Hana Soukupova

[Edita]

She looks just perfect!! Love her!!

[Cintilandia]

'2' Magazine Photoshoot

bellazon

[achAT]

H&M spring 2010 catalog (Germany/Austria)



achAT-scans

[á la Balenciaga]

wow, she looks fantastic in the H&M catalog.

[Escale Cherie II]

Love her with the braid... speechless!

[agneslo]

Hanka in H&M

btw, I got the 2 magazine and I typed the article up for you guys (this is one of the best article of her I have read so far. it includes more details of her background, what's modeling to her, relationship with Drew etc)

PART 1

Czech, please.
A money-making scheme for two teenage sisters in the Czech Republic turned into an international modeling career for one, and $100 for the other…

With the holidays just around the corner, Hana Soukupova is feeling nostalgic. Though touted by Vanity Fair as the next Eastern European model to make it to the big time, Hana seems less concerned with her celebrity than with her family back home in the Czech Republic as she prepares for yet another in a long line of high-profile cover shoots.

Though the scene unfolding around her is a daily reminder of the great heights she has reached, with the team of stylists and makeup artists working with expert efficiency to get her in front of Mitchell McCormack’s lens, it feels like only yesterday when she and her sister would flip through fashion magazines in her bedroom, daring to dream that they could someday grace those same pages. And as fate would have it, some dreams do come true.

Growing up in the Czech Republic, Soukupova led a perfectly normal life. With her mother a nurse and her father a supervisor in a water-turbine factory, Hana did what any average six-foot tall schoolgirl would do – play basketball. Born and raised in Karlovy Vary, a picturesque and remote spa town known for its glassworks, dramatic architecture, and healing mineral baths, Hana never considered a life beyond her art school training as a painter until, at the tender age of 14, opportunity came knocking at her door, or rather, flipping through her fingers.

“My sister and I were going through a magazine right before Christmas,” she remembers, “when we found an ad for a modeling competition that promised a $100 prize. We thought ‘Oh, we could make some money for Christmas presents’ so we sent in our pictures, never thinking that they’d call us.” But sure enough, three days later the phone rang and, under their mother’s watchful eye, they were off to Prague to meet with the agency. “I signed a contract but my sister got the money,” she laughs, about her successful trip to the casting, “and I was really upset about that part!”

Notwithstanding the initial elation of signing to an agency (matched by the disappointment of losing $100 – a meaningful sum to any 14-year-old), there were still many hurdles to overcome before Hana could achieve her now undeniable supermodel-status. First, whatever preconceptions Hana and her family ha dabout modeling had to be reconciled. A weekend casting call in Prague was one thing, but living life on the road and jet-setting from city to city was entirely another. “When I first signed a contract, my mom was really worried that modeling would be a world filled with drugs and men chasing young girls, “ she remembers, about convincing her parents to let her pursue modeling further, “but I said let’s try it, and if its weird then I’ll leave.”

To add to the pressure of this new and demanding aspect of her life, modeling wasn’t exactly a typical extracurricular activity at Hana’s visual arts school, and it became difficult to maintain the relationships that she had built throughout her childhood. While most of her classmates were spending their free time asking their parents for money to see the occasional movie, Hana was busy booking jobs and traveling throughout Europe. All too quickly, it became nearly impossible to keep her old friendships alive as she made the fateful decision to leave school in order to pursue a full-time modeling career.

“It was really hard to leave studying art, which I loved,” she recollects, “but my parents were great and said that I should choose what’s in my heart. So I was like…okay- modeling it is!” Nearly a decade later, it’s clear that Soukupova and modeling were a perfect fit, but it didn’t come without cost. “I knew when I quit school that I had to give modeling a hundred percent and that I had to do it right, but the downside is now I only really have one great friend in the Czech Republic. We text a lot and talk on the phone a few times a week, but its just tough when you go home only once or twice a year.” But let’s not feel too sorry for Hana just yet, for while leaving friends and family at home behind was tough, it was the leap she had to take to rise to international prominence.

