Uncaged, Uninhibited, Uncensored

Model Jourdan Dunn Isn’t Content With Sitting Quietly in the Corner; She’s Got a Voice and She’s Making Use of It. Alice Franklin Hears Her Roar

- Alice Franklin

“I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T have said that,” is one of the juiciest phrases you can hear a personality say mid-interview, but that’s exactly what happens when I speak to British born model Jourdan Dunn between shows at New York Fashion Week in September. We’re lamenting the death of the supermodel, before Dunn, who chooses her words carefully until she gets just too heated to hold back, realises she may have made a misstep. She hasn’t, of course, she’s simply being herself; a London lass with an arresting look — one that has catapulted her to international fashion stardom — that’s matched only by her powerful personality: Deadpan funny, unapologetically opinionated and totally clued up on where her priorities lie.

Dunn is a favourite with global luxury labels, having fronted campaigns for the likes of Balmain, Burberry and beauty behemoth Maybelline. She’d been signed to veteran London agency Storm Model Management at the tender age of 16, after being spotted while shopping in a Hammersmith store. Her modelling crown was permanently set in 2015 when she was named International Model of the Year, having first snagged the industry’s top prize back in 2008.

Ask Dunn if it’s career-high moments like this that drive her to do more and she shoots back with absolute clarity: No, it’s her seven year-old son, Riley, that motivates her success — even if she does feel “grateful and blessed” that magazines and brands are still calling after a decade on the circuit.

Here’s a model and mother who’s hungry for opportunity, but draws the line at sacrificing time with her family to get it, all the while challenging how different ethnicities are represented in fashion and remaining (vocally) incredulous that women are still fighting for equal treatment. Jourdan Dunn is on a mission.