The key to self-love this Valentine’s Day? Freedom. Fashion icon, supermodel and twelve-time Vogue cover star Marie Helvin spoke to Bluebella founder Emily Bendell about what sensuality means to her ahead of Valentine’s Day. Boasting a career that spans over five decades, a marriage to prestigious fashion photographer David Bailey and a breast cancer survivor — Marie Helvin says she’s ‘not ready to retire yet’ and speaks of her mission to empower all women.

Celebrating self-love and individuality, she showcases Bluebella’s special curation of boundary-breaking lingerie sets, nightwear and more in our exclusive Valentine’s campaign, plus, shares some personal stories and career highlights with us.

Marie’s affection for lingerie spans back to her early career in the 70s: ‘I saw for the first time, a negligee, and I was taken to another planet. I had never seen anything so beautiful. They were like dresses. I thought, you could wear these out, and since then I've collected lingerie.’ Similarly, she wears the Ophelia bodysuit here with a blazer, which can be further layered and built into an outfit.

Following a mastectomy and breast reconstruction, Helvin touches on processing trauma and embracing pleasure: ‘take back your individuality, take back your power as a woman and explore all that entails. That includes treating yourself to beautiful things like lingerie, to good sex, to good food, to a good life, to kindness.’

We can all take note from Marie‘s inspiring approach to self-love this Valentine’s Day and beyond.