Karen Elson

Despite having a face that could have been painted by Vermeer, Karen Elson never quite seems like an internationally famous supermodel when you’re talking with her. And it’s easy to forget she is also a singer-songwriter who has released a solo album, sung with Chan Marshall and Robert Plant, raises her two children with rock star ex-husband Jack White, and was part of the show-stopping entourage that closed the 2012 Summer Olympics. She comes across grounded and sweet — more like a chatty friend you feel instantly in tune with and want to ask for advice. (Rookie magazine readers have been the lucky recipients of some.) But make no mistake: Elson is as powerful as they come, and after spending almost 20 years in the jet-setting fashion industry, she’s ready to stake her claim on Nashville.

“Big cities like New York or L.A. — both are cities I adore, but it’s a lot harder to be an individual in there,” she says. “You’ve got to fight to keep your integrity. In Nashville, you can really develop yourself into who you are.”

A Nashvillian since 2006, Elson was born in Manchester, England. After she was discovered by a local modeling agency at 16, she quickly became the first face for Clinique’s perfume Happy, and on her 18th birthday graced the cover of Vogue Italia, garnering both praise and reverence from an industry that dubbed her “Le Freak.” In the vein of unconventional trendsetters like Kristen McMenamy, Elson can shift from high-class aggressor on the runway for Chanel to spectral weirdo for a Jean Paul Gaultier campaign, or be seductive and ethereal, as in her recent ads for YSL’s Opium. Try asking Giselle to do all that. Even through an English accent, a hometown pride swells in Elson’s voice when she speaks about Nashville establishments like The Catbird Seat and artists like Emily Leonard, whose painting hangs above her living room mantle. Once she gets started, the names roll rapidly off her tongue.

“In Nashville you can go check out incredibly, devastatingly beautiful music, and then you can go watch a great film at The Belcourt, and then you can drive across town to The Stone Fox and watch your friends play, or be anonymous and watch [a show] at The Station Inn.”

Although Elson still travels constantly for work, she’s always happy to return. And like most Nashville transplants, she has a story that pinpoints the exact moment when she knew she was at home here.

“I was pregnant with my daughter, Scarlett, and I was flying back from New York,” Elson says. “I was rushing through LaGuardia Airport with a ton of bags, and found the elevator wasn’t working. I’m this seven-months-pregnant lady dragging stuff down the stairs, and not one person offered to help me.” She tells the story without a trace of surprise, like someone who’s been jaded by frequent travel from an early age. “When I arrived in Nashville,” she says, her pace slowing as she caps her story with its happy ending, “there was this lovely old man who was just playing with his banjo in the airport. He saw me, put his banjo down and said, ‘Sweetheart! Let me help you with that. You can’t be carrying that heavy bag around!’ It was an amazing moment.”

“There’s such a vast amount of talent and energy in this town, but at the same time it’s really kept its authenticity,” she says. “That seems to be the biggest thing this town prides itself on — it seems like people don’t take kindly to folks who get big-headed.”

She recorded her debut album, The Ghost Who Walks, here in 2010. And although she says she’s been writing more songs and plans to record another album, Elson has plans to contribute her unique talents to the city in a new way.

“I really want to start embracing the fashion community here,” she says. “I was meeting with a friend of mine, [Nashville-based journalist and former New York Post fashion editor] Libby Callaway, recently, and I asked, ‘What is something more that I can do that’s fashion-related in Nashville?’ Because I feel like I’m only just tapping the surface of what my contribution can be.” She remains tight-lipped about the details, however — at least for now.

“I want to do more here, because it’s my home,” she says. “Why would I not?”