Confession: In September, as some of us were live-streaming Alexander Wang’s spring 2013 show and noticed an anorak-clad Liberty Ross flicker across the screen, it was full-on PANDEMONIUM at the Cut — screaming, hooting, frantic tweeting, desk-slapping, and doing the Running Man. A color printer might have been broken. Her runway look came at the end of a series of revenge outfits, following husband Rupert Sanders’s affair with Kristen Stewart, so the return to modeling spoke volumes. But in Love’s upcoming issue, Ross makes her most important statements yet.
Obviously, she’s nude (NSFW at the link) — “I always end up being naked with Katie Grand,” she tells the reporter — which in and of itself is brave, but after months of being tabloid fodder is likely the boldest choice you can make. However, in the accompanying interview, she demonstrates nothing but self-restraint, with quotes like:
[Modeling] forces you to grow up really fast when you are really young but it also stunts you in a way. It is very confusing sometimes … It is hard. Even people close to me never knew what it was really like when I was younger. As a model you have to be so strong as a human being, feet on the fucking ground. That’s what is important.
I moved to L.A. with my husband Rupert because I felt it was time for him to have his turn. We both like it there and we were both established in what we did, but it felt like things could only excel for him in film in America. I wanted to have children and change my life in that way too. I’m glad I did it; I don’t have any regrets.
I think I am the only person who likes getting older! It felt like a relief when I turned 30. It felt like I had control of my life rather than it having control of me.
My husband Rupert. Interesting. Note that since StewartSandersGate, Ross has only made similar comments, saying in a Wang video, “I’m very happy with my life, and I’m lucky. I have good people … I believe that we’re all on journeys and we are all given lessons at certain times in our lives, and sometimes when things seem really bad, you have to be able to see the good and learn from it, and just move forward as graciously as possible.” While part of us always hopes she’ll rattle off a string of expletives directed at K-Stew, we think her Love photos should do the trick.
