Love her or hate her Lara Bingle is now a household name. Picture: Lara Bingle/Instagram Source: Supplied
LARA Bingle is Australia's answer to Paris Hilton. Much like the platinum blonde heiress, her name mentioned in conversation is likely to elicit at least one eye-roll, a bit of grumbling along the lines of, "But what does she actually DO?" and a debate about if she is, in fact, that hot. To add insult to injury, the name Bingle has also become synonymous with 'dumb'. Last year's vacuous reality show Being Lara Bingle didn't help much in that department.
One important distinction, though, is that Bingle's rise to celebutante status was the result of gentle, not to mention scripted, swearing in the 2006 'Where the bloody hell are you?' Tourism Australia ad campaign, rather than via a Hilton-esque sex tape.
Bingle seems cheerfully unperturbed by the derision she regularly cops (though she does have trouble bringing herself to say the infamous slogan now), whether it's 'fat' bikini photos published in the gossip mags or simply the comment feed of her Instagram account. Remarks on some of the sizzling selfies she's posted while modelling the swimwear line she's designed, Lara Bingle for Cotton On Body, range from the snarky, "It's amazing how far a set can get you" to the gushing, "Oh my god I love this body!!!! So nice to portray fitness and health rather than ribs and hip bones!!! #hot".
"I like that, though," says the 26-year-old Bingle, explaining the reasoning behind her thick skin. "I think if there's one person hating on whatever, then two people are loving it. It creates emotion to the brand ["the Lara Bingle brand" is how she later refers to it]. That was always what my dad said: 'If no one's talking about you, Lara, then you have a problem.'"
The day after Sunday Style's shoot in Avalon, on NSW's northern beaches, I meet Bingle and her manager, George Moskos, for lunch in Double Bay. We choose a cafe where the silver-haired, well-heeled clientele are unlikely to notice or care about Bingle in their midst. For the record, no one bats an eyelid.
Lara Bingle in the Heath Enclosure at the Caulfield Cup. Picture: Tim Carrafa Source: News Limited
When I arrived at the shoot the day before, she was wearing a red Baywatch-style swimsuit from her range; red, white and blue striped knee socks; and was wrapped in a brown fur rug, quietly shivering between shots. Today (post the influence of stylist and Vogue senior fashion editor Christine Centenera), it's a typical black-on-black designer ensemble. I ask her to talk me through the outfit.
"I'm wearing all international stuff," she says, apologetically. "Balmain blazer, The Row cashmere jumper, Balenciaga [leather] skirt, Jimmy Choo shoes, no bag. I don't really take bags with me. I bought a little Chanel Boy Bag I fell in love with in Paris. I was like, 'Oh, I don't have a boyfriend, I'll buy a Boy' [Bingle split with New York-based DJ Nick Cohen when they were in Paris in July this year]. Anyway, that's at home, though. I didn't bring it. And a Céline [chunky gold] necklace."
When she took on Centenera as a stylist during the three-plus years she was with cricketer Michael Clarke (now Australian team captain), her sartorial transformation was dramatic - very expensive, very designer and very black.
"Christine and her boyfriend, [fashion designer] Josh Goot, have always been massive supporters of me. She would be the go-to person throughout my whole relationship with Michael," says Bingle.
"I still see her now, we're still friends. But she's expensive and I don't need a stylist every day. And now, yes, I look like a blonder version [of her], maybe a little bit more voluptuous.
"I credit her with creating my look and aligning me to great brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. A lot of people can't get access to those brands. Even Dion Lee and Josh Goot don't loan. So she kind of set me apart from all of that, which I am forever thankful for."
Lara Bingle burst onto the stage at 18 as the face of Tourism Australia "Where the bloody hell are you?" advertising campaign. Source: News Limited
How would she say her style differs from Centenera?
"Not much," she laughs. "Probably day to day I'm a little more beach girl, when I'm at the beach and things like that. I don't know … it's kind of the same. I'm a very uniform dresser. She doesn't wear suits and things like that; I like power suits."
Moskos jumps in with: "Maybe she's taking [style inspiration] from you now?"
At this, Bingle looks at him like he's nuts: "No, George!" she laughs. "I really respect her, and I really have a lot of time for her. She taught me a lot. When I was having arguments with Michael, she would be my go-to person. I'd hang at her house, she only lived around the corner.
