‘I channelled the adrenaline’: Meet Allegra Overton, the daughter of Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton who is ready to take over the runway
She is the daughter of two well-known Australians but Allegra Overton is making it on her own terms. The model opens up about her big ambitions, with wise words from her parents, Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton.
Stellar
Don't miss out on the headlines from Stellar. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Strutting a catwalk seamlessly can be harder than it looks. So when Allegra Overton was practising for a recent modelling assignment, she went no further than her mother, TV presenter and podcaster Jessica Rowe, for advice.
“We were in our kitchen, where there’s a big benchtop, and Mum was getting me to try different poses and faces. It was hysterical,” says the 17-year-old, who is the eldest daughter of Rowe and Nine Network news anchor Peter Overton.
For all her encouragement, Rowe – a former model herself – confesses she wasn’t much help. “I walk like a duck,” she tells Stellar.
“I remember going to a casting for David Jones and their shows were really big at the time. The woman said to me, ‘We’d love to use you but you cannot walk, so you have to go away and practice.’”
If the height of Rowe’s modelling career was featuring in a German outdoor clothing catalogue (“I was holding ice picks and wearing crampon boots”), she believes that her daughter has bigger ambitions.
The teen turned heads at Australian Fashion Week last month, where she walked the runway for designer Rory William Docherty, having made her runway debut for Aje Athletica in 2023.
Signed to mega agency Priscillas Model Management, Overton is now eyeing a full-time modelling career once she finishes high school.
“I’ve always had a dream of modelling,” Overton tells Stellar. “I’ve loved fashion and styling different pieces from a very young age, including some from my mum’s wardrobe.
“When I was in Year 9, I became really curious and interested, so Mum got in touch with her old agency from when she did modelling when she was around my age.”
The pair went for a meeting, where Allegra’s now-agents explained that the industry had changed significantly in the past 15 years – and that if she was still interested, she should come back when she turned 16.
Within weeks of reaching that milestone last January, Allegra signed to the Sydney-based agency’s books.
Walking in a show at Fashion Week in May cemented her dreams of becoming an international model, and she has now set her sights on Paris. Nevertheless, taking to the catwalk was a nerve-racking experience for the high-school student. “It wasn’t the [sort of] nervous where I felt sick,” she explains.
“It was really special butterflies. I just channelled the adrenaline.”
Despite her enthusiasm, not everyone in the Rowe-Overton household is runway-bound. Allegra’s 15-year-old sister, Giselle, was scouted by an agent when she was 12 – but, as Rowe points out, she had no interest in pursuing modelling. And as a family who are well accustomed to living in the media spotlight, they have also discussed the pitfalls of the industry, including the need to be resilient in the face of rejection.
Overton’s father Peter tells Stellar he had frank discussions with his daughter about the “flip side” to the industry. “She brought that up with me,” he says.
“She knows modelling can be tough on many fronts, but no matter what, she told me she wants to give it a red hot go – and that attitude makes me proud.”
As a proud mum, too, Rowe admits bursting into tears after watching her firstborn on the Fashion Week catwalk: “When you see [her] flying, it’s such a special thing.”
Read the full interview with Allegra in Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.
Originally published as ‘I channelled the adrenaline’: Meet Allegra Overton, the daughter of Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton who is ready to take over the runway
Barnsey’s daughter’s next big move
As she is interviewed by her half-brother David Campbell, Mahalia Barnes – the daughter of Aussie rock icon Jimmy Barnes – reveals she is taking on a high-profile new role.
Read more
Erin Molan’s X-rated beauty treatment
Erin Molan has revealed the extreme lengths she went to in her beauty routine recently, trying what she has called ‘the next big cosmetic thing’ – and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Read more