Daria Werbowy

Werbowy holds Canadian and Polish citizenship.[4] When she was three years old, the family moved to Mississauga, a city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. She has two elder siblings: a brother named Orest and sister named Oksana.

She is an avid sailor and spent three months in 2008, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.[5] In 2011, she embarked on a two-month expedition from Guatemala, travelling around Central America to Costa Rica.[6]

Since 2011, she lives in Cork, Ireland with her partner.[7]

Werbowy had never seriously considered modelling, but found herself launched into the business after meeting a schoolmate's mother who headed Toronto's Susan J. Model & Talent Management. At age 14, when Werbowy was 5'11", she won a national modelling contest.

After switching to Elite Model Management, Werbowy landed several prominent bookings in Canada but achieved little international success. Werbowy lived in England and Greece, where she did not find much work. Her first runway season was disrupted and her bookings canceled due to the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in New York City.[5] Thus she went to Europe. After an exhausted eight months, Werbowy returned to Canada. She gave modelling a final shot as a means to fund her art school education, saying, "I returned to New York, met my agent and the next day I had an exclusive deal with Prada. From then on it was all a bit of a blur."[5]

When the Elite Toronto's head scout, Elmer Olsen, started his own agency, Werbowy followed and her career began to flourish. Within a few years, and under the guidance of IMG Models, Werbowy gained established her career internationally.

Werbowy holds the record for opening and closing the most shows in one season. In her first season, Fall/Winter 2003, Werbowy achieved two of modelling's highest feats: the cover of Vogue Italia, thrice (in July, August and October), and Prada's Fall/Winter ad campaign.[8]

She has appeared on the cover of magazines such as international editions of Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, V, W, Marie Claire, Allure, Glamour, and Numéro.

Werbowy has walked the runways for Balenciaga, Givenchy, Dior, Tom Ford, Chloé, Marc Jacobs, Gucci, Versace, Miu Miu, Alexander McQueen, Prada, John Galliano, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, DKNY, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabbana, Karl Lagerfeld, Carolina Herrera, La Perla, Max Mara, Calvin Klein, Missoni, Zac Posen, Moschino, Oscar De La Renta, Roberto Cavalli, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Burberry, Celine, Hermès, Michael Kors, Balmain, and Lanvin.

She has appeared in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Hermés, Prada, Missoni, Versace, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, Valentino, Dior, Lancome, Zara, Balmain, Jean Paul Gaultier, David Yurman, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hugo Boss, Isabel Marant, DSquared2, Loewe, Diane Von Furstenberg, Mango, Balenciaga, Tiffany & Co., AG Adriano Goldschmied, H&M, and Bloomingdale's.

Photographed by Steven Meisel, she was presented on the September 2004 cover of American Vogue as one of the "Models of the Moment".[9] In July 2007, Forbes listed Werbowy as the ninth highest-earning model in the world after Karolina Kurkova, Natalia Vodianova, Carolyn Murphy, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Heidi Klum, Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen. Her earnings between June 2006 and June 2007 were in the order of $3.5 million.

On September 6, 2008, she was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.[10] She is the second Canadian model, after Linda Evangelista, to have a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.[11] Earlier that year, Werbowy launched a three-piece makeup collection by Lancôme for Sephora.[12] The proceeds went to the Vik Muniz charity Centrao Especial for underprivileged youth in Brazil. Werbowy was one of the faces on one of the fourteen covers of V magazine September 2008 issue. Each cover boasts a head shot of a famous model, either from the new crop of leading models (Agyness Deyn, Lara Stone, Natasha Poly, Anja Rubik, etc.) or the supermodel era (Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigová). The covers were photographed by duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.[13]

Vogue Paris declared her one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.[14]

Werbowy has had conflicted feelings about her professional life. In the September 2008 issue of Fashion Magazine she was quoted as saying:

"I've had a lot of mixed feelings about what I do ... A lot of the time, I feel like I'm part of the problem when it comes to all the superficiality and vanity that impacts the way girls grow up".[15]

Werbowy was photographed alongside Lara Stone and Isabeli Fontana in the 2009 edition of the Pirelli Calendar photographed by Peter Beard and was also featured in the 2011 edition photographed by Karl Lagerfeld.[16]

She ranked No. 6 on Forbes' "The World's Top-Earning Models" list, with estimated earnings of $4.5 million between May 2010 and May 2011.[17]

In 2015, Werbowy fronted campaigns for Equipment, Salvatore Ferragamo and H&M. She also featured on the March and June covers of Vogue Paris. Werbowy ranked no.12 on the 2015 Forbes list of highest earning models, earning an estimated $4.5 million.[18]

In 2016, Werbowy appeared on the cover of Grazia France December Issue. [19]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daria Werbowy.

• Daria Werbowy at Fashion Model Directory
• Daria Werbowy at NYmag.com