Supermodel & Entrepreneur Gigi Hadid On Co-Parenting, Confidence & Her Latest Collaboration

Fashion’s golden girl shines as the face of Rabanne’s newest fragrance, Million Gold For Her.

There’s a carousel post on Gigi Hadid’s Instagram feed that is sure to turn any fashion disciple green.

Surprisingly, it’s not a snap of the supermodel donning couture to attend the Met Gala, a selfie of her pillowy lips and cloud-like complexion, or an ultra-polished image from her latest campaign (of which there are many).

No, it’s a low-fi backstage snap of a dressing room which is — quite literally — dripping with gold.

Stacks of gilt jewellery are spread across six trestle tables: angular gold cuffs and chunky chain bracelets flank a raft of glo-mesh clutches and patent pumps — a shimmering sea of accessories eclipsed only by the racks of sparkling couture which line the back wall.

Famed for its high-shine haute couture, such sparkle is befitting Rabanne.

Each piece comes to life under the watchful eye of photographer Mert Alas and director Manu Cossu, as Gigi radiates in the campaign for Rabanne’s new fragrance, Million Gold For Her.

As the latest muse of the Spanish fashion house, Gigi joins a cast of strong, illustrious women, most notably Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda and Françoise Hardy.

“My style has evolved in the sense that I know myself better. I’m not scared to be off-trend. I do like to be funky and put on something that someone else might not wear. I like that about other people’s styles when I’m walking down the street. As long as I feel like they’re expressing themselves, I love their style, even if it’s not something that I would wear,” she says.

The 29-year-old bides her time between the Hadid family farm in rural Pennsylvania, and her New York apartment. Though the former works best for Gigi’s co-parenting agreement with her ex-partner, pop singer Zayn Malik, with whom she shares a 3-year-old daughter, Khai.

Three decades in, Gigi says she’s found peace with the rhythm of her life.

“What makes it fun is the contrast — modelling versus being a mom. When she’s with her dad is when I try to work the most. I have that time to pack in the jobs, and I choose work that means enough to me to fit it in,” she says.

“I’m also lucky to have a co-parenting relationship where when I show up to work, I can really focus on my job and feel like I’m there to give it my all. Finding that balance made me confident both as a mom and a model.”

The self-confessed “classic Taurus” says this new perspective has helped her take things one day at a time: the kind of slowly-slowly approach only afforded to someone who’s spent years establishing themselves in the industry.

A brief recap: Gigi made her start in the modelling world as a child model for Baby Guess, before being signed with IMG Models in 2013. The following year, she made her debut at New York Fashion Week and signed her first campaign with American fashion icon Tom Ford.

In the decade since, she’s appeared no fewer than 50 times in international editions of Vogue, been awarded the International Model of the Year by the British Fashion Council, starred in countless fashion and beauty campaigns, received her wings as a Victoria’s Secret angel, and cemented her spot as one of the world’s highest-paid models, raking in in excess of $20 million a year.

Not that brief, after all. But it’s difficult to condense such a sparkling career into a few short lines when you’ve managed to cram quite so much into the past 10 years as Gigi.

All of this is to say her time in the spotlight has culminated in this present moment, her opportunity to embody Rabanne’s newest scent, one which oozes confidence, strength, sensuality and power.

To Gigi, Million Gold For Her is both powerful and beautiful, an olfactory representation of the feeling the house exudes. It highlights masculine and feminine notes, with rose, lavender and jasmine elements, balanced by the sensual musk.

The floral, musky fragrance has earned a place in Gigi’s fragrance collection, which she approaches like a mixologist would a bar cart — with the intention of cocktailing them together.

“Almost like emotional alchemy, if you’re trying to figure out how you want to feel that day and the scent that will help you feel that way,” she says.

“Different fragrances make me feel different things and make different sides of my personality come out. Scent tickles parts of your brain. It can be such a great way to express yourself, and when people find ways to express themselves, life becomes so much more fun.”

Gigi recalls poring over the tray of perfume bottles sitting in her mother’s bathroom as a child, adding that was the first time she was drawn to the many feelings fragrance could impart after just one spritz.

Or snap, as it were.

Rabanne’s now-infamous snapping fingers has featured across all of its Million campaigns, including Gigi’s Million Gold For Her moment.

“You spray and it snaps you into a gold, bedazzled, shiny world where everything is just kind of working in your favour,” she says, adding most of the commercial was filmed to Beyonce’s Ego.

It wasn’t the track that ended up becoming the commercial’s official song (directors chose Pure/Honey instead) but Gigi said listening to Beyonce helped channel the energy and confidence of the brand.

“Smelling this fragrance and going out should make you feel like how you feel when you’re listening to Beyonce. Million Gold For Her is just what she is: sexy, powerful, badass, amazing,” Gigi says, adding she’s always admired the pop mogul’s work.

“I’m so honoured that a Beyonce track is part of the campaign. If Beyonce doesn’t want her voice on something, she will say no. And the fact that she let her voice be on top of a video of me is an honour.”

Together with Moses Sumney (the face of the Million Gold men’s fragrance), Gigi says the pair spent most of the shoot dancing in front of the camera, while movement director Stephen Galloway danced behind it.

“Just thinking about that commercial now makes me want to boogie,” she says.

“Those are the sort of memories that I always keep. People see a campaign or a video or a billboard or a commercial, and the final product is all they see, but the memory behind it and creating something that I love is so fun.”

It’s her hope that the next generation will see the campaign and feel inspired to express themselves in whatever form that takes.

“No one wakes up feeling like a million bucks, no matter who you’re talking about,” she says.

“We all have to find the things that we armour ourselves with in order to go out into the world. Fragrance can be such a strong tool for that.”

Despite leading such an extraordinary life, these days Gigi finds the most delight in the ordinary.

It’s pulling on jeans and a T-shirt (the outfit she says she feels most comfortable in) and taking her daughter to the park. It’s soaking in the silence at home with a candle burning. It’s playing a board game with friends or making crafts together.

And if that all sounds too wholesome, Gigi says she also enjoys crime documentaries.

“This is not calming for most people, but I love a crime documentary,” she says.

“I like to wind down with crime.”

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