Abbey Lee Kershaw: Hippy Model (With Million-Dollar Bank Account)

"An elite performer is always put under some sort of extreme pressure that the rest of society can argue and might not quite understand."

Dubbed as the "Hippy Model (with the million-dollar bank account)," rising fashion icon Abbey Lee Kershaw graces Australian television show Today Tonight and talks about the "crazy, fast life" she lives in and the controversies surrounding crazy shoes and being thin.

Now at 22, she is ranked at the top 10 models of the world, hitting the US catwalks and turning heads wherever she goes. The fashion industry loves her cool, fresh-girl image - "so laid-back, so relaxed but at the same time so fashion perfect."

"I don't know if I have a plan B. I'm just waiting for plan A to get bigger," Abbey Lee Kershaw says of her rising modeling career.

"It's crazy. It's a very fast life. I generally spent most of the time on planes, at airports, in studios, at shows - like all over the place. It's very fast. It's always something going on. You'll never really got the time to do your washing a little and... breathe."

But aside from her hippy image, Abbey Lee Kershaw's popularity has also been ironically boosted by catwalk disasters. She has tore a knee ligament when she fell in Rodarte's spring 2009 show because of the super-high heels. She has also fainted at the Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2009 Runway from the combination of the tight corset she wore and her high heels.

"Hopefully (the shoes are) going to come back down soon, because health and safety regulations have to come into play at some point," she says laughing.

Speaking of health, Abbey Lee Kershaw replies with an analogy when asked about what she feels of the pressures at the top of the industry for staying thin:

"That's like asking a bodybuilder how they feel about the pressures to be incredibly muscly. An elite performer is always put under some sort of extreme pressure that the rest of society can argue and might not quite understand."

Having her biggest season in barely two years, Abbey Lee Kershaw is seen as one those "really good models" in the industry that clients intend to keep for the long run.

Abbey Lee Kershaw Refuses To Walk In McQueen Shoes

Wonder why top runway models Abby Lee Kershaw, Sasha Pivovarova, and Natasha Poly were no-show at the recent Alexander McQueen's Spring 2010 Show?

They chose not to hit the catwalk because they were too terrified to walk in McQueen's "Alien" shoes.


When it comes to wearing clothes and walking in them for runway shows, Abby Lee Kershaw is an expert. She is one of the few models who have earned quiet a reputation for catwalk disasters.

First, she fell at Rodarte's spring 2009 show because of the killer heels. Then she fainted at Alexander McQueen's spring 2009 show because her corset was too tight. And just last February, she almost fell at Rodarte show (again), injuring her knee and was forced to sit the rest of the season out.

So when Abbey Lee Kershaw (and her gang) took one look at McQueen's spring 2010 Alien shoes, she already knew that those are not meant for walking.

But of course, the trio are just few of the privileged models who are able to decline a famous runway show.

The McQueen's spring show did go on and nameless models sashayed the runway in Alien shoes. Though none of them tripped or fell to the floor, they still looked like crying — even behind the prosthetic cheeks and spooky makeup.