Megan Gale: My Big News

WireImage.com

Model Megan Gale is nursing a new baby. Two years after retiring from the runway, the leggy beauty is drawing on her 17 years of experience in the fashion world to launch the next phase of her high profile career - her own swimwear company.

Gale, 34, has joined forces with Anthony Halas, the CEO of Seafolly, to set up size 8-16 swimwear label Isola (meaning island in Italian, a nod to the country that put her on the model map). It's a committed project that will combine her flair for fashion and fit with Halas's business nous - not that he has any doubts about her transition from model to fledging business mogul.

"Megan is a great Australian," says Halas, who approached Gale with the idea in late 2007. "She's obviously beautiful and aspirational, but also smart, logical and definitely has what it takes to be a very successful businesswoman."

For the 1.8m, size 10 star, Isola is a passion project which she hopes will identity a gap in the lucrative swimwear market when it hits stores in July - a high quality line of separates which is catered and cut to cater for women of varying shapes and sizes, including women with larger busts. "I can appreciate that not every girl out there is perfectly proportioned, myself included," says Gale, whose athletic form was deemed "unfashionable" in Australia when she was launching her modelling career, prompting her move to Italy. "There's a lot of swimwear out there that looks great on girls who are 16, and photographs well on models, but for the average woman I don't think there is a lot they can wear that gives them a supportive, fashionable look."

While Gale admits Isola is the only baby she is focusing on now, the Perth-born dynamo is "seriously committed" to her partner of three years, the 2Day FM radio presenter Andy Lee. "He's incredibly supportive of everything I do, and he loves that I'm absorbing myself in something that is so creative and exciting," says Gale, who likes to "see movies, go to the beach, play cards and cook barbecues" in their downtime together. While Lee, 28, jokingly quips his girlfriend is "way out my league," the couple enjoy a trusted partnership that speaks of future plans. "Andy would be an amazing father, he’s so loving and gentle and patient," says Gale, who hopes to be a "hands-on Mum" when she does have children. Yet Lee's bikini design talents, however, leave a little to be desired, even by his own admission: "I've had a few ideas, but I just get a lot of 'yes dear' and then she goes away!"

Gale is realistic about the potential public scepticism surrounding the celebrity endorsement of yet another swimwear line, but after designing, sourcing and overseeing the manufacturing process for Isola, the David Jones ambassador is confident her commitment and knowledge of "what women want" will make a splash. "I put my heart and soul into it and when it comes out I hope it will speak for itself."

For the full story, see this week's WHO Magazine, onsale Friday, Feb. 5