Philippa Lett

BlueAcadia · August 12, 2021

Philippa Lett is a stunning former top international fashion model and actress that worked professionally during the end of the 80s, the 90s and 2000s and was represented by top agency Models1/Elite (London). She won the prestigious 1989 Elite Look of the Year(UK) contest...beating out 200,000 contestants!! :shocking: She was first runner-up in the overall world contest.

"It was supposed to have been yet another glamorous overseas job for model Philippa Lett. She had been booked to go to India for a fashion shoot run. The 23-year-old fell seriously ill soon after arriving but it was how she was treated next that was far from glamorous. Despite being bed-ridden with a severe stomach infection which left her unable to eat or walk and which made her lose 1 stone, she was forced to carry on regardless. Astonishingly, she was propped up against walls and chairs for the pictures and, before each shoot, the drip was unplugged from her arm and put back in afterwards. As she lay in her sick bed in the three hours she was given off each day, she says two vultures were perched on her window sill "just staring down at me. It was appalling," recalls the 25-year-old Walsalorn model, who can now earn more than pounds 3,000-a-week. "They just didn't seem to care. I was so ill that at one point I overheard a doctor saying he didn't think I would be able to survive the flight to England and that I'd have to stay in India." She rang her agency Elite Premier, who sent agents over to "rescue" her. The incident, which happened a few years ago, was a long way from her vision of modelling when she won the prestigious 1989 Look of the Year contest when she was just 16. Her mother Marla had sent off her picture and the Edgbaston High School girl, who had thought she was an "ugly duckling", went on to beat more than 200,000 models around the world. A two-year pounds 150,000 modelling contract followed with top London agency Elite - now Elite Premier. She remembers the young Kate Moss who, because of her unusual looks, was unable to get any bookings at the time. "She used to sit in castings for jobs in tears because no-one would book her," recalls Philippa. Philippa, who used to go out with top DJ Jeremy Healy, travelled the world on various modelling assignments as well as appearing on catwalk shows for Vivienne Westwood, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Givenchy. But, despite the glamour of living in Paris, she missed home. "I found it difficult to make the transition from a child's world with simple teenage things to one of a woman in a very fast, grown-up world," she says. She has long since settled into her career which has brought her a two-bedroom flat - which she bought cheap when she was just 19 but is now worth pounds 250,000 - in London's exclusive Holland Park. Radio star Chris Evans lives next door and Blur's Damon Albarn across the road. Catwalk work now mixes with TV work - which has included reporting on last year's Royal Ascot and various cable TV slots. She has also just been offered a part in a hush-hush film project About Football. "If I look after myself I've only got another three years of modelling at the level I'm at - TV commercials, catwalks and magazines," she says. "If I'm lucky I could probably carry on till I'm 33 doing catalogues so I've got to start planning for a different future now."."