Posing naked with Sophie Dahl. Lingerie shoots with Jude Law. And told I looked like Val Kilmer! The highs and humiliating lows of my life as a top model by RUTH CRILLY By Helen Carroll Published: 20:38 EDT, 21 August 2024 | Updated: 20:44 EDT, 21 August 2024 e-mail View comments At the height of her success in the Noughties, model Ruth Crilly's distinctive features were plastered over many a billboard and magazine.
She sat astride supermodel Sophie Dahl naked for one memorable campaign (which appalled her mother), was draped over Jude Law in just her underwear for another (which caused a break-up with her then boyfriend, now husband) and featured prominently in Channel 4 documentary This Model Life. But she is far more likely to be recognised in the street now – 14 years after she gave up modelling – on account of her social media career and half a million followers. Under the name A Model Recommends, she was one of the first on Instagram to post honest, unsugary and often humorous reviews of beauty products.
'Pretty much every time I go out, somebody will say "Ruth!" and then I have to really think, "Oh, my God, is it somebody I know in real life, or do they just recognise me?"' she says. 'I ask a few questions to try to work it out, and then mostly they say, "Oh, I'm really sorry, I should have said, I know you from online". Despite her success as a model, Ruth Crilly is far more likely to be recognised in the street now – 14 years after she gave it up – on account of her social media career 'It's quite an uneven footing because I know absolutely nothing about them but they know – not everything, because I'm actually quite private about lots of stuff – but a lot about me.
I like the connection though.' It's a different type of fame from the world of modelling. And one that Ruth is far more at ease with.
'For a few months after the [This Model Life] documentary aired [in 2003] people would stop me in the street and tell me they loved it. Otherwise, I was just a face that people might recognise from shop windows or magazines, but they wouldn't know my name,' says Ruth. 'Now it's very different because the whole attraction of social media is that people become almost friends with you and feel like they know you personally, which is nice.
' That's a remarkably upbeat take on social media stardom, compared with many of her peers who bewail fans' intrusion into their lives. But then Ruth is determinedly cheery about even the most challenging aspects of her career. At the end of the photoshoot to accompany this interview, she remarks on how much nicer it is to strut her stuff as the author of a self-deprecating new memoir, How Not To Be A Supermodel, rather than a clothes horse.
'It's great being back in the saddle, in front of the camera, but it feels very different to my days as a jobbing model,' she says. 'It feels good being valued for something other than the way I look. Everyone's a little bit more polite and I have more of a say about the shots.
' Ruth was warned that, at 5ft 8in she was too short, her 32D breasts could make her look matronly and her bottom was 'on the cusp' and she needed to work on it every day Having a say was most definitely verboten back in the day – as was objecting to body fascism. The first time she went to her new London model agency, after entering a modelling competition, the booking agent took Polaroids before commenting: 'This is unreal. Has anyone ever told you that from some angles you really look like.
..' Top Gun actor Val Kilmer, who Ms Crilly was once compared to Michelle Pfeiffer? Kate Moss? No, Val Kilmer, apparently.
'You really do if you squint hard enough,' said the booker. 'Shorter, and with bigger boobs, obviously.' On the same occasion she was warned that, at 5ft 8in she was too short, her 32D breasts could make her look matronly and her bottom was 'on the cusp' and she needed to work on it every day, 'like Milla Jovovich' – once the highest paid model in the world.
Aged 20, she was also warned: 'In model years, you're really more like 40. Which is nowhere near dead, obviously, but it's fast approaching irrelevance.' Ruth points out that, while we frown upon the Noughties for being rife with unattainable beauty standards, horrendous body image issues and deeply rooted misogynistic viewpoints – little has changed.
'I don't know whether people have entirely changed their attitudes towards their physical appearances or embraced so-called body positivity as wholeheartedly as they lead themselves to believe,' she says. 'To a great extent, we are still living in an appearance-obsessed, perfection-seeking, diet-trying (and failing) world.' The tone of the book may be determinedly lighthearted but you can't help but be struck by the farcical romp of it all, how utterly unglamorous modelling is for the hard-working girls expected to put up and shut up.
'Unless you're a supermodel and in massive demand, modelling is, pretty much, nine-tenths failure,' admits Ruth. 'You don't get 90 per cent of the jobs you go for – that's a lot of rejection – so, really, you're failing most of the time.' She recalls the ordeal of sitting in a paddling pool in her knickers having shower gel poured over her face at one shoot.
