Helena Christensen thankful for Lagerfeld risk

Helena Christensen owes her career to Karl Lagerfeld.

The Danish supermodel has enjoyed over 20 successful years in the fashion industry but admits that would never have happened if the Chanel designer and photographer Peter Lindbergh hadn't have taken a risk with her when she was starting out.

She said: "I went to Paris for a week after an invitation from an agency. I was so unbelievably lucky - I had baby cheeks, a horrible perm and a weird way of dressing but in that first week, I met Peter Lindbergh and Karl Lagerfeld and they literally booked me for everything for a year. I still walk up to them and say, 'That's incredible that you took the chance on me.' For me, it was, 'If it works out, I get to travel and do photography.' It was never about all the glamorous stuff, like being made up every day. So for many years, I always had my camera in my back pocket and the photographer would be like, 'What's that lump on your butt?' "

Despite her experience, Helena, 42, admits she still gets self-conscious on photo shoots.

She told Britain's InStyle magazine: I know I can give a lot in a shirt amount of time and that's it. After that, I start to think, 'What am I doing? You're a grown up woman, standing here posing?' This is too weird. And then I get too self-conscious and the whole momentum is lost. But then again, when I worked with people like Irving Penn, I would have given him a thousand hours to do a Polaroid."