In 2016, Tennant and Lady Isabella Cawdor premiered a new ready to wear collection they designed for the gunmaker and clothing retailer Holland & Holland. During the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, Tennant along with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss was one of the British models wearing fashions created by British designers specifically for the event. In 2010, she starred in L.K.Bennett's Spring Summer campaign photographed by Tim Walker. She also appeared in numerous other advertising campaigns, including Calvin Klein, Hermès, and in 2002 in an influential campaign for Burberry. She was a muse of the designers Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace, Alexander McQueen, Nicolas Ghesquière, Riccardo Tisci and Victoria Beckham. Tennant appeared on fashion catwalks for Shiatzy Chen, Bill Blass, Dior and Chanel. Priya Elan, writing in her Guardian obituary, credits her, together with Kate Moss and Erin O'Connor, with having "introduced an era of androgyny on the catwalk". She also modelled frequently for other influential fashion photographers of the 1990s, including Mario Testino, David Sims and Mark Borthwick. He is reported to have thought her reminiscent of Coco Chanel. Soon after, Karl Lagerfeld announced Tennant as the new face of Chanel, with an exclusive contract. Steven Meisel then used her on the cover of Italian Vogue. She had recently had her nasal septum pierced, which was an unusual look for models at the time. In 1993, Tennant sent photographs of herself to a high fashion magazine, and a friend introduced her to fashion writer Plum Sykes (Victoria Rowland). Tennant at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony Raised on a 1,500-acre (6 km 2) sheep farm that her parents ran at Newcastleton, in the Scottish Borders, Tennant went to the local primary then attended St Leonards School in St Andrews followed by Marlborough College before completing a degree in sculpture at the Winchester School of Art. Stella was the great niece of the flamboyant socialite Stephen Tennant, and was directly descended from Bess of Hardwick, a notable figure of Elizabethan English society, and a fourth cousin, once removed, to Diana, Princess of Wales. She was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife Deborah Mitford, the youngest of the Mitford sisters. Tobias Tennant, son of the 2nd Baron Glenconner, and Lady Emma Cavendish. Stella Tennant was born on 17 December 1970 in London, England, the youngest of three children to the Hon. Her family announced the following month that she died by suicide after being unwell for a prolonged period of time. She died suddenly on 22 December 2020 shortly after her 50th birthday.
For the last decade, she devoted most of her time looking after her four children and promoting sustainable causes. In 2016, she co-designed a collection with Lady Isabel Cawdor for the Chanel owned London-based brand, Holland & Holland, she also ran Tennant & Son, a line of hand-knitted cashmeres and a luxury homewares company with her sister. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she was one of the British supermodels, with models Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, walking the runway in the closing ceremony. Tennant won VH1/Vogue Model of the Year Award in 2001, Model of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards and the Contribution to British Fashion award at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year 2016 awards she was also inducted into the Scottish Fashion Awards Hall of Fame as Model of the Year in 2012. Over the years she appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Hermès and Burberry. and worked for haute couture names like Valentino, and Dior by John Galliano and with photographers Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber, Paolo Roversi, and Tim Walker. From an unconventional aristocratic family, she worked with Helmut Lang, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and Gianni Versace. Stella Tennant (17 December 1970 – 22 December 2020) was a British model and fashion designer, who rose to fame in the early 1990s and had a career that spanned almost 30 years. VIVA Model Management (Paris, London, Barcelona)