Laura Bailey has led a peripatetic professional life. The London-based model, who has been the face of myriad fashion campaigns, has turned her attention to the other side of the camera as a photographer. “I think storytelling connects the dots in my career,” says the creative polyglot, who is also a mother of two. Laura is considered part of the cultural cognoscenti, and her finds and fancies — from the latest novel to theater production — are fodder for a rigorously paced weekly Vogue.com column, “Laura Loves” (this week, she recommends Phyllida Barlow’s show at the Royal Academy and a vegan restaurant called “Filth”).
Her interest in storytelling is commensurate with her sense of curiosity, and her years modeling have afforded her a vast swath of the earth to explore. “Modeling gives me a chance to travel in a way I never thought possible and meet extraordinary people. My fashion career has been very connected to an innate curiosity and wanderlust, more than style, even,” she says, “I enjoy joining the dots between different worlds.”
While she continues to model, her concurrent evolution into photography also proves arresting. Her portraits, often female-focused, depict subjects that feel at once familiar and obscure, in time and places that seem contemporary and immemorial. “I’m inspired to write but I often feel lonely and anxious and panicky, and when I take pictures I feel free, and more myself,” says Laura, who is just as happy (perhaps more so) traveling and shooting alone than with a crew of twenty.
“Laura Loves” coalesces her disparate fascinations, and allows her to highlight nascent talent in various disciplines. “I enjoy the mix,” she says, “I like it being as authentic as possible. It seems to work because it’s a bit different than everything else.” Through her years as a creative on both side of the lens, Laura now finds herself in her element. “My ambitions lie in what I am doing; I cherish the in-between time — and how important that is to creative work.”
Tell me a bit about your role at Vogue. It allows me to channel my ideas in one place. When Edward [Enninful] took over, we instantly connected and the last year has been so exciting. It feels like a great moment, and I admire what he has brought to the magazine.
What was the most impactful trip you took? To the Virunga Mountains to see the gorillas. It was extremely impactful to immerse myself in it — obviously the genocide history of Rwanda, and climbing such spectacular nature and seeing the gorillas. I was also secretly three-months pregnant at the time. I’ve traveled a lot in Africa on my own — climbed Kilimanjaro — very formative, but I definitely had a few weekends in Paris that changed my life.
Are there any writers that give you wanderlust? I love Gabriel García Márquez and Tolstoy. Before I’d seen much of the world, it was through those kinds of classic novels that I imagined it. More specifically, my late friend Adrian Gill. I loved his travel writing. And Joan Didion, on America and California.
You’ve lived in both New York and London. How do the cities compare? The truth is, when I lived in New York, I thought it was the best place in the world and that I was never going home, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere other than London. New York was about taking a huge leap and reinvention; it was where I made my friends that are my family. And it represents everything that happens in your twenties: working hard, staying up late, being really good, being really bad. When I came home, I fell in love with London again. It’s where I’m bringing my kids up. So much happens here every day and I never get over it.
