Lily Cole | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cole in London, 2013 | |
| Born | Lily Luahana Cole (1987-12-27)27 December 1987 (age 37) Torquay, Devon, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Organisation | Impossible.com |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Honorary degree for contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes,Glasgow Caledonian University, 2013.[1] |
| Modelling information | |
| Hair colour | Red |
| Eye colour | Blue |
| Agency | IMG Models (worldwide) CAA |
| Website | www |
Lily Luahana Cole (born 27 December 1987)[2][3] is a British model, author, film director, actress and entrepreneur.[4] Cole pursued a modelling career as a teenager and was listed in 2009 byVogue Paris as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.[5] She was booked for her firstBritish Vogue cover at age 16, named "Model of the Year" at the 2004British Fashion Awards and has worked with many well-known brands, includingAlexander McQueen,Chanel,Louis Vuitton,Jean Paul Gaultier andMoschino. Her advertising campaigns have includedLongchamp,Anna Sui,[6]Rimmel andCacharel.[7][8] In 2020, Cole publishedWho Cares Wins, a book about how humans' lives impact the planet and how humans can respond to climate emergency challenges. In 2021, the book was turned into a podcast in which Cole invites guests with different perspectives to explore critical issues — and their relationship to the environment — ranging from technology and food to mental health and capitalism.
Cole's first leading role as an actress was as Valentina in the 2009 filmThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Her other film work includesPassages, a short directed byShekhar Kapur, andThere Be Dragons directed byRoland Joffé.[9] In 2013, Cole foundedimpossible.com, an innovation group andincubator (previously agift economy social network, now renamed Impossible People).[10][11]
Cole was born inTorquay,Devon, to Patience Owen, an artist and writer, and Chris Cole, a fisherman and boat builder. She has no contact with her father, who left home when she was a baby; she and her sister were raised by theirWelsh mother in London.[12]
Cole attended Hallfield Primary School, theSylvia Young Theatre School, andSt Marylebone School.[12][13] AtLatymer Upper School, where she completed hersixth form studies, she achieved A grades in herA-levels in English, politics, and philosophy and ethics.[12][14]
She gained a place to readSocial and Political Sciences atKing's College, Cambridge in 2006, deferring entry twice.[14][15] In 2008 she switched tohistory of art and graduated in 2011 with adouble first.[16]
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Cole was photographed in 2001 at age 13 by fashion photographerMariano Vivanco.[17] According to theEvening Standard in 2004, her modelling career began in 2003 when she was approached in the street byBenjamin Hart ofStorm Models.[18] She signed with Storm and in 2003 was photographed bySteven Meisel for ItalianVogue.[7][19] Her distinctive red hair attracted significant media attention.[20] At the 2004British Fashion Awards, she was named "Model of the Year".[19][21]
Cole worked with many prominent photographers, includingCraig McDean,Nick Knight,Juergen Teller,Arthur Elgort,Irving Penn andTim Walker.[22] She has appeared on the covers ofPlayboy in France,Vogue,Citizen K, andV, among others.[23] She featured onVogue's "best dressed" list in December 2005, and had cover appearances onNuméro andInterview.[24]
She modelled on the international runway circuit and at many fashion shows on behalf ofChanel,Shiatzy Chen,DKNY,Jean Paul Gaultier,Versace,Alexander McQueen,Jasper Conran,[25]John Galliano andLouis Vuitton.[7][8] She was nominated, for the second time, for the "Model of the Year" award at the 2007 British Fashion Awards.[26] In December 2009 she was listed byVogue Paris as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.[5] Cole made a cover appearance on the January 2010 issue of the CanadianElle[23] and openedHermès's winter 2010/2011 collection atParis Fashion Week in March.[citation needed] Towards the end of 2010, she featured in a documentary chronicling the career ofRolf Harris in which he painted her dressing up asTitania fromA Midsummer Night's Dream.[27] Cole has additionally graced the covers ofVogue (UK, Russia, Korea),Harper's Bazaar (UK, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, Turkey) andi-D.
