Gemma Ward and baby team up
She may be only 10 months old but Gemma Ward's daughter Naia is already following in her supermodel mum's footsteps.
Naia, Ward's daughter with her partner David Letts, stars alongside her mum in Ward's long-awaited comeback - a new summer campaign for Country Road.
In a short promotional film released yesterday, it was art imitating life as Ward plays a new mum enjoying a holiday at her family beach house with her baby.
"I didn't have to act so much because I was just enjoying sharing that time with my daughter," Ward said of the Country Road video and campaign, which was filmed in August at Seal Rocks and Whale Beach in NSW.
"She was splashing around in the waves, laughing and putting her feet in the water. It was just about capturing a true moment."
The 27-year-old said her family holidays growing up in Perth had always involved the beach.
"We'd always stay in the caravan park and we'd just spend all day at the beach, swimming and playing in the waves or going fishing with my uncle out in his dinghy," she said. "It's the iconic Australian holiday and it's always been so much a part of my youth and what is so close to my heart."
Ward said she decided to sign with Country Road because having Naia involved made it more appealing.
"When the opportunity came to me, I contemplated it and thought it was a really beautiful first campaign for me to do back because I haven't worked for a while and for me Country Road is such an iconic Australian brand that I grew up with," she told Vogue Australia.
"I do feel a lot more confident in myself as a mother and being able to have my family close in this shoot helps a lot with my priorities and that sense of bringing all my worlds together."
The Country Road campaign is part of Ward's comeback after a six-year break from modelling after the death of her boyfriend, Perth actor Heath Ledger, in 2008.
"I felt maybe a bit mute as a model sometimes. And I was exhausted. I wanted time, to find my story, my . . . power," Ward, the youngest model to grace the cover of US Vogue, told Sunday Style about why she quit at the peak of her fame where she was reportedly earning $20,000 per catwalk appearance.
Gemma Ward and baby Naia. Image from the Country Road campaign.
She returned to the catwalk in Milan last month for Prada, the label for whom she had made her international debut as a teenager.
Country Road managing director Sophie Holt said choosing Ward for the label's 40th anniversary campaign was a no-brainer. "We wanted to use an Australian beauty who has grown up on Australian beaches and really embodies our relaxed, natural way of life," Ms Holt told Fairfax.
"Gemma was amazing to work with, very relaxed on set, very professional and strikingly beautiful."
Ward's Nedlands mum Claire could not contain her joy when she opened up to _The Weekend West _last Saturday about her daughter's return to the spotlight.
"It was an important thing for her to come back: she loved modelling, she loves fashion and it just was the right time," Mrs Ward said.
