HANNELORE KNUTS

Hannelore Knuts (Hasselt, 1977) is a Belgian model icon, certified mindfulness and meditation teacher, media personality and artist-creator.

Haloed by a global career spanning over a quarter-century, Hannelore has walked over 240 high-fashion runway and couture shows – including history-book presentations by Alexander McQueen, Dior, Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix and Valentino – spanning 50+ seasons. Potently present, Knuts has claimed her space on a towering stack of high-profile magazine covers for titles like Vogue and its revered international editions in Europe and Asia, Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed & Confused, V and W Magazine, Elle, Self Service, Numéro, L’Officiel, Wallpaper and more – working with near 200 different fashion brands and publications in 25 years. Her unparalleled streak and breakthrough covering five Vogue Italia editions in 2000-2001 is fashion canon forever.

First garnering recognition as part of the ‘Belgian Wave’ of models in the late 90s, Hannelore’s chameleonic look defied strict gender norms of the era. She is known for her actor’s ability to shapeshift and collaborate with artists of the highest echelon to create time-tested imagery. Since making that initial splash, Hannelore has worked with the most top-tier creative minds, designers, taste- and imagemakers of the age. Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Juergen Teller, Craig McDean, Steven Klein, David Sims, Ellen Von Unwerth, Tim Walker, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Mario Sorrenti – the list shimmers from A to Z like a glossy anthology of contemporary art and design history.

As a commanding force on the runways and editorial sets of the early aughts, Knuts inspired enough artists to fill a small museum, literally. In March 2010, her first ten-year career retrospective ‘UltraMegaLore’ opened in Modemuseum Hasselt in Belgium, exploring Knuts’ roles as imagemaker and curator. Hannelore has also expanded her artistic range by acting (notably portraying David Bowie in 2012’s ‘Dave’) designing (for the likes of luxury mainstay Delvaux), styling, editing, presenting on national TV, interviewing and acting as a muse for modern greats like Michaël Borremans, while continuing to work in the highest echelons of fashion.

Beyond building a most impressive roster in fashion and the arts, Hannelore has recently been carving out her own space in meditative practice and mental wellness as a UC Berkeley-accredited mindfulness and meditation teacher – sharing her learnings through her own social platforms and TV work. During the course of her training, Hannelore was instructed by world-class meditation trainers Tara Brach, Ph.D and Jack Kornfield, Ph. D as well as guest teachers Eckhart Tolle, Sebene Selassie and more. Knuts has bridged her internal work with public talks reflecting on the fashion and beauty industry’s influence on mental health and wellbeing.

In 2023, Hannelore took on the role of presenter and jury member for the TV show ‘Belgium’s Next Top Model’, a unique position in which she successfully fused decades of experience in fashion with her bright-hued, mindfully trained energy and personality. Hannelore is currently building out and featuring in new upcoming projects.