David Gandy: ‘I had no friends at school and spent hours every day reading James Herriot books’
Born in Essex in 1980, David Gandy abandoned a degree at the University of Gloucestershire to pursue a career in fashion and has fronted campaigns for Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Zara and, most memorably, for Dolce & Gabbana. He lives in south-west London with barrister Stephanie Mendoros and their two children, Matilda, five, and two-year-old Tabitha.
Best childhood memory
My father was a frustrated traveller, and when I was older, we were always travelling the world finding animals on safaris, trekking in Uganda and catching fish in the Amazon rainforest. Before that, and because his own parents had died when he was young, he’d always take my maternal grandparents travelling with us in the back of our Jaguar.
My favourite trip was one European odyssey with just my sister and I in the back and my father and my grandfather in the front listening to Motown tapes mixed by my mum. My father navigated every single route and we repeated the experience with huge road trips through California and South Africa too. To this day I still love road trips.
Best day of your life
I’ll never forget the day during Milan Fashion Week about a year after D&G’s Light Blue had launched, where we did a signing and more or less closed down the city. We drove through the city and there were literally thousands of people lining the route. And no, I wasn’t wearing the white Speedos I wore when we shot the campaign.
Best outfit
I wore a bespoke Henry Poole evening suit to the GQ Awards and every single person that evening came up to me and said, ‘My God, what an amazing suit, is that Tom Ford?’ The only person that correctly identified that it was an original Henry Poole evening suit was Tom Ford himself, which was a lovely moment.
Best physical characteristic
What everyone else comments on are my eyes. People come up to me and say, ‘Can I see your blue eyes,’ which is quite a strange experience.
Best celebrity encounter
I met Daniel Day-Lewis at the Mille Miglia road race and he was lovely. Very humble and very interesting. He disappeared for about three hours then told me that he’d met some local Italian cobbler who’d taught him how to make shoes. Had that been anyone else, I’d have thought it was deeply bizarre but because it was Daniel Day-Lewis, I just thought, ‘Of course he has.’
Best catwalk moment
Walking the catwalk with six of the most famous female supermodels on the planet as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony was a pretty amazing experience. I remember rehearsing and you had Naomi and Kate and all these amazing models and it was vital that none of them walked in front of each other so they had to be very carefully choreographed. But I just sat there with a cup of tea whilst all that preparation unfolded with a big smile on my face thinking, ‘I’m just happy to be here,’ which was also the case at the ceremony itself. It was incredible to be part of.
Best personality trait
Loyalty. That’s what’s got me so far in the fashion industry. I’ve been very loyal to my agency, very loyal to Dolce & Gabbana, and very loyal to the people that gave me my first step on the ladder.
Best decision
Dropping out of university to go into the fashion industry. I only had two modules left to finish on a computing, multimedia and marketing course, but I hated it. Academic learning is just not for me, so I deferred and never went back. I just needed to get out of there. I always felt constrained and that I was wasting time.
Worst childhood memory
I was bullied, mentally not physically, at senior school for being a bit different. It was nothing to do with how I looked; I just didn’t conform. I’ve always been a bit of a loner and it was a very lonely time. I had no friends and I just spent hours and hours every day in the library reading James Herriot books as at that point I wanted to be a vet. The anxiety of going to school on a Sunday night was horrendous. That sense of dread was awful, but it did teach me never to rely on anyone, which has been invaluable in this industry.
Worst moment of your life
There was a time where my grandparents and my uncle all died from cancer within a fairly short period. It wasn’t the fact that I was losing an uncle and grandparents but more the pain of watching my mum losing her parents and her brother. It was one funeral after another after another and I just watched my mum and my dad, who was very close to them all too, witness their declines and their deaths and it was just a really tough, horrible time. The only positive to take from that period is that if I ever have a bad day or a bad week, I realise how fortunate I am to be able to carry on with my life.
Worst physical characteristic
I’m very critical of myself and the two things that carry on growing are your ears and your nose and mine are very prominent anyway. I always joke that I think I’m just going to look like the BFG when I’m older. Huge ears, big nose.
Worst outfit
The one that haunts me was something I wore for a Vivienne Westwood show. It was very theatrical and there was a point where they were trying to get me to walk in platforms. I probably had a big hissy fit about it and ended up throwing them somewhere because I was like, ‘Absolutely not,’ but I remember our faces were all painted white.
Worst celebrity encounter
I met the London Mayor Sadiq Khan and, let’s just say, I did snub him. I just don’t agree with what he’s done in London and what’s happening in London, so I shook his hand and when he tried to start a conversation I just said, ‘You’ll have to excuse me,’ as there was no point having a conversation with him as all I wanted to say was, ‘I lived in this wonderful city for over 20 years and you’re making it a very difficult place to live.’ I had nothing particularly positive to say to him.
Worst personality trait
My loyalty is also probably a bit of a weakness. I’ve definitely been too loyal on some occasions in business where I’ve retrospectively realised that some people are a lot more ruthless than you think they are, and they do not care. I always treat people how you want to be treated but I’ve realised that a lot of people don’t do the same. I think loyal and kind people often get taken advantage of.
Worst criticism
Being a model, I’ve had to listen to all sorts of things being said about me. My torso is too long. My arms are too long. My legs are too short. And with the advent of social media that has got a lot worse. Everyone has their opinions, but I don’t read them because even if I’ve had 98 positive messages, I’ll remember the two negative ones, and because I’m so hard on myself, no one can really say anything to get me down.
The Hackett London x David Gandy Wellwear collection is available now online at www.hackettlondon.com and www.davidgandywellwear.com