I was so young and she was really honest with me; there was no bullsh*t. I really respected that and learned a lot from that."
Bingle says she "rarely" uses a stylist now and can call Lee and Goot directly if she needs to borrow something, because they're her friends.
Did she get any advice from her posse of fashion friends when she was working on her swimwear range for Cotton On Body?
"I asked everyone," she grins. "But I, kind of, I'm ruthless like that in a sense. I want to do it on my own. You know what I mean?"
Lara Bingle returns to Sydney after a European summer holiday in Greece and London. Source: News Limited
For lunch, Bingle, in consultation with Moskos, orders grilled barramundi with steamed broccoli and a green tea. She's losing weight - 400g a day, to be precise - and, at 1.68m tall, is down to 55kg at the time of our interview (she says she peaked at 63kg last year, around the time unflattering paparazzi shots of her in a bikini ran on the cover of a magazine with the cover line 'Fat or Fab?').
Along with eating a high-protein diet, for the past six weeks she's been boxing three times a week with a trainer (she proudly shows me a video on her iPhone of her competently working
a speed ball) and doing yoga.
"That's changed me. I'm happy when I'm doing it," she says. "Because I was running, running, running like a crazy woman, and I was just hungry all the time. But I haven't battled with my weight; as I've grown up my body's changed. You're never happy, but you have to reward yourself at some stage. I refuse to diet. It has to be a lifestyle."
Has she cut down on drinking?
"People have the impression that I'm a big party girl, but I don't really drink. When I do, it's red wine or whisky," she says.
Does she have a sweet tooth, then?
"Yes!" she enthuses. "Tiramisu, banoffee pie. I just love cooking. Gareth [Moody, her ex-boyfriend] was a massive cooker …" she laughs, then corrects herself: "I mean cook. He taught me a lot in the kitchen. He's an artist, so even the way he cuts is precise - the colours we ate all matched. For a year we ate at home every night. It was really grounding, really nice, I needed that."
Queen of the selfies: Bingle regularly posts pictures on her Instagram account. Picture: Lara Bingle/Instagram Source: Supplied
What skills in the kitchen did she gain during her relationship with Moody, whom she went out with for more than a year before she started seeing Cohen?
"I'm a meat eater - meat and fish," she says. "I'm pretty basic. I'd love to just cook dessert, but that's not going to happen. When I was with Michael, I used to make a cheesecake every weekend for him. He loved it. I used to travel and cook the cheesecake in the hotels - go and buy new blenders and everything and just leave them there. That was my, like, vice."
The same cheesecake every week?
"Toblerone or Mars Bar. It just changed, the chocolate changed," she smiles.
It sounds like Moody, the Chronicles of Never designer, was a big influence on her.
"Yeah, we still speak, we still hang out. I don't know … I don't know … I don't know …" She trails off before settling on: "He's a good guy."
So, he's on the backburner for a while?
"Yeah, I don't know. It's just this thing with me where I just have so much going on and I'm on this path, and it's very hard to step off and give them [men] my whole life. All of them just get kind of over it. Not over it, they just …[She looks at Moskos] I'm looking at you because I talk to you about my relationships."
Offers Moskos: "Well, it's challenging for a guy sometimes, keeping up with the lifestyle."
It can be hard if you're not always there supporting them in their careers, and their choices, I say.
Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle at the Allan Border Medal in 2009. Source: News Limited
"That's what it was like with Michael," Bingle nods, warming to the theme. "I felt like I was just living his dream. And there are girls that are happy to do that, and hats off to them, but I require more for myself. I need to be stimulated more than that, you know? And the best thing I ever did was leave. You know what I mean? So, I got to experience all these opportunities. Otherwise, I kid you not, I would have three children by now!
"Michael says to me to this day, 'You turned the ship around so much.'" She hesitates, before adding: "Because, even when we broke up, at times it was like, 'How am I ever going to recover from this?
Do I just go that way or do I go this way?'"
I mention that there was a lot of public negativity towards her during her relationship with Clarke - she was the Yoko Ono of Australian cricket for a while - and also after her diamond ring (reportedly worth $200,000) was returned. It didn't really seem proportional to her crimes.
"No, it wasn't. What I've learnt is to sometimes keep quiet and let it ride its course. Obviously, it affects you emotionally at times [sighs]. I don't know … what's real to me was doing what I wanted to do.
