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Natalia Vodianova

Evelyn

By Evelyn
in Female Fashion Models

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meloni_xmy

meloni_xmy

Posted
Posted

Natalia covers the times magazine, hope someone can scan it!

post-47851-0-74268800-1347891822_thumb.j

https://twitter.com/TimesMagazine

Amazing find, thank you so much!!!

here's the article from it:

Natalia Vodianova: Supermodel philanthropist

She’s worth £16 million. But Natalia Vodianova won’t be taking a break from the catwalk – or scaling down her charity work.

Supermodels are not generally associated with puddings, and puddings do not generally merit launch parties. But on a wet Wednesday, exactly such a convergence is happening at a restaurant in Knightsbridge, London. The supermodel in question is Natalia Vodianova, the launch is in aid of her charity, and the pudding, since you ask, is a raspberry soufflé. Two hundred calories. Yours for a mere £9, proceeds to Vodianova’s Naked Heart Foundation. Welcome to the world of the model-turned-philanthropist, the 21st-century alternative to model-turned-actress.

At the age of 30, Vodianova has already reinvented herself several times over. Nicknamed Supernova, she graced the cover of Vogue at the age of 21 but grew up in Nizhny Novgorod, an eight-hour train ride east of Moscow, where her classmates hated her “because I was too skinny and very poor”.

Her father walked out on her mother and three daughters when she was a toddler. Vodianova went on to bring up her younger sister, Oksana, who has cerebral palsy, while their mother held down four jobs.

“Every day, life was difficult. We needed many things – clothes, food. My things were always ruined; my sister would always break my books. I was a little ashamed – not of my sister or of who I was, but because my books were dirty. I wore the same clothes all the time. You develop a self-defence mechanism; you don’t want to make friends. I mean,” she corrects herself, “you want to, desperately, but you don’t know how.”

Instead, she and her sister would spend hours wandering the streets. The lack of anything for children to do later gave her the idea for her charity, which builds playgrounds in Russia. “What was missing was somewhere to go and be a child.”

At 16, she was spotted by a Parisian model agent holding a general casting call in her home town; her boyfriend at the time insisted she go (although the relationship later foundered, she bought him a Mercedes when she started earning serious money). The agent told her she could have a good career if she learnt English, which she did in three months. At 17, she got on a plane to Paris and never looked back. Wasn’t she homesick?

“Not at all. The opposite. It was an incredible opportunity to start completely afresh; no one knew the old me. I had to learn to smile, to not take everything so personally. I thought that everyone wanted to take advantage of me.”

That wouldn’t exactly be unheard of in the modelling industry, but Vodianova is no mere pretty face. Unhappy with her agency, she upped sticks and went to another.

“I took matters into my own hands,” she shrugs. “I didn’t like the way they treated me.”

Her career took off quickly, with numerous appearances on Vogue covers and lucrative advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Guerlain, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs.

Meanwhile, she had also met British aristocrat and property heir Justin Portman. She gave birth to their first son, Lucas, now 10, when she was 19 (and was back on the catwalk 10 days later). They married a year later and Neva, 6, and Viktor, 5, followed to fill their converted 14th-century mill house in West Sussex. The fashion world loved the romance of the penniless girl from Nizhny Novgorod and the British aristocrat, but it was not to last – the couple separated in 2011. Now, Vodianova and the children are decamping to Paris to move in with her new boyfriend, Antoine Arnault, the 35-year-old heir to the LVMH fortune.

“It’s a big change in my life. I wouldn’t say they [the children] are excited; I wouldn’t say any of us are. A little anxious… I don’t think children are ever excited about moving. They loved it in West Sussex. They loved their school and their friends. It’s a tough move.”

The couple have been doing up a house for them all to live in which, she says proudly, is stunning, and all their own work.

“We have similar tastes. I guess it confirms again that there’s an opportunity for a long-lasting life together. Its important to like similar things.”

She wants to take piano and ballet lessons, engage extracurricular tutors for the children and spend her spare time wandering round art galleries. Might more children be on the cards? She looks coy.

“I guess that would be wonderful.”

How do she and Portman deal with raising the children apart? “We do our very, very best,” she sighs. “Sometimes we have our moments, when it takes a little longer than we would like to agree. But in general we have good communication.”

These days, modelling takes a back seat to her charity work, although she insists that she still loves it: “It’s my day job; it pays my bills. Philanthropy is where I channel most of my real self.”

Given The Sunday Times Rich List earlier this year put her net worth at £16 million, why does she bother working at all?

