Amber Anderson, Model

Imagine coming out of a Knightsbridge tube station to be confronted with a thirty foot high image of yourself! That’s what happened to actress and model Amber Anderson after an early modelling job. She says: “I almost died because I didn’t even know they were putting it up. I was so embarrassed”. We can totally understand that, but we imagine that she’s got used to seeing herself on billboards by now.

As a child, she was a gifted pianist at Aberdeen City Music School, and a member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland. Friends suggested to her that she tried modelling, but she didn’t have enough confidence, and felt she didn’t have the right look. “I didn’t think I could do it” she admits, which seems incredible now.

Born in Somerset in 1992, but brought up in Scotland, Amber was picked out by a top agency in a Glasgow shopping centre modelling competition, when she was just fourteen. By 2011, Mario Testino had shot her for Burberry, which is how she ended up on the Knightsbridge poster. She walked for Hermes in Tokyo, and filmed a Kenzo ad in Paris. She commented at the time that she was lucky: “Not many nineteen-year-olds can say they are just off to Tokyo for four days”.

Then, at Burberry’s Serpentine Summer Party, Erin O’Connor took pity on the nervous nineteen-year-old, and introduced her to everyone, an act of kindness for which Anderson is still grateful. However, Amber herself has a down-to-earth manner and a good sense of humour, always useful attributes in the world of fashion.

Her luck continued when Benjamin Kanarek photographed her for a Harper’s Bazaar editorial, and she has also featured in Italian Vogue, a Jack Wills campaign, and Vanity Fair. She opened for Christopher Kane AW11, and acted in the Match.com television commercial.

Amber has been keen on acting since an appearance in a school play at the age of seven. She plays the violin as well as piano, and sings jazz, so she’s a bit of an all rounder. She’s ventured into films, appearing in Natalie Portman’s Your Highness, The Lotus Eaters with Harry Potter star Ben Northover, and We Are The Freaks.

Although she thinks of herself as an actress who models, and she may take that direction in future, modelling is likely to stay her main occupation for now. However, it has to be said that having several talents seems to be the way to go right now, so we’re backing Amber Anderson to go far.

The featured photo is By Jen Carey for Rika Magazine