There’s no denying it: Kate Upton is one hot commodity. The model-turned-actress was named the first celebrity face of Express last summer, and now we’re getting a sneak peek of some of the images from the brand’s newest campaign. Upton appears in the spring 2015 Express advertisements looking better than ever.
The images, shot by famed photographer Mario Sorrenti on location in Miami, show Upton looking gorgeous in springtime-ready pieces including striped shorts, a floral dress, and an LBD. “The whole shoot was just really laid back and fun and the clothes were really comfortable and amazing so it was just the perfect day,” Upton tells InStyle.
And Express seems to be a natural fit for the bombshell model, who has been wearing their easy and stylish clothes for years. “Express has been part of my life from the very beginning,” she says. “It was the first store [my sister and I] would go to because they have great quality clothes for affordable prices and we’d always go to our local mall and go shopping at Express.” Back then, her favorite pieces included the brand’s jeans.
And although she’s come a long way since then, Upton admits her style hasn’t changed too much. “I mean I guess ’cause I live in New York I have a little New York influence in my style now, but I haven’t really changed my style that much,” she explains. “I still, you know, like simple classic looks. Jeans and button downs, blazers, stuff like that.”
Game of War: Fire Age has managed to gain quite a bit of popularity, not because of its amazing graphics, revolutionary gameplay or some sort of remarkable advancement in technology. Nope. Game of War gains more than $1 million a day all thanks to Kate Upton and some very effective television ads.
LA Times has a detailed breakdown of the mobile ad arena, where publishers are constantly battling against cultural trends and marketing methods to attract as many players as possible to their little known mobile games. According to the article, Machine Zone Games has managed to run 9,000 television ads for Game of War: Fire Age. If the name doesn't sound familiar, perhaps the ad will look familiar to you, featuring model Kate Upton.
The above ad has been viewed more than 7.8 million times after airing during the Super Bowl back in February. However, the ads have been incredibly effective, garnering Machine Zone the number 2 spot on the top grossing mobile games list and the number 38 spot as the top grossing free-to-play game. Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga are still crushing it on the charts, but Game of War is right up there with them.
According to Think Gaming, Game of War is raking in more than $1.2 million a day. Not only that, but the coveted DAU estimates (for daily active users who log in and actually put some time into the game) hovers around 2.4 million. So roughly, you could translate that into nearly half of all players who log in and play Game of War each day could spend $1 and it generates Machine Zone some ample revenue.
With her golden locks bundled into a loose ponytail, everything about Miss Upton is full and perky - including her beguiling personality. "She has a really generous face, a total babe," says Vogue's fashion director, Lucinda Chambers, who fell for Upton's charms while shooting her in swimwear on the paradise islands of Turks & Caicos for this month's cover. But Upton's face may come in second (or third, depending on how you like to group things) compared to her more obvious assets - those epic breasts. It was these very attributes that landed her the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimwear issue in 2011, a magazine that reaches one in four households in America and many others worldwide. Overnight, Kate Upton became an object of desire for men everywhere; hers was the poster of choice tacked to bedroom walls, her name infiltrated the history of countless hard drives and she became a byword for sexual desire in chatrooms, offices, schools and parties the world over.
Still only 21, Upton has the world at her feet. "I think it was kind of how everything was placed at once, in a weird way," she says vaguely, when asked to pinpoint the exact moment she became a megastar. "I had Sports Illustrated and that next year I worked with Vogue and it was really just the placement of things. One year I had a lot of male followers, and the next, women followers and fans. I didn't have a say in it - that was just how it went."
There have been many models before with a name and a following, bodacious babes raising heartbeats and hopes. Much of Upton's story is familiar: the countless magazine covers, the subsequent legions of fans, the sports-star boyfriend (Detroit Tigers baseball pitcher Justin Verlander), the enviable life. But while the mechanics surrounding her celebrity status may be unoriginal, Upton herself is unique. As Mario Testino puts it, "her proportions take images to another level".
