When celeb-loved denim brand Paige announced Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as their first ever famous face, we thought, “Of course.” After all, she’s been a loyal fan since we started keeping track of her street style, way back in 2011. And now the supermodel and the denim line are taking us behind the scenes of Huntington-Whiteley’s spring photoshoot, giving us a glimpse at what we can expect from the full campaign in January. Check out the photos and interview, below, as well as exclusive video (shot by Olivier Mastey) from the shoot!
Olivier Mastey
The first meeting between Paige creator Paige Adams-Geller and the model herself happened to be rather fortuitous. “I was actually in London and I spotted Rosie. She was staying at the same hotel that I was staying at, and I wanted to go over and say hi to her because I’d always loved her personal sense of style and she was always all over my storyboards and everything, but I didn’t want to interrupt her,” Adams-Geller tells PEOPLE. “That same day we ran into each other shopping at a store in London, and she actually had on the same leather jacket that I had on — they were in different colors — and she was wearing Paige, and I was like, ‘Okay, I have to go over and say hi to her and introduce myself.’ So we hit it off and I really felt that she is the perfect ambassador for the brand, and it happened really organically after that.”
Echoes Huntington-Whiteley, “It’s such a sweet story actually. I’d been wearing Paige for a long time, so the collaboration felt really organic and it felt really real, which is what I always look for when I match with brands, and I’m a big denim lover so it feels perfect, like the perfect fit.” Further proof that it was a perfect fit? Huntington-Whiteley helped style the outfits she wears in the campaign — proving that she’s more than just a pretty face-slash-great legs in jeans, she’s also a collaborator with the Paige team.
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Olivier Mastey
“For me, denim is always one of my dream projects to shoot because there’s so much you can do with it and it feels so real. I love that,” Huntington-Whiteley says. “I wanted to shoot in an environment that felt real, that felt organic, that felt natural to me — like something I would really wear it.” Says Adams-Geller, “When Rosie showed up for our first meeting at our headquarters, she brought her computer and opened it up and showed me her Pinterest board she put together, and it was gorgeous because literally she had about 75 percent of the same photos that I had that were inspiration pictures of the feel and the vibe. It just seemed to click immediately.”
They put together looks including gauzy tops, comfy shorts and silky camis for a relaxed, breezy look — and of course, there was plenty of denim. Huntington-Whiteley weighed in her own thoughts on what makes the perfect pair of jeans. “First of all, I always think about where I’m going. Who do I need to be in that moment? What girl do I need to be?” she says. “I always look for a pair of jeans that are going to make my legs look nice and long. I’m going to look for a pair of jeans that make me look slim, make my butt look nice and high. I think [all] girls look for the same things. It doesn’t matter what shape or size we are.”
Olivier Mastey
Huntington-Whiteley — whose style Adams-Geller describes as “effortless, chic and cool” — even took a stab at answering the tough question “How many pairs of jeans do you own?” (We imagine supermodels get sent so many, they lose count.) “I literally, on Saturday took both of my drawers — because Paige has given me quite a bit of jeans over the last few months as you can imagine, and my drawers have been filling up and up — so I was like, okay, I’m going to do a big throw-out and a reorganization of my denim drawers,” she says. “So I have two drawers of denim. I try not to keep to much so it’s not overwhelming and I know exactly how many pairs I have and which ones I want to go to when I’m getting dressed. I would say I probably have 50 to 75 pairs. That’s a lot!”
What do you think of the first look at Rosie’s ads? How many pairs of jeans do you have? Share in the comments!
–Alex Apatoff, reporting by Gabrielle Olya
