In summer she’s a top model, living in London, working on big advertising campaigns and gracing catwalks the world over. In winter she’s a pro snowboarder, living in Whistler, coaching celebs and competing in half pipe comps in Canada, USA and Europe. How she’s found the time to set up her own bespoke travel company is anyone’s guess. But then again, this girl has more zip than the energiser bunny and more front than Brighton. Hang on to her coat tails, because she’s going places.
I just picked up a copy of The London Paper and you were in the fashion gossip pages.
Oh yes, that was a mountain out of a molehill. I was doing a catwalk show for Audi and at the after-party I was chatting to a journalist who asked me what I thought of Sophie Anderton, who had also been in the show. I told her Sophie had tried to steal my shoes and I didn’t let her, next thing I know, it’s all over the paper. But it’s all good promotion for my company, Charlotte Dutton Travel (sectionlocal.com).
Explain.
It’s a company I’ve set up to offer boutique, tailor-made snowboarding holidays in Whistler. People can be guided around the mountain by me [Charlotte has CASI Snowboard Instructor Levels 1 and 2] and hand-picked local guides, who just happen to be some of the world’s best snowboarders. They also get taken to all the clubs as a VIP, because when it’s minus 25 in Whistler it’s not nice to stand about in the cold waiting. And it’s tailor made, so it’s whatever clients want it to be – we can do snowmobiling, heli-boarding, whatever they want.
How long have you been snowboarding?
I started when I was 11 and got my first sponsor [The Snowboard Asylum] at 12. That really made me think that maybe I could do something with the sport.
Where did it go from there?
I started doing the Junior World Championships at 12, then at the 1996 Junior Worlds in Japan I placed 8th and got spotted by US snowboard coach Scott Palmer, who offered
me a scholarship to Stratton Mountain School in Vermont. I was there with some big names including Lesley Olsen and Ross Powers. We’d go snowboarding in the morning and have
school in the afternoon, which was really hard. I was there for a year, and then went back to Europe and did the World Cup circuit.
How do you fit in the modelling and snowboarding?
I’m very busy! I have to work hard to sustain that lifestyle; it doesn’t just come to me, but it’s what I want to do. I couldn’t see myself sitting in an office – not without disturbing everyone else! My two careers have been merged for ages. O’Neill is the pinnacle of that [Charlotte has a three year contract with O Neill as both a rider and model fronting all their campaigns], and I designed and modelled my own range of technical clothes for Topshop Moto Sno. It’s my lifestyle, and people have to take me for who I am. In Whistler they think I’m a crazy English girl, especially when I go out with my English girlfriends because I wear what I like. I’m a girl and I want to go out and get dressed up. I haven’t slipped over in the ice yet in my stiletto heels!
What’s your philosophy on life?
Eat well, sleep well and wear good clothes! You’re only here once, so don’t take yourself too seriously, I don’t!