"It's like I never saw myself walking up an aisle. I was 19 when I got engaged. I'm just glad I've been honest with myself and true to myself throughout this whole experience. Um, otherwise, you know, I wouldn't be … happy?"
Does she think Clarke understands that?
"Maybe. We're still friends. He just can't believe - and these are his words - how I 'turned the ship around'. There have been so many push-backs from the littlest things, managers moving on, the fact that I can still go, like, 'Let's do it!' And now, bringing out my own swimwear and underwear, he's very … I don't know what the word is."
Says Moskos: "He's impressed, he's proud of you."
"He's always like, 'I can't believe you're doing this again. You're just killing it'," she continues. "Even, for example [the criticism he copped over] the Ashes … And I just say to him, 'At the end of the day it's just being true to yourself', because his job is very robotic. He answers the same questions every day, I'm sure. It's, like, the same routine every day. Which is fine, and he's very good at that. But I also think if people actually knew him, the perception is not that amazing all the time. I don't know … if he was just himself."
She thinks he needs to loosen up a little bit?
"Yeah, yeah," she laughs.
Laughing slightly nervously, Moskos interrupts: "We don't want to talk too much about relationships."
I shush Moskos. At the shoot yesterday, Bingle told me she was on the dating app Tinder. So? I ask.
Bingle has recently been linked with Aussie actor Sam Worthington. Picture: Lara Bingle/Instagram Source: Supplied
"Tinder? says Bingle. "Oh, I got off it last night. What's the point? It's not really my thing; it's just weird. I've never really dated. I just meet people through people. Every boyfriend, I never regret. I'm friends with all of them. Every single one."
After we speak, Bingle is photographed kissing Australian actor Sam Worthington - they were seen together at the Global Citizen Festival in New York on September 28, and when he flew to Sydney last week, the relationship quickly progressed to intimate restaurant dates and grocery-shopping trips. Moskos didn't provide a comment by press time. Anyway, A-list actors aside, Bingle - who left school in Year 10 to model in Milan - has more on her agenda than boys.
She has a list of goals in the Notes section on her iPhone. "Last year I was 25 and I had never had a real plan or goal or focus, a team of people to help facilitate and make it happen. I put the list together and ticked almost every box. And there's almost 10 boxes: having a swimwear line, underwear line, all of those things.
"That's why I got in contact with George, because of the success he had with Miranda [Moskos helped Kerr launch her skincare line, Kora Organics]. I had never met anyone else who was doing that in Australia. I had a hard time finding a good manager who focused on long-term dreams."
Would she say her management in the past has been reactive rather than proactive?
"Totally," she says. "George obviously is proactive, but everyone else was constantly dealing with the day-to-day stuff, so much stuff [such as the controversy surrounding the photo of Bingle in the shower, allegedly taken by Brendan Fevola, that was published in Woman's Day in March 2010]. And that's what they were doing, filtering it all." I ask her to read me the list.
Bingle in the now infamous "Where the bloody hell are you?" television ad. Source: News Limited
"Underwear, product range, Cotton On charity, the bowel cancer TV commercial, Sports Illustrated, the UK market, the TV show … My dad passed away from bowel cancer, so I want to create a TV commercial … get some Australian celebrities, international ones, my friends involved, but these things take so much time," she explains.
The cover of Sports Illustrated is also firmly in her sights. "They haven't put an Australian on the cover since Elle, so I think I'm going to charge at that."
Along with those smokin' hot bikini shots, Bingle is partial to posting inspirational quotes on Instagram. I tell her I noticed the quote attributed to Winston Churchill, "Success is the ability
to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm", in her feed and thought it summed her up pretty well.
"Yeah, that's pretty much me," she agrees. "I used to just put quotes, but now I put quotes and I actually believe in them. And I've pretty much done that. It's almost sometimes an enjoyment to think, 'How am I going to get from this stone to that stone' and when I do it's like, 'Yes!' Even with my weight stuff. I feel like in my life I'm always challenging myself - personally, professionally, physically - and I think that's life. If you can't challenge yourself, then no one else can. And that instils confidence within. And I can go and do my swimwear, and I can go and have a proper relationship, and I can sit still sometimes. I'm learning.
"If you had spoken to me when I was 19, 20, even 21, I just wouldn't even listen to your questions."
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