During theClosing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, Cole was one of the British models wearing fashions created by British designers specifically for the event.[28]
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Cole has appeared in advertising campaigns forChanel,Christian Lacroix,Hermès,Longchamp,Cacharel,Topshop andAnna Sui cosmetics, as well as being the face forMoschino's perfume "I Love Love".[14] In September 2007, Cole was announced as the follow-up model forAccessorize, taking the place ofClaudia Schiffer,[29] also designing a line of handbags for the collection.[30]
Cole has been modelling for cosmetics companyRimmel London since October 2009,[7][31][32] as well as featuring in advertisements for jewellersTiffany & Co.[33] Along withTwiggy and others, Cole became a "face" ofMarks and Spencer clothes advertising campaign, making her the youngest model in a campaign for the company.[34]
She launched a campaign in June 2010 atGatwick Airport for modelling agency,Storm Model Management. The campaign aims to find new modelling talent from people passing through the airport, with the agency hoping to re-create the discovery ofKate Moss, who was spotted atJFK Airport in 1988 by the agency's founder.[35][36]
In March 2012The Body Shop launched its Beauty With Heart campaign, naming Cole as its first ambassador.[37]
Cole made her acting debut as Polly in the 2007 comedySt Trinian's, a rework of the black and whitefilms of the 1950s and '60s,[38] alongsideRupert Everett,Colin Firth,Russell Brand,Jodie Whittaker andStephen Fry.[39]
Her first leading role came inTerry Gilliam's 2009 fantasy film,The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, playing Valentina, the teenage daughter ofChristopher Plummer's title character, Dr Parnassus, whom Parnassus has promised to the Devil (Tom Waits) upon her 16th birthday.[40][41] Acting alongsideHeath Ledger (who died before filming had finished), Cole, in an interview for theDaily Telegraph admitted that, at times, she felt out of her depth in the role — saying "I'd only done a couple of films and here I was surrounded by amazing actors like Christopher Plummer and Heath Ledger, and it was intimidating at times",[7] also describing the role as "the biggest role I've ever done".[7]
Gilliam said of Cole: "She has an amazing look and grasps what is required so very quickly. If she wants a career as an actress, she has a brilliant future".[7] According to Mark Olsen ofThe Los Angeles Times, writing asParnassus was released in the United States, "Cole brings a surprising well of emotional tenderness to her part as Valentina",[40] while Ryan Michael Painter wrote of the film on 'inthisweek.com' that "all of the performances are delightful, particularly Cole's as Valentina, proving that the haute couture model has more to offer this world than a pretty face".[42]
Cole appeared at the 34thToronto International Film Festival in December 2009 to promoteParnassus.[43]She was featured as herself in one episode of the online seriesT Takes, a series of short, improvised films published byThe New York Times.[44] Cole appeared as "Lettuce Leaf", a celebrity supermodel in the 2009 film,Rage, directed bySally Potter. Cole also played "Aline" in the 2011 filmThere Be Dragons.[14]
In January 2010, Cole gave an interview to the Canadian edition ofElle in which she expressed her desire to focus more on acting than on her modelling career, saying she "wouldn't want to treat acting as a convenient thing to do now and again", going on to mention her roles in the upcoming filmsThere Be Dragons andPhantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll and saying of her modelling "I've been doing modelling for years and I feel like I've taken out of it what I need to and I'm ready for new things"[citation needed] and that "film asks for a much bigger emotional and intellectual commitment."[23] Cole had a part inMary Harron'sThe Moth Diaries, which was released in 2012.[40]
Cole made a minor appearance in themusic video for theGirls Aloud andSugababes cover of "Walk This Way" in aid of the charityComic Relief, in which she struts up and down a catwalk in "hilarious ways", interspersed by the bands and several well-known British television personalities.[45] Cole had another minor role inPrimal Scream's 2008 video "Can't Go Back", in which she and other models featured in a horror-style video based on the films ofDario Argento. The models, including Cole, are graphically "murdered" and "meet their ends in rather striking ways" with the aim of looking "hot even when dead".[46] Cole again starred in a music video for Paul McCartney's song "Queenie Eye" featuring a number of actors and musicians including Gary Barlow, James Corden, Jude Law and Johnny Depp.
It was reported in October 2009 that Cole would make her stage debut at theOld Vic Theatre in London'sWest End at the theatre's annual "24 Hour Plays" held in November, but "scheduling commitments" forced her to pull out.[47] Cole ultimately made her stage début at the ADC Theatre inCambridge, as Nina in a student production ofThe Seagull.[48]
She appeared in "The Curse of the Black Spot", the third episode of thesixth series of science fiction seriesDoctor Who, in May 2011. She played a SeaSiren.[49] Cole stars in the music video forYeah Yeah Yeahs' 2013 single "Sacrilege" as a woman burned alive by the many men and women with whom she has had affairs.[50] In 2017, Cole starred in thetitle role in the three-partdocu-drama miniseriesElizabeth I, which aired onChannel 5 from 9 to 23 May.[51][52]
Cole supports a variety of humanitarian and environmental causes. She supports the charityWaterAid, speaking for the organisation's "End Water Poverty" campaign,[19] and theEnvironmental Justice Foundation[14][53] Cole has modelled a T-shirt with the slogan "Save the Future" to fightchild labour in thefashion industry for the Environmental Justice Foundation.[54] Most recently Cole put a plaster cast bust of her torso on the auction siteeBay to raise money for Britishtelethon charityComic Relief.[19][55]
In December 2009, Cole attended a party, hosted byElton John for which guests were asked to design their ideal bar with the designs then sold at auction in aid of theElton John AIDS Foundation.[56][57]
In October 2010, she helped launch theWorld Land Trust's Emerald for Elephant Exhibition, which was designed to create awareness and raise important funds for the protection of the critically endangeredAsian elephant.[58]
In August 2012, she was part of the judging panel at the Festival of Code, held at the culmination ofYoung Rewired State 2012.
