These pictures of Sophie Dahl are from Hello magazine.
All images are links to high-resolution copies.

"I don’t think I could be a wallflower with a body like this," says British model Sophie Dahl, referring to her outgoing nature and her six foot, size 14 figure. At 21, Sophie has been credited with helping to bring back the curves into Nineties fashion, mesmerising designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier with her voluptuous Fifties look.

Born on September 15, 1979, Sophie is the granddaughter of legendary British author Roald Dahl, and was the inspiration for the character of Sophie, the Big Friendly Giant’s helpmate in his book The BFG. A bohemian childhood - she was constantly moved between her parents’ home in LA and her boarding school in the English countryside - and an unstable lifestyle led to bouts of teenage depression and anorexia.

Sophie always imagined that she would end up writing like her grandfather or following in the footsteps of her father, the actor Julian Holloway, pursuing a career in cinema. But one night in 1996, after rowing with her mother, Sophie was spotted by Vogue stylist Isabella Blow, crying her eyes out in a London street. Within weeks, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sophie was signed to Storm, one of London’s hottest model agencies.

But Sophie’s arrival on the fashion scene wasn’t quite as spectacular as her figure. Stylists and photographers complained they couldn’t find clothes to fit her, and on her first shoot for Vogue, Sophie’s beautiful Gianfranco Ferré outfits were all held together by pins. In fact, many photographers, like Herb Ritts for the 1999 Pirelli calendar, have opted to capture Sophie’s curves au naturel.

These days, she seeks stability in her private life and tries to avoid the unhealthier temptations of the fashion industry, shunning the drugs that have compromised the careers of some of her famous friends. She is rarely out of the gossip columns, however, and trysts with aging rock star Mick Jagger have made headlines and brought about the end of her three-year relationship with 45-year-old film director Griffin Dunne.

Her recent dramatic appearance in an advert for Opium, wearing nothing more than a string of pearls and a pair of high-heeled shoes, has also caused a sensation in the British press and complaints from some quarters. "I think the photograph is beautiful...it was seen as being anti-women, when in fact I think it is very empowering to women," says the curvaceous blonde. And perhaps Sophie should be celebrated for precisely that: putting a dent in the super-waif craze and bringing realistic proportions back to fashion.