PLAY LIKE A GIRL
Supermodel Lily Aldridge takes on some of this country’s top male athletes—and redefines what grit, passion and confidence look like.
By Erin Bried Photographed by Giampaolo Sgura Styled by Melissa Ventosa Martin
Lily Aldridge, 29, never dreamed she’d become a supermodel. As a kid, she fantasized about spending her days in spiky shoes—but she had soccer cleats in mind, not stilettos. “I always thought I was going to be a soccer player, get a scholarship to college and then join the U.S. women’s team,” says Aldridge, who played left forward for 11 years. “Mia Hamm was my role model,” she adds. “I still look up to her.”
Now, as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, Aldridge rarely has the chance to kick a soccer ball around, which is why this photo shoot was so special: She got to realize her long-held dream of playing ball with the pros. “This was one of the most fun shoots I’ve had,” she says. “It’s different for me to get to be athletic and look like the strong woman I am.” Aldridge tossed a football with New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. “I was so sore the next day, I could barely walk,” she says, laughing. “I realized I have to do more cardio!” She challenged Los Angeles Lakers Wayne Ellington and Ronnie Price to a game of horse. “I did not win,” she says, “but I did swish a few times, and there were high fives everywhere.” She went up against top-ranked AVP beach volleyball players Sean Rosenthal and Casey Patterson. “That’s when I got really competitive,” she says. Finally, she shot on goal against the L.A. Galaxy’s Brian Rowe, Leonardo, Bradford Jamieson IV and Robbie Rogers. “I was nervous to play them, because I’d been talking about soccer all day,” she says, but a few quick headers into the back of the net proved she’s still got game. “It felt great to be on the field. Being around athletes makes me feel very comfortable.”
Feeling at ease in her body, whether on a field or at a photo shoot, is a strength Aldridge first tapped into 15 years ago. After being scouted at a school carnival at age 14, the Los Angeles native landed her first major ad campaign with Abercrombie & Fitch. “My older brother [Miles] is a photographer, and my sister [Saffron] is a model, and I was always on their photo shoots growing up. Being on-set didn’t seem weird to me.” Even so, her parents—famed illustrator Alan Aldridge, who designed album covers for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and former Playboy playmate Laura Lyons—instilled in her that looks aren’t everything. “My dad got me fascinated with art, food and music, and my mom taught me to be an independent woman,” Aldridge says. “She’s been such a great role model for me.”
Though Aldridge worked steadily as a model after graduating from high school, her big break came in 2009, when Victoria’s Secret invited her to walk in its annual show. She was thrilled—and secretly terrified. “It was the first runway I’d ever walked,” she says. “I was backstage, like, What am I supposed to do? It’s weird when you’ve never done it before.” One of the other models gave her a tip: It’s all about attitude. “If you feel confident and beautiful,” says Aldridge, “people will see that.” Victoria’s Secret execs certainly did. Just one year later, they gave her her wings.
While the Angels may not play soccer, they’re still Aldridge’s dream team. “We’re all athletes, and the love I have for the other girls is so strong,” she says. “I had dinner with Doutzen [Kroes] last night, and I talk to Candice [Swanepoel] and Behati [Prinsloo] almost every day.” If anyone gives an Angel trouble, Aldridge, the de facto team captain, is the first to rush to her defense. “It’s my obligation to stand up for my friends,” she says. Case in point: She recently took to Twitter to defend fellow model Gigi Hadid from drug accusations: “Can’t sit back and see people hurting my lil sista @GiGiHadid! She is one of the sweetest, kindest, most genuine souls I’ve ever met!” Of the incident, Aldridge says, “People aren’t partying anymore. My generation of models has seen the tragedies of people who’ve lost their careers from that, and I think we’ve learned from it. It’s much more of a business now.” Aldridge, for example, has collaborated on her own fashion line with Velvet by Graham & Spencer. Her fellow Angels, including street-style stars Alessandra Ambrosio and Miranda Kerr, show their support by wearing her casual-cool designs. “They’re all good people,” Aldridge says. “You mess with them, you’re messing with Mama.”
She has the strength to back up those words, given that she works out an hour a day, four to five days a week, with powerhouse trainer Mary Helen Bowers, creator of Ballet Beautiful. “I can’t go to the gym. I’m not that person,” Aldridge says. “If someone’s not telling me what to do, I’ll take five steps and be like, That was really good! But if someone’s there with me, I’ll work my butt off.” To accommodate her hectic schedule, Aldridge connects with Bowers live via laptop. “We’ve even worked out at 4 a.m., when I was shooting in London,” she says. And her dedication has paid off. “It’s made me leaner, stronger and healthier.” Those are all attributes that come in handy not only on the runway but also back home in Nashville, where she now lives with her husband, Kings of Leon front man Caleb Followill, and their 3-year-old daughter, Dixie Pearl. The couple met in 2007 at Coachella, where they fell in love at first tequila. Well, almost: “My friend brought me backstage, Caleb started talking to us, and I asked him for a shot,” recalls Aldridge, laughing. “We did one together, and then I left to watch Rage Against the Machine.” A few weeks later, she went to a second Kings concert in New York and he called her afterward. As she says now, “That was it. We’ve been together for eight years, and he’s the love of my life. He’s my man.”
Followill is also her occasional workout buddy. The two just started running together—usually a couple of miles a few days a week. “I’m not a jogger, but Caleb is,” she says. “He gets in the zone, but I’m like, Where is this zone? I need to find this zone!” To persevere, she channels her friend model Karlie Kloss. “Karlie posted on Instagram that she hated jogging but was going to run a marathon. I figure if she can run, I can, too.”
When she’s not on the move, Aldridge loves to spend her free time at home, listening to Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, swimming with Dixie (“she’s the most important thing in my life”) and playing non-varsity sports such as shuffleboard, cornhole and horseshoes with family. “All of the Followills are very competitive,” Aldridge says. “I am, too. I want to win.”
She also loves to cook for loved ones, including bestie and former neighbor Taylor Swift. (Swift recently named Aldridge one of the most inspiring women she knows: “She balances being one of the busiest career women in the world with being her little girl’s best friend, doting mother, favorite playmate and constant companion.”) “Taylor is salt of the earth,” Aldridge says. A love of cooking is one of the many things that brought them together. “I’m a humongous foodie,” she says. “Ina Garten is my hero.” Aldridge tries to eat healthy most of the time, but when she decides to indulge, she doesn’t hesitate. “I’m a cheeseburger kind of girl,” she says, adding, “and an ice cream kind of girl, and a chocolate kind of girl.”
As she looks to her future beyond this summer, it resembles a Tennessee sunrise—bright and beautifully hazy. “I’m not sure what I want to do next,” Aldridge says. “I know I want to be a model and businesswoman as long as possible. Maybe one day I’ll create a kids’ line, inspired by Dixie. Or a skin-care line, since I’m such a girlie girl.” Whatever she chooses, she’ll stay true to her roots. “I was, and always will be, very sporty,” she says. “I think women athletes are incredibly strong and powerful, and to me that’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”