She couldn't open her eyes and it felt horrible sitting there not knowing who was watching. Meanwhile, the soap stung and took for ever to wash off after everyone was gone. On another occasion – the final straw as she subsequently called a halt to her 12-year modelling career – she had to pose outside on a London street in a snowstorm for hours on end wearing only office attire, battling a raging fever while the photographer ignored the passers-by who commented that she'd catch her death of cold.
And what about the predatory types? She had 'the almost mandatory rite of passage' that was a casting for the infamous American photographer Terry Richardson, who has since been accused of misconduct with models: 'I'd bailed when his assistant asked me to wear stupid glasses and hold an inflatable banana – he'd also asked me to take my top off, which I'd done, but I drew the line at the banana.' A booking agent told Ruth that the gap between her top two front teeth was 'really cool' and 'a definite look' and that they saw 'really great things happening' for her There was one particular old-school photographer who held slightly outrageous castings and seemed to still live in the Swinging Sixties. 'But did I ever feel unsafe or traumatised?' she says.
'Thankfully not.' However, she admits, 'looking back at some of my diary entries from the time, they weren't quite so upbeat. I did worry that others reading my book might have been damaged, or traumatised, by similar experiences.
It's only with the distance of time that I can see some of these things as funny. 'However, being self-deprecating serves as a sort of armour for me. I've learnt that taking the p*** out of myself protects me from other people doing it first.
' Ruth's modelling career began aged 20, in 2001, when she got wind of a 'national model search', the organisers of which had installed a box for applications in the shopping centre in Birmingham New Street. A law student at Birmingham at the time, she found a 'casual snap', wrote her name, age, height and telephone number on the back, and popped it through the postal slot. She had forgotten all about it when, several months later, a London agency got in touch, inviting her to travel from her home in Redditch, Worcestershire, so they could give her the once-over.
The booking agent told Ruth that the gap between her top two front teeth was 'really cool' and 'a definite look' and that they saw 'really great things happening' for her. The distinctive gap, although dismissed by some casting agents as 'weird', helped Ruth stand out from the crowd. When, during recent dentistry work, she was offered the chance to close it she was 'horrified' by the suggestion.
'Starting out, I was unrealistically optimistic about everything and thought, "I'll be the next Kate Moss in a couple of weeks",' recalls Ruth, laughing. Like so many young girls, being a supermodel became her 'slightly unhinged and over-ambitious goal' encouraged by stories of Moss, the awkward teenager from Croydon discovered at JFK Airport in New York City. Read More I was rejected at a job interview because I wasn't wearing make-up 'Could I, Ruth Crilly from Redditch, England, enjoy the same exhilarating trajectory to fame and fortune?' She says it was a 'big shock' when it hit home how much work was required 'even to become a jobbing model, going around the circuit with my portfolio, attending auditions and getting booked for fashion magazines and catalogues.
'It put paid to my fantasy of making it big, being a supermodel – and my book is about all the ways I didn't quite get there.' However, that's not to say she didn't have unforgettable experiences along the way, travelling the world first-class (albeit just the once, for a shampoo ad in South Africa) and meeting stars. There was the ad campaign for designer shoe company Patrick Cox, where she was required to straddle Sophie Dahl's lap, wearing nothing but a sweat band and spike-heeled sandals.
The pictures made it on to the front pages of several national newspapers – including one seen by her horrified mother, a teacher, in the staff room at work. At 22, Ruth spent an autumn afternoon having photographs taken by Rankin, famous for his sexy, raw images, wearing nothing but Agent Provocateur underwear, draped over Jude Law. Ad campaign for designer shoe company Patrick Cox, where Ms Crilly was required to straddle Sophie Dahl's lap, wearing nothing but a sweat band and spike-heeled sandals Conscious that her boyfriend, now her husband of 16 years, the portrait photographer Richard Grassie, seemed perturbed by this particular shoot, Ruth decided the kindest thing would be to give him a blow-by-blow account of events, via text.
'Had I known that he had unexpectedly lost the power of rational thought then I absolutely would not have been sending him updates about the fact that I looked like a golden-hued goddess and was throwing myself over another man, in underwear that was definitely not meant to stay on,' she recounts in her book. So ill-thought through were her messages, which included: 'I feel really sexy' and, the final blow, in the taxi home – 'I'm drunk and I'm not wearing any knickers' – that Ruth ended up moving out of their flat for a couple of days and going to stay with her parents. Years later, the story still has the power to cause marital disharmony.
