Modelling blog

Lydia Hearst, daughter of Patty Hearst, newspaper heiress who was kidnapped in 1974 by US guerilla group Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) has been announced as the new face and body of lingerie brand Myla.

The model is to front Myla’s new 1940’s-inspired autumn/winter lingerie collection, due in the shops on Monday. Lydia, 23, was awarded supermodel of the year, 2007, at the Michael Awards, often dubbed the ‘fashion Oscars’, and she has been photographed by Mario Testino and Terry Richardson.

Lydia’s mother, Patty was 19 when she was captured by the SLA, as daughter of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate, she was being used to bid in exchange for their imprisoned members. Shockingly 2 months later it was announced that she intended to join her captors. She even posed with a rifle for an SLA poster and called herself Tania. She was sent to prison for seven years in 1976 for her involvement in a bank robbery, although at the time she claimed she had been brainwashed by the group. She went on to serve two years but received a full pardon from president Clinton in 2001.

Patty wed her bodyguard boyfriend Bernard Shaw in 1979 and gave birth to Lydia in 1984.