Who is Dariya Verbova? The entertainment and modeling world knows her as Daria Werbowy . She is perhaps best known as a spokesperson for the French beauty brand Lancôme.
Although Werbowy was born November 19, 1983 in Kraków, Poland,[2] Werbowy holds both Canadian and Ukrainian citizenship.[3]When she was three years old, Werbowy's Ukrainian parents moved to Mississauga, a suburb ofToronto, Ontario, Canada.[2] She has a brother named Orest and sister Oksana. At age fourteen, Werbowy was 5'11", willowy and sporting braces. She attended St. Sofia Ukrainian Catholic Elementary School and Cawthra Park Secondary School as a visual arts student.Personal lifeWerbowy has been romantically linked to Josh Hartnett.[4]
Professional career
Werbowy had never seriously considered modeling, 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, Werbowy won a national modelling contest,[2] but after a year of working with Susan J. Model & Talent, however, Werbowy thought she could be doing more with another agency and left. After switching over to Elite Models, Werbowy began landing several prominent bookings in Canada but still had not achieved much international success. Daria lived in London and Greece, where 'there were loads of castings, but no work.' Her first runway season was disrupted and her bookings canceled after the 9/11 attacks in New York City.[5] After a disappointing eight months Werbowy returned to Canada. She gave modeling a final shot as a means to fund for her art school education.[5]'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 Elite Canada'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 International Management Group (IMG), Werbowy had gained a foothold on the international modelling stage. Daria has considered taking a break from the fashion industry when she is 27 to sail around the world.
Though she relinquished the world's No.1 runway model status to new "it girls", Werbowy holds the record for opening and closing the most shows in one season.[6] To date, Werbowy's clients have included Lancôme, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Pepe Jeans, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci,Hermès, Valentino, David Yurman, Missoni, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Chanel. In her first season, Fall/Winter 2003, Werbowy captured two of the modeling world's most coveted assignments: the cover of Vogue Italia, thrice (in July, August and October); and Prada's Fall/Winter ad campaign.[6]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.
In 2008 Daria embarked on a three-month journey across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.[7] On September 6, 2008, Daria was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.[8] She is the second Canadian model, after Linda Evangelista, to have a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.[9] Earlier that year, Werbowy launched a three-piece makeup collection by Lancôme for Sephora.[10] The proceeds went to the Vik Muniz charity Centrao Especial for underprivileged youth in Brazil.Vogue Paris declared her one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.[11]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". [12]
Werbowy is featured in the 2011 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Karl Lagerfeld
'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]
Though she relinquished the world's No.1 runway model status to new "it girls", Werbowy holds the record for opening and closing the most shows in one season.[6] To date, Werbowy's clients have included Lancôme, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Pepe Jeans, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci,Hermès, Valentino, David Yurman, Missoni, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Chanel. In her first season, Fall/Winter 2003, Werbowy captured two of the modeling world's most coveted assignments: the cover of Vogue Italia, thrice (in July, August and October); and Prada's Fall/Winter ad campaign.[6]
"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". [12]
