 

Project Runway producer Desiree Gruber says: “On a Heidi project everybody has a part in the win: the client, the crew, the sponsor, everybody.  She is very good at bringing various

interests together for their mutual benefit.”  Her favourite fashion photographer Rankin says: “She just does not quit until the job is done. But what’s special about Heidi is how much fun

it is to work with her. Heidi is super-smart. She understands fashion, advertising, marketing and most of all herself.”  Klum was an 18-year-old school girl when she beat 30,000 others in a

televised modelling competition in Germany. She was poised to attend fashion and design college in Dusseldorf but instead moved to New York to launch her modelling career.  She was not an

overnight success and gave up the haute couture runway to focus on swimwear and lingerie. “I came to America in the 1990s with big boobs and a big smile. “I struggled but I was never

depressed. I always thought, ‘There must be a job I can do as a healthy woman.’”  It was six years before her big break in 1997, becoming a Victoria’s Secret model, a relationship that

lasted 13 lucrative years.  Her “induction” as a supermodel was complete the following year when she graced the cover of Sports illustrated’s iconic swimsuit edition wearing nothing but

psychedelic body paint. Years of modelling have made her comfortable with her body, even as it changes with age.  “Would it be nice if my skin and body still looked the way it did when I was

25? Sure. But your body changes when you have children and you get wrinkles as you get older.  “I’m now 43. My stomach has stretched in and out four times. I have breast-fed four children.

You just have to embrace it, go with it, roll with it.  “I like that I have laughter lines from smiling too much,” she says. “I am probably going to be the girl on the beach with no top on

when I’m 60.”  “I love my shape because it’s mine. At the end of the day it is not what anybody else thinks about my body but how I feel about myself.”