The rise and fall (and rise) of Gemma Ward
Model Gemma Ward rose to the dizzying heights of fame when she was still a teen. Then she left modelling behind. Now she’s back in the spotlight, and ready to talk about why she had to leave.
Stellar
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It’s time to put an end to the notion that Gemma Ward is making yet another comeback.
The term has cropped up frequently in connection with Ward’s name in the past few years, usually whenever she has booked a high-profile modelling gig.
But now Ward is, unequivocally, back in the spotlight — and plans to stay there. Earlier this month, Ward — who was already home in Australia with her family for a summer holiday — once again collaborated with David Jones to walk the runway as a special guest during its A/W ’19 season launch.
The event was held at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) earlier this month as part of the retailer’s two-day The Art Of Living celebration, and while in Tasmania for the event Ward joined Stellar in nearby Murdunna for an exclusive photo shoot on the headlands of King George Sound, just off Norfolk Bay.
“This is a dream job,” Ward tells Stellar. “To come here, if you haven’t been, is to see a really unique part of Australia. Because I’m from Perth, I hadn’t really seen much of Australia, and now I have this great, complete view.
“I fall in love with Australia more and more. Every time I come back, I feel like I reclaim a sense of myself. I get so much from being here. It shapes you — the landscape and the way of life, the way we talk, our attitudes...”
In particular, David Jones’s A/W ’19 theme struck a chord with the 31-year-old.
“My mother is an artist who actually believes that you should try to see your life as an artwork that you create and mould. I’ve seen her influence on me; I try to slow down, to connect with nature, to be mindful and present with my kids.”
And walking in the show — her first for David Jones since 2016, when she was pregnant with her second child — was a nostalgic blast for Ward, who got the chance to catch up with fellow model, friend and Perth native Jessica Gomes, who was there as an ambassador along with Victoria Lee.
“I remember walking for David Jones in Perth with Jess and Nicole [Trunfio] — it was so much fun, everyone had such high energy and spirit. I have very vivid memories; we were like this travelling band. That sense of family has really stayed with David Jones. It’s nice to see a company that’s so big wanting to do something so inspiring and so ambitious.”
Before she even became an adult, the Perth-raised beauty was gracing the covers of the world’s most prestigious glossy fashion publications, fronting iconic campaigns for Calvin Klein, strutting catwalks for huge sums, acting as muse for haute couture houses, and being declared the face of a new generation of fashion power brokers by Time magazine.
“It was amazing, crazy, and kind of incredible to work at that pace and get so much done,” Ward tells Stellar of the whirlwind that shot her to the top.
By the time she was 20, Ward had turned her back on the industry for a hiatus that lasted several years, before making tentative inroads back into modelling as well as landing some acting roles.
But in the past year, she has found her feet in front of the camera once more, and worked consistently. Any years in the wilderness have long since passed and yet, even if she’d never struck a pose again, Ward would remain someone who defined the look of a decade.
When Stellar last spoke to Ward in July 2018, she had just relocated to New York from Byron Bay with her partner David Letts and their children, daughter Naia, five, and son Jett, two.
Being there again prompted plenty of reflection and sparked some memories — when she first moved to New York, it was the day after she’d turned 16.
“I just remember absolutely loving having a moment in New York where I wasn’t working because then I could enjoy living there. When you’re working that much, your home is on an airplane — you don’t spend a lot of time in the place that you actually live.”
She describes the working reunion as a “dream job”. Although Ward enjoyed her recent return, it is clear her move from beachside hamlet to buzzing metropolis has come to suit her and her young family.
Ward is full of enthusiasm for her life in New York, and she’s relishing life in the city in a way she wasn’t able to in her teens.
“I’m always reinvigorated when I [go] back to New York. I love the walking culture, that’s my favourite thing,” says Ward.
The family lives in the trendy Tribeca neighbourhood this time round. “That’s been fun, especially because it’s really great with kids, and everything’s convenient. We’re loving it.”
The move came out of a desire to work more regularly in fashion again, and she is happy with the opportunities New York affords.
In the past few months, she’s shot editorial for Italian and Thai Vogue and The Sunday Times’s style glossy in the UK, walked in fashion shows for Proenza Schouler, and fronted campaigns for Zimmermann and jewellers Hardy Brothers.
“It doesn’t feel super-busy like it used to be, but I’ve definitely been keeping busy in a way that I’m happy about; that’s why I’m there. I’ve been working with some people whose pictures I have admired for a while — lots of new people — but also getting back into it and seeing people I have worked with previously. I love those reconnections.”
There is, in talk of reconnecting, an implicit reference to the deeper root cause of her initial break from modelling.
Ward had just emerged from her teens when the pressures of work and the death of then-boyfriend Heath Ledger in January 2008 caught up with her.
Everyone wanted to talk about her break — with commentary and theories flying about exactly why she had taken it. But for much of the time she was away from fashion, one voice was missing from the discussion: Ward’s own.
That’s changing. And over the past few years, Ward has been increasingly frank about the eating disorder and mental-health issues that made it necessary.
“There’s still a lot more to be said,” she tells Stellar. “Everyone can benefit from reflecting on their experiences, to move forward and have a more positive future.
“I’m definitely sharing more with my immediate family, friends and loved ones, and then on a wider scale to press and the public. Sometimes it does need to happen slowly. It’s nice to be at a place where I can just talk about it.”
Christine Fox, who works at modelling agency Vivien’s, scouted Ward when she was a 15-year-old Perth schoolgirl, and says the pace at which her career took off was intense, more so because she was so young.
“She went to the top very, very fast,” says Fox. “And in those days, they got their pound of flesh out of her. Not many models do that at that level; her look defined a decade because she was so unique. She had something special.”
Fox continued to represent her via Vivien’s in Australia during Ward’s hiatus and until 2012, when she signed with the local arm of global mega agency IMG, and says she was acutely aware of the need for Ward to take some time off.
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“[There were] too many pressures, and to maintain that is exhausting. To step down was probably the best thing that she did,” she says, adding she had always hoped Ward would return when the time felt right for her.
“It’s like a waiting game for lots of kids — they either love this industry, or they hate it, or they’ve got to just learn to see it through different eyes. Because she’s lived it so full on, and had that break, she was in control when she came back. Good on her.”
But even while her work in fashion was on hold, Ward was trying other things. She says she still has career ambitions outside of modelling; already she has worked as an actor in plays and films including 2011’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and 2013’s The Great Gatsby.
She’s open to new acting gigs, plays music on piano and guitar — when her kids aren’t trying to take over the instruments — and has recently found herself writing in her spare time. She’s working on a screenplay, and has also taken up the kickboxing martial art Muay Thai.
Nevertheless, Ward is enjoying her job and the rest of her world too. Life with a young family and a more sustainable workload indicate she’s finally found the balance that was so lacking at the start of her career.
“I’m really happy with the amount of work I’m getting and the amount of time I get to spend with my kids,” she says.
“I’m in a really good place, I’m getting enjoyment from my work. I have very diverse interests, and I’m constantly trying to fit them all in. But at the end of the day, kids come first — and work comes pretty high after that.”
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Originally published as The rise and fall (and rise) of Gemma Ward
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