The Dream of the ’90s Is Alive in Anna Ewers

Fashion
portrait of anna ewers holding a flower

Top, Ralph Lauren Collection, $790.

Chris Colls

Tacked on the wall of Anna Ewers’s childhood bedroom is an old black-and-white Calvin Klein ad featuring Kate Moss in a pair of faded jeans and little else. Ewers says she was “probably around 12” when she found the image, flipping through one of her father’s music magazines from 1993.

The date on the cover was what initially caught Ewers’s eye—she was born that same year in Freiburg, Germany, a college town on the edge of the Black Forest mountains, not far from the French/Swiss border. “It was a very different time, but an amazing time for the industry,” says the now-29-year-old model, who bears more than a passing resemblance to another fashion icon of that era (and a fellow German), Claudia Schiffer.

anna ewers

Skort, slingbacks, handbag, $3,050, Prada.

Chris Colls

A decade after swiping the ad from her dad’s office, Ewers found herself posing alongside Moss in a 2015 David Yurman campaign. “I was nervous to meet her, but she was very sweet and very, very cool,” Ewers says. A few months later, Models.com named Ewers Model of the Year.

anna ewers seated in a white top and skirt

Top, $1,430, skirt, $4,190, Alaïa. Bracelets, Cartier, from $7,000. Handbag, Ahram Cuir Atelier.

Chris Colls

Ewers’s rise has been swift from the start of her career, when a friend she met as an exchange student in Colombia convinced her to give modeling a shot. “In Colombia, there aren’t a lot of tall, blonde people, so I was very obvious,” Ewers says. She figured once she returned to Germany, that would be the end of it, but another friend convinced her to meet with the small agency in her hometown that represents her to this day.

anna ewers elle 0322

Dress, Carolina Herrera, $1,590. Vanity purse, $4,800, sandals, $1,125, Chanel. Bracelet, Fernanda Pereira.

CHRIS COLLS

  • Beauty Tip: Lounging in the pool? Protect your skin and keep it supple with a hydrating, water-resistant sunscreen, like Moroccanoil Sun Lotion SPF 30.
    anna ewers takes a dip in a pool wearing a white swimsuit

    Swimsuit, Isabel Marant, $285.

    Chris Colls

    Not long after, Alexander Wang saw her photo on a blog and invited her to walk in his first Balenciaga show in Paris. And today, she is helping forge a supermodel renaissance alongside an elite group of fashion mononyms (Gigi, Kaia, Adut, et al.), but unlike many of her contemporaries, who rose to fame via Instagram, Ewers remains an enigma. “That’s one thing that makes me wish [we were back] in the ’90s, because there was no social media,” Ewers says with a laugh. “I see my job as a job, and my private life as my private life, and I don’t know why I would have to share my everyday life with everybody else. I don’t want to see that a model drinks coffee in the morning. It’s not very mysterious.”

    anna ewers 0322

    Left: Bra top, $690, skirt, $1,470, Michael Kors Collection. Belt, Stella Cadente, $96. Handbag, Dsquared2. Flats, Repetto, $375. Right: Top, $1,500, shorts, $2,150, earrings, $625, sandals, $1,125, Chanel.

    Chris Colls

    anna ewers stands on a patio in a sheer red dress

    Dress, bodysuit, Alaïa for AZ Factory.

    Chris Colls

    That might be true, but it’s also a bit of a shame, considering that Ewers’s everyday life—whether she’s climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, hiking from Tuscany to Rome to allay quarantine boredom, or wandering through Marrakech (see: this fashion shoot)—is so damn photogenic. When we talked, she was in New York, but looking forward to a trip to Tuscany to visit her boyfriend: “We trained our dog to be a truffle dog and we just got our license, so I am very excited to find truffles!”

    anna ewers 0322

    Left: Swimsuit, Victoria’s Secret, $75. Right: Bodysuit, Proenza Schouler, $690.

    Chris Colls

    anna ewers lying down in an orange dress

    Dress, $4,250, slingbacks, Prada. Earrings, Alaïa, $1,000.

    Chris Colls

    • Beauty Tip: For maximum volume that lasts all day, mist your style with Kérastase Laque Noire Hair Spray. Give the roots an extra shot for added oomph.
      anna ewers 0322

      Left: Bodysuit, Oscar de la Renta, $990. Slingbacks, Prada. Right: Dress, Moro, $250. Earrings, Alaïa, $620.

      Chris Colls

      anna ewers poses on a bed

      Scarf, $450, slingback pumps, $795, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

      Chris Colls

      anna ewers 0322

      Left: Dress, Dolce & Gabbana. Mules, Zyne. Right: Dress, Loewe. Earrings, Jardin Majorelle, $206. Slingbacks, Prada.

      Chris Colls

      anna ewers 0322

      Chris Colls

      Hair by David Harborow at Streeters; makeup by Tom Pecheux for Yves Saint Laurent Beauté; model: Anna Ewers at Elite Model; produced by Marie Courtin at 1001 Prods; photographed on location at El Fenn, Marrakech.

      This article appears in the March 2022 issue of ELLE.

      GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF ELLE

      Products You May Like

      Leave a Reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *