Model and newlywed Jess Hart gets down with denim as Just Jeans ambassador

MODEL Jess Hart reveals her love of jeans and all things denim as brand ambassador of Australian fashion institution Just Jeans.

SPORTING a denim mini, tanned skin and newly bleached hair, Ashley Hart looks like she just emerged from Bondi Beach.

In fact, she hails from Melbourne, but as we sit in the sunshine outside Sunday Style’s studio, she tells me this week of perfect Sydney weather is convincing her to consider moving back to Australia from her current base in Los Angeles.

She’ll have to persuade her new husband first, though.

In May, Hart married her long-time love, fellow model Buck Palmer, in Los Angeles in an ultra-low-key ceremony – no guests!

“No one knew,” she says.

“It was very spontaneous. Obviously we’ve been engaged for a year. We were planning the big wedding [and] it was so much hoo-ha trying to please people, we just thought it wasn’t us and we were not connecting in the process.

“So we did it just the two of us. It was perfect.”

Was her family miffed they missed out on the big day?

“[Mum] was fine, actually!” she says.

“I think there was almost a bit of relief like, ‘It’s done’.”

Hart is now sporting bleached blonde hair.

Hart in Just Jeans jeans and a Christian Dior coat.

Hart wearing a Just Jeans jacket.

Hart says she grew up wearing jeans.

Hart wore a boho vintage dress and an Akubra to tie the knot, but off-duty, she’s a jeans girl.

Now she’s been tapped as the new brand ambassador of Australian fashion institution Just Jeans.

“I was such a tomboy,” she says, before she bought her first pair of “sexy jeans” from the chain as a teen.

“They were low-rise and super-tight, and I remember being about 14 and feeling hot for the first time. I grew up in jeans.”

The new gig lets her indulge in her love of the Canadian Tuxedo, too (read: a fancy term for double denim).

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“I love it! I’m not joking,” the 26-year-old laughs when I ask for her thoughts on the sartorial statement.

“It’s seriously my most favourite look, and now with my blonde hair I feel like I can do it more. It’s totally ‘farshun’.”

That’s all for show. Away from the cameras, Hart has a second life teaching yoga.

“I love connecting with the truth of who I am,” she says.

Modelling has made her reach for something deeper.

“The long days are not easy, and [there’s] all the people prodding and pushing you and probably judging your external look.

“I think it’s so beautiful to know how to be present and realise that stuff doesn’t really matter.”