Jill Kortleve

Few models collected as many house firsts in as short a time as Jill Kortleve. A Dutch curve model born in Heerlen, in the south of the Netherlands, on 5 November 1993, she walked for Alexander McQueen, Fendi and Chanel between 2018 and 2020, and in October 2024 she was cast in the revived Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. That last booking is what brings her into a lingerie museum.

The first signing at The Movement

Kortleve did not come through an open call. Her best friend founded The Movement Models in Amsterdam and signed her as the agency's first model, and The Movement remains her mother agency. She later added Women Management in Paris, Milk Management in London and, in 2022, IMG Models in New York.

Three houses in eighteen months

The run of runway work that made her name began with a booking in September 2018 for Alexander McQueen's spring/summer 2019 show. In February 2020 she walked Fendi's fall/winter 2020 show, the first plus-size model in the history of that house. Chanel cast her for its spring/summer 2020 show in Paris, which made her the first curve model to walk for Chanel since Crystal Renn in 2010. Other shows have included Michael Kors, Jacquemus, Valentino, Mugler, Simone Rocha and Max Mara.

Magazine covers followed the runway. Her first was Vogue Nederland in October 2019. American Vogue put her on a cover in April 2020, Vogue Espana in February 2021, and British Vogue in April 2023.

Jill Kortleve at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

For lingerie, the significant date is 15 October 2024. Victoria's Secret brought its fashion show back that night, livestreamed from New York, and Kortleve walked in the Atelier segment. The cast was wider in size than the shows of the 2010s. Curve models including Ashley Graham shared that segment with her, and Paloma Elsesser walked later in the evening.

The booking connected two halves of the same industry shift. Curve models had first been accepted at designer houses such as Fendi and Chanel, and only afterwards by the lingerie brand that had long been the strictest about size.

Earlier versions of this entry gave her birth year as 1994 or 1999, placed her birth in Rotterdam or Amsterdam, dated her Chanel debut to October 2020 and listed Versace and Chanel Beauty work. The sources consulted do not support those details, and they have been corrected or dropped.

Last updated October 7, 2026