The last two times the designer Michael Azzollini hired Michelle Leslie to model his swimwear range, she was a fabulous nobody. Leslie returned the favour last night as the most infamous model in Australia.
Eight months after walking into Bali’s Kerobokan Prison on drugs charges, five months after walking into a media storm in Sydney, Leslie made her triumphant return to the Sydney fashion scene doing what she knows best: walking the runway.
Closing the show in one of the most modest one-piece swimsuits ever to grace an Azzollini collection - which is better-known for its ultra-skimpy styles and risque catalogue shoots - Leslie looked nervous. But the look on her face after the show said it all: palpable relief.
“It was amazing. I had a great time, thank you, it’s great to be back at work,” she told the Herald, before being mobbed by a throng of paparazzi and camera crews outside the Rosebery venue with her boyfriend, Scott Sutton, and Azzollini’s business partner, Kate Nicholes, in tow.
A close friend of Azzollini and Nicholes - who once called one of their swimsuits Michelle Lee, the name under which Leslie modelled before her Bali ordeal - it’s most likely that Leslie did the show as a favour.
Azzollini and Nicholes were among the first of Leslie’s friends to make contact with her after her arrest in Bali and the trio kept in close contact throughout the three-month ordeal.
“I have no opinion on the whole situation, but if she wants to model then I’m happy to support her - she’s a mate,” Nicholes said.
After months of speculation about Leslie’s lack of professional prospects in the wake of the controversy, modelling industry commentators were surprisingly upbeat. “I think it may help her - she’s got to do something,” said one agency head who declined to be named.
Source:Various

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