Here Comes The Sun

Model-turned-reality-television-star ELYSE KNOWLES took a career gamble and won the lifestyle game. Now settled in Byron Bay, she’s proof nice girls do finish first.

- Rachel Sharp

No-one can accuse reality star Elyse Knowles of leaving her future and fate to sweet Lady Luck. Winning the ominously numbered 13th series of the hit reality show The Block in 2017 certainly gave both her public profile and personal bank balance an impressive boost, but Australia’s newly crowned golden girl is proof that relentlessly chipping away works far better than any flashy 15 minutes of fame.

Ten years before Knowles charmed the nation with her down-to-earth humor and laidback Aussie vernacular on the home renovation series, she already knew precisely what she wanted: to land one of Australia’s most hotly contested modeling contracts as the face of department store Myer. Back then, though a self-described shy teen, she’d already posed in catalogs for the retail giant. Still, her real sights were set on its highest-profile gig.

“I wanted it for years,” the now 27-year-old admits of her teen dream, a role that was, at that point, owned by former Miss Universe-turned-national-treasure Jennifer Hawkins. Today, just after 10 o’clock on a Friday morning, almost a month after posing for our InStyle cover shoot, Myer’s lead ambassador looks completely at home in its Sydney flagship store’s glamorous private shopping suite, with those trademark long, tanned legs stretched out on the plush, grey velvet chaise between us.