Lily Cole (born May 19, 1988[2]) is an English model and actress.
Cole was born in England, and raised in London with her sister Elvie. A chance encounter began her modeling career when she was fourteen. She was walking through the streets of Soho after a hamburger with friends when scout-turned actor Benjamin Hart approached her. Cole ran, fearing she was being chased by 'some dodgy guy' but after being asked to consider modeling, she accepted and was signed on with Storm Models, the mother agency of supermodels such as Kate Moss.
Cole is a vegetarian[citation needed].
Cole's big break came in 2003 when her long legs, pale skin and fiery red hair caught photographer Steven Meisel's eye. It was on that photoshoot, her first 'only girl' story for Italian Vogue, that Cole was catapulted into the spotlight as one of the leading new faces of the year. Since then, Cole has worked with many other prominent photographers, including Craig McDean, Nick Knight, Juergen Teller, Arthur Elgort, and Irving Penn.
Cole is featured in top fashion magazines such as Vogue (American, Italian, British, Japanese and Korean), Citizen K, and V. She has also appeared on the cover of Numero and twice for British Vogue. In November 2004, the British Fashion Awards named her 'Model of the Year'. Additionally, Cole has appeared in advertising campaigns for designers such as Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Hermès, Longchamp, Cacharel, Topshop, and Anna Sui Cosmetics, as well as being the face for Moschino's perfume 'I Love Love.'
She is a common sight on the catwalks of the international runway circuit and has walked many top shows- Chanel, DKNY, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Louis Vuitton, to name a few. People who worked with her say she is warm and friendly in person[citation needed].
Cole is part of the group of supermodels who have "doll-like" or "elfin" features[citation needed] along with Heather Marks, Gemma Ward, and Devon Aoki. She is also one of the few red-headed models with very successful careers,[citation needed] others being Cintia Dicker, Jessica Stam (who currently sports blond hair), Karen Elson, and Alice Burdeu.
Cole was announced as the follow up model for Accessorize, taking the place of model Claudia Schiffer. Cole also designed a line of handbags for the collection. She also appears in the video for Girls Aloud and Sugababes' cover of "Walk This Way" in aid of comic relief.
Most recently British Fashion Awards nominated Cole for 'Model of the Year' for the second time, but the award was given to Agyness Deyn.
Cole was on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2007 with an estimated net worth of £6 million. She ranked 83rd richest young person in Britain.
She is now one of the models in the Marks and Spencer clothes advertising campaign, becoming the youngest model to ever do a campaign for the line.
In February 2006, Indiewire.com broke the news that Marilyn Manson planned to star Cole in his upcoming movie Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll as Alice. Shorts from the movie have been featured on his website and a feature length film is also planned.
In April 2007, it was announced that she would play the role of Polly in the new St. Trinian's film, alongside Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Jodie Whittaker and Stephen Fry.[3]
Cole was signed to play the role of Valentina in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam and scripted by Gilliam and his regular writing partner Charles McKeown. Co-stars included Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, Tom Waits, and Verne Troyer. The film was due out in 2009, but after Ledger's death, production was postponed.
Cole is an Ambassador for Global Angels Children's Charity that helps unfortunate children around the world. The organisation uses celebrity concerts, powerful documentaries, and partnerships within the business world, that will increase a vast resource of professionals, volunteers, and financial support. Cole also supports the organisation WaterAid which use practical solutions to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to the world's poorest people and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) a UK based NGO working internationally whose objective is to ‘Protect People and Planet’ by resolving environmental destruction and associated abuses of basic human rights . Most recently Cole has put a plaster cast bust of her torso on the auction site eBay to raise money for Comic Relief, an organisation that uses comedy to raise money for charities. Cole has modelled a T-shirt with the slogan "Save the Future" to fight child labour in the fashion industry for the Environmental Justice Foundation.
Despite her successful modelling career, Cole retains a commitment to her education, achieving As in her A-level examinations in English, politics, drama, history and philosophy and ethics at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith where she was awarded the Mikdadi Prize for Politics in 2006. Before that she attended The St Marylebone Secondary School. She gained a place to read Social and Political Sciences at King's College, Cambridge, but deferred entry until 2007[4] and then 2008
Cole is an ally for Western Shoshone an environmental organization. They specialize in the ongoing struggle to halt gold and diamond mining, which displaces indigenous peoples worldwide and creates excessive amounts of mining waste and toxins. For this reason Cole declined to be in any further De Beers jewellery campaigns, along with models Iman and Erin O'Connor, activist Gloria Steinem, and actress Julie Christie. Recently, however, she has been on the cover of and featured in a spread of a magazine whose issue was entitled 'Lily'. In it, she is only wearing diamonds.
She has been seen wearing the £5 eco friendly Anya Hindmarch handbag with the slogan "I'm Not A Plastic Bag."
She wrote the foreword for Tamsin Blanchard's book Green Is The New Black. She also attended the primary school, Hallfield School. (Bayswater,London)
source:wikipedia
