Kaia Gerber is in a flourishing, long-term relationship, you might say: with sun-warmed fields, gauzy white dresses, and Marc Jacobs Daisy. When the model signed on as the fragrance face in 2017 (ten years into the perfume’s blockbuster run), it was an inspired choice. Who better to personify the feeling of youthful freedom than a daughter of California (and Cindy Crawford) newly of driver’s permit age? Since then, as iterations of the scent rolled out, Gerber has similarly supplied variations on a theme. Headbands come embellished with jewel-like flowers or rhinestone letters or idle-handed daisy chains. In one mock campaign video from 2020, Gerber humorously attempts to spritz herself, her elbow locked in a baby-blue cast.
“I love Daisy because it’s always captured me, as myself, in every moment of my life,” says Gerber—a rare feeling, she acknowledges, coming from a field more often known for imposed shape-shifting. The locations for these campaigns, whether “on a beach, in nature, on a farm,” are a tether to home as much as they are an evocation of scent notes. For the new Ever So Fresh (tweaked with citrus, mango, and rosewater), Gerber spent time on a farm in Santa Barbara, not far from her childhood house. The longtime creative team included Alasdair McLellan, whose film photography reflects a down-tempo ease, and stylist Katie Grand, who has collaborated with Jacobs since the early aughts. “It feels like this family that I’ve grown up in,” Gerber says, describing the mood on set. “There were chickens and horses, and it was so, so beautiful. I was like, so I’m going to just go frolic in a meadow all day? Sure, absolutely.”
The model has become synonymous with that sun-dappled, fresh-air vision of beauty, so it’s fitting that we’re speaking on the first day of summer. She is temporarily in New York, with her chihuahua-shepherd mix, Milo, who joins the conversation by way of a few chirpy barks. “I walked him across the Williamsburg Bridge the other day. He did a 10-mile walk on his little, tiny, short legs,” she laughs. “I was really proud of him.” At a willowy 5-foot-ten, she bucks the stereotype about dogs looking like their owners: “We have the complete opposite structure to each other.”
Gerber is still spinning from her latest career update: a role in the upcoming miniseries Mrs. American Pie, set in 1960s Palm Beach. She shared the news on Instagram a week earlier, with screenshots of the Deadline story alongside a meme from The Office. She finds it awkward to make those kinds of work announcements. “I always try to find a Michael Scott meme that accurately depicts how I’m feeling, to be like, ‘I’m not just trying to brag—I genuinely am freaking out.’” She starts listing off “heroes” in the cast: “Like Carol Burnett. I couldn’t believe it. I grew up watching her. She’s so much of the reason that I wanted to act. And then Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern.” Will Gerber incorporate perfume into her preparations to play teenage Mitzi? “Absolutely,” she answers. “Because I associate scent so closely with memories and things, I try to have a specific scent for characters.” She mulls it over for a beat. “I actually think Mitzi would wear Daisy because she’s very fun.” Plus, the bottle of Ever So Fresh—with its cartoon petals in sunny, citrus tones—conjures a Lilly Pulitzer minidress.
With all this talk of the beach, West Coast and East, what is Gerber’s guide to summer? She starts with the big screen, explaining that Mrs. American Pie has sent her diving back to the 1960s and ’70s. “Pierrot Le Fou is, to me, one of the ultimate summer films. Or La Piscine, which has Jane Birkin, so young, and the style in it is so great.” Her swimwear of choice also skews Mediterranean: “If I’m alone, nothing. I think I got so used to being around no one during the pandemic that I’m like, I want to lay in the sun naked.” Favorite smells are rooted in nostalgia (“Pine and s’mores and barbecuing and moss” from family visits to a Canadian lake house) and nature (“Every time I walk by a flower, I smell it—I can’t help myself”). Iced matcha is lately her warm-weather drink of choice, on account of a recent hiatus from coffee. “If you can’t tell, I’ve already had one today, and I’m like, Ding!” Gerber adds that she turns 21 in early September. Reaching legal drinking age is a bit anticlimactic for someone who has spent so much time in Europe, but “being able to actually toast people in real life is a really wonderful thing.”
Gerber, who launched a book club in March 2020 and hosted conversations with the likes of Emily Rajtakowski and Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, has a preview recommendation. “A book that I just read that I got an advance copy of—I feel very lucky and I’m going to brag about it—is called I Fear My Pain Interests You, by Stephanie LaCava,” Gerber reports. “I haven’t read a book in a while that just pulled me in, and you’re so immersed in the characters and in the world. It’s quite a slice of life.” A coveted galley is one way to stay cool; so is smart sun protection, even for someone raised steps from the beach in Malibu. “I’m finally at a place where I’m like, okay, I should grow up and actually wear sunscreen now,” Gerber jokes. She likes ClearChoice’s lightweight formula (good for humid New York summers), paired with a Lack of Color bucket hat. “I need to get better at crocheting,” she says, sounding like a student of the ’60s. “That’s my goal: to be able to crochet my own bucket.”