The first time I saw Upton in the flesh was late last year, backstage at the Night of Stars event in New York City. Dressed in a floor-length burgundy gown, its modest neckline did little that evening to prevent jaws from hitting the floor. As she sauntered out from behind the makeshift wings to a room crammed with the fashion industry's key players, a previously noisy crowd fell completely silent. Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler was utterly transfixed.
Kate Upton's success has happened both because and in spite of the fact that she is a woman with shape who has been embraced not only by men but also women, and by the fashion industry - a world renowned for being somewhat sizeist. So does she consider herself to be a positive role model for young women? Upton pulls at the star-shaped studs that dangle from her lobes; she cocks her head to one side, her all-American cheerleader smile dissipating as she ponders the question. "I didn't at first because I was just being myself and living my life, and then, whenever the criticism started, I did. I just thought how I'm going to come out of this will be an example for girls."
The criticism Kate alludes to is the inevitable backlash that tends to occur when a woman enters the collective consciousness via mainstream media. People cry out for bigger, healthier models and yet, when they get one, suddenly they're not quite sure what to do. Upton was clearly stung by the declaration made in 2012 by Sophia Neophitou, casting director for the much vaunted Victoria's Secret fashion show, that "we would never use [Upton]. She's like a page-three girl, she's like a footballer's wife, with the too-blonde hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy." In fact, the attack served only to make Upton even more famous, and today she brushes off any criticism of her curves. "My biggest fight," she says, "and it's weird that in the press they'll be like, your biggest fight was with the industry and the designers, and I'm like, no, my biggest fight was with my agents, trying to get them to sign me into the castings."
Looking camera ready is no simple task. And Kate Upton was obviously getting a little bored as she whiled away the hours getting her roots touched up on Saturday. The two-time Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model shared an unflattering snap of herself in the stylist's chair, hair in foils. 'I'm a natural blonde,' she joked. 'This isn't hair color the government is reading my thoughts!'
The 22-year-old was pictured during her appointment with celebrity hair colorist Tracey Cunningham, who counts supermodel Lily Aldrige and actresses Sara and Erin Foster as clients. For Kate - who last posed topless for her 2013 Sports Illustrated cover - her touched up roots will likely be the last thing her fans will fix their eyes on when she appears in the forthcoming comedy The Layover.
The knockout will star alongside Lea Michele as two best friends who take a vacation together in a bid to sidestep their quarrels with each other, however they find themselves battling for the same man after their flight is rerouted during a lengthy layover in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kate Upton's toned curvaceous physique and glossy looks have made her one of the world’s top models. But the 22-year-old admits that despite her huge online following and multi-million-pound earnings, she has body insecurities like everybody else.
She said: “Every person has insecurities. But this is the body I was given, I appreciate it and I try to take care of it every day as best I can, but I always enjoy my life. So I’m not going to let my insecurities stop me from enjoying life.” With vital statistics of 36-25-34, the American is often seen as a poster girl for the “strong not skinny” movement, putting the emphasis on fitness and strength rather than size.
When asked whether she has ever been body-shy, she said: “I always am”. In an interview with ES Magazine, to be published in full tomorrow, the model and actress also talked about last year’s online leak by hackers of intimate photographs of herself. She said: “It was very difficult. It’s an invasion of my privacy and it’s not OK. It’s illegal. People don’t have a right to look at those photos or judge them.
Upton is officially the world’s most Googled Kate ahead of the likes of Kates Moss and Middleton and has two million followers on Instagram, almost the same on Twitter, and 2.3 million Facebook fans. But she admits the downsides to fame have made her think about taking action to preserve her privacy, saying: “I fantasise about deleting my social media accounts. But I can’t.” Upton’s path to fame started when a YouTube video of her, then a bikini model, dancing at a Los Angeles Clippers basketball game in 2011 was posted on YouTube and went viral.