Gigi Hadid Opens Up About Being Told She Didn't Have a ''Runway Body''

Model behavior!

Take one look at the runways during Fashion Week, scroll through the pages of any magazine and you’ll see none other than Gigi Hadid.

The 24-year-old star is dominating the fashion industry, with a killer pose and catwalk at a time.

However, her supermodel status wasn’t an easy journey, especially in the beginning.

Speaking to i-D magazine for its Spring issue, which she’s a cover star for, Gigi opened up about the first designer to cast her in a runway show, how her career goals are evolving and the little things that make her happy.

“[Jean Paul Gaultier] was the first designer that let me walk on a runway in Paris, it was in his last ready-to-wear show,” she told the publication of her experience in 2015. “At the time, I was still starting out in my career, I was coming out of high school, I still had my volleyball body.”

“It was a body that I loved,” she continued. “I knew how hard I worked to have those muscles, to be curved in those places—I kind of miss it now. At the time, people were hard on me and tried to say that I didn’t have a runway body.”

Gigi explained that while some designers began casting her in shows, they still put her in clothes that “covered” her body.

“So for Jean Paul to have me at his last ready-to-wear show in 2015—not only to have me, but also to put me in an outfit that didn’t cover a lot… like, there were still stylists or designers at that time who were putting me in their shows, but putting me something that really covered my body,” she shared. “And so for him to make me feel like he wanted me to shine in that way, it really meant a lot to me as a young model.”

She added, “And I know that he has done that for a lot of people.”

Of course, the 24-year-old star had a full-circle moment when she walked Gaultier’s final runway show in mid-January.

“I was so honoured to be asked to walk in it, because he didn’t just work with the people who he’d worked with for his whole career, but he also streetcast so much of his last couture show,” Gigi said. “And I think that says so much about who he is as a designer and as a person. He cares so much about the person that’s wearing the look and bringing out something in them.”

On the topic of her ever-evolving career, Gigi reveals she plans to keep things simple and low-key in her future.

“I think that as I get older… well one day I’ll start a family and I don’t know if I will always be modeling,” she shared. “I love the creative side of fashion, it’s so fulfilling. The people I work with make me so happy, I’m so lucky to be around them. But who knows? Maybe I’ll take up full time cooking!”

For her, she enjoys getting away from the hustle and bustle.

“I think that the weird and wonderfulness of it comes from also being in isolation,” she expressed of her farm’s distance from New York City. “A lot of the time, I’ll have friends and family at the farm, but there are a lot of days where I’m there just by myself, and I sit in my little cottage in silence and just doing these little things for myself. I think that also gives me the energy and the love for what I do. It recharges my batteries.”

All in all, Gigi is just trying to live her best life like the rest of us and find balance with work and downtime. 

“What makes me happy is creating with, and for, other people. Those really special moments at work where you’re just like, ‘Wow, this is why I did this job,’ she explained. “I think that that’s the same feeling I have when I get when I’m sitting around with friends, or painting or, or making the people I love dinner.”

She added, “I think just making something for other people, and making other people happy. It’s really fun and I try to create little moments like that in my life all the time.”

You can read Gigi’s full interview on i-D.