In 2013,PETA cited her efforts to make consumers aware of animal products in cosmetics and declared her to be one of the "Sexiest Vegetarians" of the year.[59]
For the bi-centenary of writerEmily Brontë,The Parsonage Museum, Haworth, has appointed Cole to be its "creative partner" to "commemorate the legacy of one of England's most important, and mysterious, writers".[60]
In 2016 Cole was appointed aFellow of theFoundling Museum in London. In 2018 she co-wroteBalls, a short film exploring connections between the Foundling Hospital story and Emily Brontë's much-loved novelWuthering Heights.Balls is co-written by Lily Cole and Stacey Gregg, and produced by Kate Wilson at Fury Films. The film has been co-commissioned by the Foundling Museum, Brontë Parsonage Museum and Rapid Response Unit, with support from Arts Council England.
In 2005 Cole announced she would no longer model forDe Beers after being alerted to the situation of the KalahariBushmen being evicted from their lands in Botswana.[61]
Cole wrote the foreword forTamsin Blanchard's 2007 bookGreen Is The New Black, a guide to being fashionable while remaining eco-friendly.[62]
In 2013 it was announced that Cole would receive theDoctor of Letters for her "outstanding contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes" from the chancellor ofGlasgow Caledonian University, ProfessorMuhammad Yunus.[1]
Cole was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of theGreen Party'sCaroline Lucas at the2015 general election.[63]
Cole is the founder ofImpossible.com, an innovation group and incubator.[10] Cole is also part-owner of a London bookshop[64] and an advisor toWikitribune.[65]
Cole was involved in creating an environmentally friendlyknitwear company, The North Circular, which launched in 2009.[66] The North Circular products are hand knit in the UK with British yarns,[66] from which 5% of all profits, and all of Cole's, are donated to the Environmental Justice Foundation.[67] She launched a womenswear range for the company in February 2010.[68]
On 28 February 2015, Cole announced she was expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Kwame Ferreira.[69] Their daughter was born in September 2015.[70] In 2021, Colecame out asqueer during an interview withThe Sunday TimesStyle.[71] Cole is apescatarian but eats "mostly vegan".[72][73]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | St. Trinians | Polly | |
| 2009 | Rage | Lettuce Leaf | |
| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus | Valentina | ||
| Passage | Tania | Short film | |
| 2011 | There Be Dragons | Aline | |
| Doctor Who | The Siren | Episode: "The Curse of the Black Spot" | |
| The Moth Diaries | Ernessa Bloch | ||
| 2012 | Confession of a Child of the Century | Elsie | |
| Snow White and the Huntsman | Greta | ||
| 2013 | The Zero Theorem | Woman in street commercial | |
| Red Shoes | The dancer | Short film | |
| 2015 | The Messenger | Emma | |
| Orion | |||
| Gravy | Mimi | ||
| 2016 | Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie | Herself | |
| 2017 | Elizabeth I | Elizabeth I | Miniseries; 3 episodes |
| Star Wars: The Last Jedi | Lovey | ||
| 2018 | London Fields | Trish Shirt | |
| Upstart Crow | Ephie | ||
| 2019 | Icons – Artists | Herself | BBC documentary series |
| 2022 | The Split | Bella | Series 3 |
| Hilma [sv] | Mathilda |
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "Walk This Way" | Girls Aloud andSugababes |
| 2012 | "UK Shanty" | Clean Bandit |
| 2013 | "Sacrilege" | Yeah Yeah Yeahs |
| "Queenie Eye" | Paul McCartney | |
| 2018 | "Selfies in the Sunset" | Gruff Rhys |
^[n 1] Cole gives her date of birth as 27 December 1987.[2] Several sources, such asNew York Magazine andFashion Model Directory, cite 19 May 1988 as her date of birth, however, her birth was registered with the General Registry Office of England and Wales (GRO) three months earlier, in February 1988 andcheckcompany.co.uk confirms December 1987 as her date of birth.[3]
Marre, Oliver (15 July 2007)."Pendennis".The Observer.
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