Poppy Delevingne, the latest NYLon sensation

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Hermione Eyre|Es Magazine. Photographs|Bryan Adams. Styled|Gianluca Longo

10 April 2012

We don't export much any more, as a nation, but we still make beauties who go forth and conquer. Poppy Delevingne, 23, a product of Bedales and Belgravia, moved to New York two years ago and quickly became a social star, modelling for Interview magazine and American Vogue and photographed at all the smartest events, clasping It Girl chums such as DJ Leigh Lezark and Waspy actress Byrdie Bell.

There was even a 'Know Your Poppy' crib sheet in The New York Observer, to help its readers differentiate between her and the other florally named British socialites who had just landed in Manhattan (photographer Poppy de Villeneuve, among others).

Poppy Delevingne's arrival on the scene must have been like something out of Gossip Girl. You can just imagine the voice-over: 'Who is this model from "London" who is everyone's new best friend? Is she for real? And where did her fabulous wardrobe come from? Gossip Girl must know. XOXO.'

When I meet her at Bryan Adams' photography studio in London, Poppy is beaming, radiating goodwill and good fortune. She embraces me like a friend and kicks her baby giraffe legs up on the sofa. 'I know, my limbs are so spindly! My friends call me Spidey or Froggy...' She munches on a (tiny) chocolate brownie. 'Yum! I eat like a pig. And no...' she admits coyly, 'I don't do any exercise. But I'm going to start because exercise is good for the brain, according to all my friends.'

Her voice is surprisingly low - husky and privileged, like hot-buttered money. 'I think it broke when I was 15. Seriously, I woke up one day and I was like [adopts gravelly bass], "Morning"'. It's the perfect voice for a transatlantic romance - 'My boyfriend loves it!'

She has been going out with James Cook, who is based in the UK working for his family's aerospace company, for two years. Men sometimes ask her to record their voicemail messages, but she's never thought it was quite appropriate. There is an old-fashioned sense of decorum about this scion of the British establishment (Grandpa is media magnate and former MD of the Evening Standard, Sir Jocelyn Stevens; her father, Charles Delevingne, is a property magnate).

'Poppy has gone down a storm in New York because she is the living embodiment of the American fantasy of what an English girl should be,' says American Vogue contributing editor Plum Sykes, who has been a mentor to her, just as Anna Wintour was to Plum in her turn. The Great British power network is still going strong. 'She's not knowing or calculating, the way some very social girls are,' adds Plum. 'She just seems utterly natural. If you see her at a party, or a fashion shoot, it's as if she's just there having a glorious time, not trying to get ahead, or manipulate her image in a cynical way.'

Poppy does indeed have a light, dreamy aura, as if she would be utterly incapable of steely careerism. 'I cry at the silliest things - even adverts!' She is terrified of flying and spends the whole journey holding her lucky Buddha charm, or, during turbulence, the passenger next to her. 'They must think I'm a complete psychopath. I just try to sleep and self-medicate - pop a Valium.'

There are signs of insecurity: while we're doing the interview, she can't resist occasionally checking herself out in the mirror opposite, rearranging her glowing caramel hair. Perhaps it's because she hasn't always been a beauty. 'I was a point-blank hideous child. My parents cried when they saw me!' Modest people often say that, but a family friend concurs: 'She was a strange-looking baby, like an egg with hair.' At Bedales she was 'never the pretty girl; never the girl the older boys fancied. None of that.'

She is the middle of three sisters (Chloe, the eldest, has a Kensington members' club named after her; Cara, the youngest, is an aspiring actress). But home life was marred by the battle her mother (the famous 1970s beauty Pandora Stevens) had with prescription drugs. 'I watched her struggling with addiction, in and out of rehab, desperately striving to overcome it,' Poppy told a newspaper last year.

'That sort of thing can tear a family apart, but my dad kept it all together.' Now, a year on, Poppy is positive: 'My mother is the bravest human being I've ever come across. She's definitely pulled through. She's working her butt off in Selfridges as a personal shopper and she's a genius at it. All her past troubles have basically gone into what she does now - a bit like work therapy. She's found her niche in life and that's it for her.'

Has her mother's experience made her wary of party-circuit drugs? 'You shouldn't learn from other people's mistakes,' she says. 'I was obviously put off by it, but in New York and London people do it and I'm not anti them; I'm not one to kick up a fuss. Generally, I manage to avoid it or turn a blind eye.'

Hippieish at heart, Poppy loves festivals ('I can't wait to do Burning Man one year!') and fell in love with India when backpacking there with three male friends after school. She returns every year if she can, but is never going back to Goa after its beach parties proved too much fun. 'I got stuck there for three months - truly stuck!'

She did want to be an actor, and signed up for classes when she got to New York, but has let that drift since her modelling took off. Having featured in Bamford and Myla ads by 20, she's now in demand with brands such as Versace and Valentino, and next year, when she's back in the UK, she's going to brave the catwalks of Milan, although last t

ime, three years ago, she didn't enjoy it much. 'Backstage you're a number, not a name. They prod you and talk about you as if you're not there. Some lovely girl from Latvia might not understand what they're saying but I did...' What sort of wounding things did they say? 'Oh, you know, just "This eyeliner doesn't suit her", that sort of thing.'

She seems to lead a truly charmed life. When I ask if she's met that other great British export, Sienna Miller, she coos, 'She's my roomie!' In the same block as David Bowie, they share an apartment - and a wardrobe. 'Sienna's very easy and generous about letting me borrow things.'

Do they throw many parties? 'We don't, because she does plays every day' - Sienna is currently performing in Strindberg's After Miss Julie on Broadway. 'But during the day she might make a delicious risotto, or after she gets back at night we talk over the play with a glass of wine...'

Poppy also brings her own heaps of fashionable clothes to the flat, being a brand ambassador for Chanel, fashion's most coveted diplomatic posting. How did it happen? Through a friend of a friend, whom she met at a lunch party... 'They just chose four girls [Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe and Caroline Sieber] to wear the brand, represent the brand, and love the brand, which I did already, of course.'

Poppy enjoys spreading the largesse: girlfriends get mascara for their birthdays; when her grandmother was ill, she sent a package of goodies, though she couldn't find her favourite Chanel talc, discontinued 20 years ago.

Does Poppy encounter many jealous rivals? 'Yes, and it's my worst thing ever. To be honest, it does affect me - jealousy is everywhere and I pick up on it really quickly. I'm a sensitive soul - I think my parents would agree - but I just try to ignore it. The people who talk, who say their bits about you behind your back... well, it comes back to bite them on the ass. They become one of those "don't go near her" people.' Social Siberia!

But Poppy seems to guard a gentle, tender spirit under that beautiful face. As for the future, she says that, although she thinks she probably smokes and flies too much for it to apply to her, she's looking forward to growing up, looks-wise. Girls in her family tend to improve. 'They say we're better at 30 than 20.' The mind boggles.

Fashion assistant: Matilda Goad. Set design by Alice Sheppard Fidler. Poppy Delevingne is at Storm

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