How an Australian model with Down’s syndrome is shifting the fashion spotlight
- 22-year-old Madeline Stuart has already walked more than 100 high-fashion catwalks for designers including Colleen Morris, Nonie and Zula Designs
- She hopes to shatter the stereotype that models have to be leggy, willowy and disability-free
Madeline Stuart exudes confidence when she struts down the catwalk, pausing at the perfect moment to slide her hand on her hip, look to the audience and pivot smoothly in high heels. It’s a move familiar to anyone who has seen a fashion show, but with Stuart, a professional model at age 22, there is one notable difference: she has Down’s syndrome.
The Australian native is hoping to shatter stereotypes that models have to be one size fits all – leggy, willowy and disability-free.
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Although Stuart functions at the level of a seven-year-old, according to her mother and manager, Rosanne Stuart, she is thoughtful and focused when asked about making a difference on the runway.
“I’m happy to change the way society looks at people with disabilities,” the model says. “I want the world to be more accepting. That is my dream.”
Now in demand at fashion events worldwide, including New York Fashion Week, which happened this week, the strawberry blonde from Brisbane has made an impact in her four years on the catwalk. That’s according to Sara Ziff, founder of the Model Alliance, a New-York-based policy and advocacy organisation for workers in the fashion industry.
“Historically, the modelling industry has upheld a rigid set of ideas in beauty: thin, white, able-bodied and tall,” Ziff says.
Stuart’s career has been noticed by others in the fashion industry who want to challenge long-held assumptions about modelling, Ziff says. “Madeline’s imagery is a form of activism, and that, in and of itself, is attractive.”
Stuart was invited to attend the New York show this month by designers at House of Byfield and Burning Guitars, but she will not be able to attend because of a health scare, her mother says. In December, she had open-heart surgery to repair a leaky mitral valve, but plans to be back in the spotlight on March 21 at a modelling gig in Jakarta, Indonesia, celebrating World Down Syndrome Day.
“She had heart surgery for the first time when she was eight weeks old for a very large hole in her heart,” says her 47-year-old mother, a single mum and business owner in Brisbane. Madeline is her only child.
“I remember back to Madeline’s first operation and how scared I felt,” she adds. “There is nothing that can compare to the terror of your child enduring such pain and hardship. It’s wonderful now to see her love of life and her outgoing personality.”
When Stuart was born, her mother did not know she had Down’s syndrome until nurses whisked her away and a doctor informed her that her new daughter’s future was bleak. “I was in shock and very sad for the first few days, but then I decided that everything was going to be OK,” she says.
She decided she would give her daughter every opportunity she could.
Stuart’s rise to supermodel status started in 2014 when she was 17. While attending a fashion show with her mother, the teen turned to her mother and indicated that she wanted to be up on the stage instead of sitting in the audience. “Mum, me model,” her mother recalled her saying.
“I didn’t blink an eye – Madeline was always one to be in the limelight. She was never scared of a crowd. I’d dabbled in modelling when I was 18 and hated it, so part of me thought she would lose interest very quickly.”
But that didn’t happen.
Her daughter launched a routine to get fitter and healthier and gradually dropped 18kg (40 pounds) off her 170cm (5ft 7in) frame. In 2015, after her mother arranged a professional photo shoot for her daughter, she put some of the pictures on Facebook.
They went viral overnight and quickly racked up more than seven million views. Then the phone started ringing and the offers poured in: would Madeline be interested in walking the runway in New York and Paris? Could she appear at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in China? How about London, Sweden and Dubai?
For her first show, Stuart walked at New York Fashion Week for South African designer Hendrik Vermeulen after rehearsing with a runway coach brought in from the Juilliard School of Dance.
“It was amazing, I will never forget it,” she says. “People treated me with love and support.”
Through exposure and people supporting us, things will slowly keep changing. People are realising this is not a gimmick
Since then, she has walked more than 100 high-fashion catwalks for designers including Colleen Morris, Nonie, Lulu et Gigi and Zula Designs, and has more than one million followers on social media.
For the most part, Stuart is treated warmly and with respect by designers and other models, who hug her warmly after each show, says her mother.
But there are occasions, her mother admits, when her daughter is not taken seriously by designers who have difficulty seeing her as a professional model and want her to appear in their shows for free.
“That is disheartening – Madeline has become a true professional,” she says. “Sometimes people think that she can’t understand them because she has limited speech. But she does understand. I go with her simply to make sure that she has representation and that nobody tries to take advantage.”
Rosanne now reminds herself that everyone is treated unfairly at times, and she tries not to take it personally. “Through exposure and people supporting us, things will slowly keep changing,” she says. “People are realising this is not a gimmick.”
“I work as hard as any model,” Stuart says. “My mum has been my best friend and biggest supporter, and I won’t give up on my dream.”
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The model now has a colourful clothing line of leggings, skirts and shorts named 21 Reasons Why, named for the 21st chromosome which, when a person has a full or partial extra copy, causes Down’s syndrome. And someday, Stuart says, she hopes to walk the runway at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
“She’s become a bit of a diva,” Rosanne says about her daughter’s confidence. “I truly love that about her.”
