How This Girl Went from Surfer to Supermodel
Meet the upcoming model who's all over the beauty campaigns.
If you would have told Charlotte Di Calypso that one day she'd be a top model traveling the world and front-lining major campaigns, she wouldn't have believed you. "I'm from the west coast of France," she explains with an accent that exudes a carefree-yet-confident je ne sais quoi. "I'm just a surfer girl at heart."
While she was minding her business on the beach, a modeling agent for Elite discovered the teen beauty and kept contacting her until Charlotte and her family agreed to head to Paris to see what the biz was all about. "My parents weren't against it, but they were skeptical," she says. Flash forward a few months and Charlotte nabbed top prize at the Elite Model Look competition. At that point, her parents realized the magnitude of the situation and decided to let her do her thing.
A year later, she signed with the agency and flawlessly balanced work with school—although she never told her teachers what she was really up to in her time away from classes. "My teachers weren't very open-minded," she admits. (Are they ever?) "If I had said I was modeling, they would have assumed I was living a sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle."
Luckily, Charlotte persisted with her fashion career (sans the sex, drugs, and the rock 'n' roll, of course) and walked the much-coveted Prada show at the age of 16, a total pinch-me moment for any up-and-comer. "I didn't even realize then how powerful Prada was," she says. "That week was the first time I met the famous makeup guru, Pat McGrath. It was so weird to have all these people drawing all over you. I really learned the system during my first show season." Next up, she fronted the Chanel Chance Eau Fraîche campaign—every girl's dream job, right?
Now, Charlotte, age 25, is on top of her game as one of the talented and trendy faces in the new Redken campaign, alongside It-kids Rachel Trachtenberg, Naleye Dolmans, Ashley Moore and Alexander Dominiguez.
Staying true to her laissez-faire approach to beauty, she's pretty hands-off when it comes to her personal routine. "I use the Diamond Oil products from Redken. The shampoo and the conditioner give me so much shine! My favorite is the new One United treatment. It protects my hair from heat damage and makes it easy to detangle when blow drying or using any tools," she says.
After years of doing shows and having intricate makeup done on the reg, she is fully embracing a total complexion detox. "I have very sensitive skin, so now it's super dry," she says. Basically, she wears no makeup during the day (must be nice!), except a touch of powder and mascara, and bi-weekly hydrating masks from La Roche-Posay.
When Charlotte isn't jet-setting for work, you can find her with her model besties Sigrid Agren and Constance Jablonski, getting lost in art galleries (she's taking online Art History classes through Sotheby's), practicing yoga, and exploring NYC.
Add Charlotte to your model it-list and see where this surfer-turned-superstar ends up next.
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