Lauren Phillips talks about her ‘year of big change’
THE career and personal life of television personality Lauren Phillips is blossoming as she moonlights as a model for Stellar in Japan.
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LAUREN Phillips has everyone fooled. The vivacious television presenter is in the middle of bustling Tokyo on a crisp April morning, barefoot and wearing a black Alex Perry gown.
She is moonlighting as a model, laughing as she stands amid the season’s colourful cherry blossoms.
Though she is the first to admit she has no real training in the trade, the locals who interrupt their early morning stroll to watch her at work would be hard-pressed to think otherwise — like all professional posers, she seems advantageously oblivious.
“I didn’t even realise we were shooting at the start,” she tells Stellar later.
“I was just having a moment, taking it all in and smiling because of how special it was. I knew the blossoms would be beautiful, but actually being there is indescribable. I could have pranced around in that dress all day.”
The shoot marked Phillips’s second time in Japan, but it was her first outing in Ueno Park, where more than 1000 cherry blossom trees burst open to create a sea of soft pink for just over two weeks each spring.
I was blown away by how everything felt like it was in slow motion
The shoot — a special collaboration between Stellar and Mazda, the Japanese car brand for which Phillips has been an ambassador since 2012 — had to be timed perfectly.
“I didn’t understand the urgency of that really small window to shoot,” Phillips says.
“I was also blown away by how everything felt like it was in slow motion, even though Tokyo is such a busy city. There was an incredible serenity … even though there were thousands of tourists around.”
A certain calm has also descended on Phillips this year, despite it being one of her most hectic.
In addition to her work with Mazda, which sees her involved in major sponsorship events, new product launches and charitable endeavours, the 30-year-old is a Myer Ambassador, and has ongoing hosting duties with the Nine Network’s travel show Postcards and Kids’ WB.
She is also settling down with former television producer Lachlan Spark, her beau of five years. The pair met when they were both on a TV job to cover a Lenny Kravitz concert in Melbourne’s Federation Square in 2012.
“We are getting married in Flinders in Victoria at the end of the year,” she says.
“The property has five-metre-high hedges and you walk through this gate with a pool — it’s like a little secret garden.”
Befitting her role as a host on Postcards, Phillips says she and Spark had originally planned for offshore nuptials.
“Lachie and I always wanted a small wedding overseas,” says the bride-to-be, “but unfortunately it became a little too difficult with my grandma. So we decided it was better to do something that was close to home to make sure everyone could come.”
She does not yet have a dress chosen, but Melbourne-based Con Ilio, who has designed Phillips’s Logies gowns for the previous two years, will create both her and her bridesmaids’ outfits.
Although she has not had any official fittings for her wedding gown, when she does get down to designing it, she has one requirement.
“I want it to be fun,” she says.
“But I don’t want anyone to look and think, ‘Oh, where is she off to?’ I definitely want to look like a bride.
“It’s a year of big change, but we have finally settled in. We have bought a house, we have the dogs and now we have a wedding … I am definitely growing up.”
Originally published as Lauren Phillips talks about her ‘year of big change’
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