Rich, she tells me as we chat at the studio where she has been photographed for our shoot, 'couldn't believe' that she had included this story in her book. 'He's a little embarrassed because it was just so out of character for him to be jealous – he's never acted like that before or since – but it was just so naive of me to think those sexy texts would make it better, when it was just fuelling this awful fire of jealousy in him,' she says. 'It's only now, with hindsight, that I imagine how I'd have felt if Rich had been draped over Sienna Miller [actress and Jude Law's one-time girlfriend], wearing only lingerie, and texting me about how he felt throughout.
' At 55, Rich is 12 years her senior and has been a 'solid and in command' influence throughout their 21-year relationship, steering Ruth away from the profligacy of her early adult years when she ran up debt on nights out, clothes and cabs. Perhaps, with an extra decade in the industry under his belt, he was also able to help steer Ruth away from the darker side of fashion. Certainly, she avoided the grip of some of the more exploitative characters who can prey on young models.
In her 20s, Ruth was involved in campaigns for a whole host of brands, including Jigsaw, River Island and ASOS – giant images of her appeared in the windows of numerous High Street stores – and there is no doubt that the work could be lucrative, with one ad paying enough for a deposit on a London flat. She travelled all over the world, with extended periods in New York and Tokyo. But she is the first to admit that she never reached supermodel standards.
Tiring of the rejection and the time spent standing around, half-dressed, in the cold, Ruth began writing a blog in 2010. Soon after, she joined Instagram, where she now has more than 200,000 followers (and a further 300,000 on YouTube). She also earns an income from advertising content for beauty and fashion brands.
Ruth began writing a blog in 2010. Soon after, she joined Instagram, where she now has more than 200,000 followers (and a further 300,000 on YouTube) A smart woman, Ruth had dropped out of her law degree after getting her break in modelling. However, she went on to do an English literature degree through the Open University, followed by a master's in creative writing at Royal Holloway, all the while continuing to attend castings and photoshoots.
Her greatest passion, she says, has always been writing. She kept a diary throughout her modelling career and says she was the 'most content' she has ever been while working on her new book. 'I reached the point with the modelling where I just couldn't do it any more,' she says.
'I'm grateful to have worked in an industry where I met brilliant people, had brilliant experiences – even though some of them were less than ideal when I look at them retrospectively. It was important to me to have more control over my life.' Not least because it allowed her to prioritise time with her two children, a nine-year-old daughter and a son aged seven.
Idyllic though family life appears now – home is a tiny village near Bath, in a large mid-century house they have spent several months renovating – the journey to parenthood was challenging. 'It took seven years to conceive our daughter and we just didn't think it was ever going to happen,' says Ruth. 'We went down the IVF route and the week before we were going to start, I found out I was pregnant.
' It was far easier with their son, who was conceived when his sister was 11 months old. 'I love seeing them gambol in, shouting and throwing their shoes and bags around,' she says. 'They're only going to be this age once, and I feel lucky I've managed to mould this life, where I can work successfully and be there too.
' Ruth works 9am to 3pm most days, though Rich does most of the school runs. Other than when doing studio shoots, Rich – who has photographed the likes of Rihanna and Michael Caine – also works from home. Now 43, Ruth has not succumbed to the ubiquitous Botox and fillers and doesn't think she ever will, describing herself as 'very low maintenance'.
'When I said that to someone recently she responded with, "It's OK for you, you were a model, you know you look good", ' says Ruth. 'But that's not actually true. Fashion models tend to be edgy, quite quirky-looking, and that often doesn't translate to being the prettiest girl in a room, so being good-looking is not something we take for granted.
' A self-deprecating comment, but there's no denying she is still strikingly beautiful, with peachy skin and bright eyes. Perhaps most endearing, however, is the fact that this former not-quite-supermodel couldn't be more proud that it is her warm, witty personality that is attracting her new audience. At last, she is far more than just a pretty face.
How Not To Be a Supermodel: A Noughties Memoir by Ruth Crilly (Blink, £20) is published on August 29. Val Kilmer London Instagram Jude Law Share or comment on this article: Posing naked with Sophie Dahl. Lingerie shoots with Jude Law.
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