Legendary
supermodel Amber Valletta has had a changing career over the years - she's
covered countless Vogue issues, tried her hand at acting and now she reveals
that she's also interested in designing. Amber launched her own online store,
Master & Muse, which stocks only pieces by designers who are eco-friendly
and ethical. She said that this is the first step towards moving in to design
for her and she finds it very fulfilling: "As a woman who loves
fashion but wanted to buy things that were responsibly made, I know that there
was nowhere to do it… Eventually I'd like to start my own label, but I wanted
to understand the business first. In acting and modelling I am always part of
someone else's vision. I love having a little bit more control over my destiny."
Opening
up on starting her modelling career at the young age of 17, Amber says she does
wish she could have had more time to grow up: "Looking back now
there's a part of me that wishes I had taken one more year to be a kid at home.
So much was happening and, although I was street smart, I wasn't worldly smart,
I didn't know anything about anything. I was terribly insecure. I hadn't caught
up to being a big supermodel."
Amber
comments that she wanted to challenge herself, which is why she moved in to
acting, but she didn't realize how tough it would be: "I needed the
stimulation of something more and felt I had to do something else to be taken
seriously. Had I known back then the kind of sacrifices I would have to make
for acting, I really don't know if I would have gone for it. It monopolises
everything and it's a really tough business. You hear 'no' way more than you
hear 'yes'. I'd never experienced that in modelling. You have to have thick
skin."
