Dutch supermodel on a mission to save elephants

Dutch model Doutzen Kroes started modelling in 2003. She’s been a face of L’Oréal since 2006, and in 2008, Victoria’s Secret signed her as one of its “angels.” She’s been ranked among the five highest-earning models in the world ever since.

This year, though, has marked something of a turning point in her career. In September, Kroes introduced Knot On My Planet, a campaign to help save elephants from extinction. Enlisting the help of celebrity friends such as Leonardo DiCaprio, along with most—if not all—of the world’s top models, she
helped the Elephant Crisis Fund, a group that puts 100% of donations toward stopping the illegal ivory trade, reach $10 million this year. “We tie a knot when we don’t want to forget,” Kroes says, explaining the campaign’s slogan. “We’ve been forgetting the elephants, and if we don’t do something now, they will disappear.” It started in January, when she first visited the Elephant Watch Camp in Kenya with her husband, Sunnery James, and their 5-year-old son, Phyllon Joy Gorré. “If you save elephants, you automatically save other animals, too,” she says. “Lions, rhinos, giraffes.”


To get started on Knot On My Planet, Kroes flew back to Kenya for a photo shoot. In what became the main campaign photo, Doutzen is tying a knot in her army green button-up shirt, with elephants in the background. Next, she began texting and calling her friends, asking them to take part in a social media campaign. “We reached 1.4 billion people through social media,” said says David Bonnouvrier, Kroes’s agent.