Florence grew up in the countryside in Devon, Southwest England. Now living between London and Ibiza
she made a choice for quality of life and being closer to nature. Her rural upbringing meant she had a love
for the outdoors, adventure and sport, still to this day hiking, playing rugby and volunteering on an allotment
patch & farm in her free time.
Florence’s catwalk and model debut was with Alexander McQueen who she holds a close relationship often
being asked to return each season. Since the beginning being true and authentic to herself has been the
only way she would model knowing the traditional way of modelling wouldn’t work for her. Her approach
to work is much more collaborative and with meaning so that her ethics, values and presentation can be
incorporated wherever possible. This feeds into her “androgynous” and “masculine” style requesting to
work with “menswear” silhouettes and shapes. Sarah Burton describes this process between Florence and
McQueen for their AW22 show in i-D mag: “If the dress doesn’t suit somebody, I’ll get rid of it and make
something that does suit them. We’re all individuals. It’s not about putting a statement onto somebody. It’s
about them inspiring you as much as you are inspiring them”.
Although labels can help to understand others, Florence tries to step away from being boxed in to restrictive
labels such as queer, female, masculine in order to exist on a human level. Therefore, collaborating on
a level where there is conversation and preparation in advance aids any partnerships. The work she does
today as a model aims to challenge the binary and what it means to be and look like a model in the industry.
Florence Huntington-Whiteley recently signed with Premier Models and is relaunching her modelling career
with opening JW Anderson SS23.