“Are you kidding me?” she says. “I need to. I have bills to pay, I have a large family in Russia to support. Also, I can’t imagine not being a model.”

It doesn’t take a psychologist to spot a possible link between growing up poor and a burning desire to earn her own money. Is that part of it?

“Yes. I’m a very independent person.”

It was 2004 when, in the wake of the Beslan tragedy, she set up Naked Heart (the name was inspired by a story by Maxim Gorky). She says that, like the children who survived Beslan, she, too, felt herself to be a survivor, in her case of a difficult childhood. Naked Heart built its first playground in 2006, and earlier this summer she headed for Krymsk, where floods had claimed 170 lives and left thousands homeless, to see what she could do to help.

“I decided that the best thing the Naked Heart Foundation could do for the kids who survived the tragedy would be to give them a safe, colourful, cosy place to play.”

Although she hasn’t lived in Russia for more than a decade, she misses it still – “the romantic guitar songs, the long talks over tea”. She once described herself as romantic and a little melancholy, which she attributes to her Russian soul.

“I can’t help it. Sometimes I feel sorry for myself. Why? Because I work so hard and a lot of it is not for me; it goes to support my family. I’m constantly helping people. Sometimes I feel I have nothing more to give.”

Her family still lives in Nizhny Novgorod, and although she goes back to Russia once a month, she doesn’t get back there as often as she would like. Inspired by her own childhood, Naked Heart is now expanding its remit to provide support for families of children with special needs.

“In many ways, it is more difficult for the carers than the child,” she said earlier this year. “It can be very isolating and lonely. My mum is a brave, strong woman, but it has affected her a lot.”

She follows the political situation in Russia closely – “I can’t avoid it, it’s in your face” – including the recent Pussy Riot trial.

“People should find other ways of speaking about something important to them,” is her opinion. “I think the Church is sacred. It’s really harsh the way the government reacted – their response is shocking – but what the girls did, I don’t find it offensive personally, but I can see how it might be offensive to some people.”

By channelling Vodianova’s charm, powers of persuasion and fashion contacts, Naked Heart has raised more than £8 million and built 67 playgrounds in 47 towns and cities across Russia, with plans for 400 more. The charity organises a glamorous annual fundraising ball; Marc Quinn, Damien Hirst and fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg and Valentino are donors, and brands including Louis Vuitton, De Beers, Christie’s and BMW Russia have contributed to the charity’s coffers.

Looking casual today in a T-shirt dress, Vodianova is at her most relaxed talking about her charity and fashion. She describes her style as a mix of classic and bohemian, always feminine, lots of skirts and dresses and hardly ever jeans. She has access to the most beautiful clothes on the planet, but her fellow countrywomen haven’t always had the best reputation when it comes to style. What does she make of their penchant for bling?

“Russian women in general dress really well,” she says loyally, “[but] I’ve seen a few ridiculous things. My favourite was a blonde girl on a plane about a year ago, wearing red lipstick, white leather boots with a white pencil skirt and a white leather jacket. I was looking at her and saying to myself, ‘What on Earth are you thinking?’ But she is obviously going to Paris – probably the first time ever the poor thing is going to Paris – and she doesn’t know what’s going to hit her. All she’s seen is fashion magazines; she thinks that’s how everyone in Europe dresses. You know she’ll arrive, go and have a shower and wash all that perfume and make-up off and put on jeans and a sweater.”

The closest Vodianova gets to that particular combination is the official Paralympic white tracksuit. She puts this on later, for her stint holding the Paralympic torch as it makes its way through London, watched by her eldest son and a cohort of Russian fans.

“She is an inspiration,” says Lisesel, 23, from Moscow, who had been standing in the rain to catch a glimpse of her. “Her charity work is amazing. She has shown us the way.”

Indeed, when Vodianova appears from the Olympic coach she is greeted by rapturous applause from her countrymen, and she reciprocates with a dazzling smile. (Not everyone is so impressed. Holly, 19, from London, who has turned up to watch her 16-year-old autistic cousin Ryan hold the torch, is nonplussed: “Isn’t she a model or something?”)

Back in Knightsbridge for the inauguration of the pudding, Vodianova eschews the new-season Céline outfit she had been planning to wear in favour of her Paralympic tracksuit. “It is very chic,” she laughs, with the easy confidence of someone who knows she would looking stunning in a bin bag. But whatever she’s wearing, never underestimate Natalia Vodianova.

pautinka

pautinka

Posted
Posted

What a heartwarming video... So happy to see that Natalia is truly becoming any child's best friend across Russia. The happiness in children's eyes is worth all of her efforts.

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