So what exactly does international prominence entail for a contemporary haute couture model, you might ask? Skeptics might venture that some top models can rise and fall in the spotlight as swiftly as the seasons change on little more than hype and a pretty face, but Hana’s standing in the rarefield air of supermodel-dom has been solidified by a staggering wealth of cold hard statistics. To put it bluntly, her throne in the modeling stratosphere is the product of walking in over 500 runway shows, appearing in over 400 magazines – including over 50 covers, and becoming the face of some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brand ad campaigns (Gucci, Versace, Escada, and Bulgari to name only a few)

Though these figures indicate otherwise, it was not easy for Hana to get started in New York, her new home and the seat of her international agency. “It took me a while to get into the mix of things,” she recalls about moving to the Big Apple. “I went to tons of go-sees, tons of castings, but no-one really wanted to work with me because I was young or because I didn’t speak any English. I had to grow up very fast.” And grow up she did.

[agneslo]

PART 2

After making the big move to New York , Hana began to build her portfolio, working with legendary photographer Steven Meisel (credited with helping launch the careers of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista) for her cover of Italian Vogue. In 2006, she began to work with Victoria’s Secret and walked in two of their nationally televisted fashion shows, a must-see event for hormonal high school boys everywhere. Talking about some of her most recent shoots however, Hana is particularly excited to recollect her experience shooting with David LaChapelle, the iconic photographer best known for his shock and awe tactics behind the camera and his visually opulent photographs.

“It was crazy, out of control, and totally fun!” she remembers about the shoot in Hana (of all places), Maui. “We were shooting in the jungle at night and there were mosquitoes everywhere, makeup was running down my face, but it was unforgettable. Despite working with the biggest names in the business, Hana is still quite humble about the great success she has enjoyed. “ I still feel like I just started,” she muses, “and there’s always something new to learn and to challenge me. While it’s a great feeling to have achieved all those things, I feel incredibly lucky. I’m just very thankful for them.” It’s refreshing to see that Hana still has a good head on her shoulders, and not just a beautiful one.

So what exactly does a morally centered supermodel do in her free time? Contrary to the belief that anyone working in the fashion industry spends the entirely of their leisure hours in nightclubs or A-list events, Hana enjoys running, photography, and hanging out with her… husband? Yes guys, its true; Hana’s off the market. For nearly three years now, Hana’s traded in the blasting music of downtown clubs for eating Chinese food in bed with Drew Aaron, the president and CEO of the Aaron Group – a paper brokerage that distributes to magazines and other high-volume clients. There’s even a pretty good chance that the couple are in business together, as Hana’s face has almost certainly been published on a piece of paper sold by her husband.

But as overplayed as the stereotype of the older established businessman dating a young European model might seem, their romance was anything but ordinary. “It’s an … interesting story…”she pauses to find the right words for the following narrative, “but complicated. We met at an exhibition, exchanged numbers, and texted for about three motnhs without ever seeing each other.” She continues as my look of surpise begs for more information: “Well, I was working all over the place, and, um, figuring out the situation,” at which point she can’t help but chuckle, “but when I was sure about him we met in person.” If the courtship seemed relatively normal through this juncture, it was about to take a turn for the stranger.

“He eventually texted me asking what he could do to finally take me to dinner, so I wrote jokingly ‘you can come to Munich because that’s where I am.’” So in a grand romantic gesture, Drew flew to Munich to dine with the woman who would become his bride, only to be stood up by the very same who invited him! “Well I think he needed a hard time,” she laughs, almost diabolically, about wielding her all-too-great power over men, “but I promised to have dinner with him when I got back to New York.”

After another month-long period of intensive international texting, they met for the first fateful dinner. “That was it,” Hana glowingly remembers, “We talked for three horus and didn’t eat anything. We knew it was special.” Three months and a few long-distance phone calls back to Karlovy Vary later, Hana and Drew tied the knot. “My parents thought it was kind of crazy but they supported everything as always,” she recalls, “but Drew is beautiful inside and out. To me, he’s everything.” It truly is a romance for the ages, so for anyone looking to date a supermodel, here is a step-by-step guide to ensured success. First: obtain a phone number. Second: persistently text for extended periods of time. Third: invest in an international plane ticket and fear no rejection. If only the stock market were so easy…

So what does the future hold for Hana Soukupova? “I don’t really know,” she laughs, “living one day at a time I guess. I may be working tomorrow, I may not, so I really can’t plan much!” Like most of us around the holidays, Hana is looking forward to spending time with her family and friends and soaking up as much culture as she can. In the daylight hours spent outside the photo studio, she visits neighborhood galleries and loves the work of Richard Prince, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. As far as personal style goes, though she loves to indulge in pieces from Balenciaga, she is still a self-professed jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. But somehow that low-key attitude seems to get lost on most people. “hey tend to think that I’m a goody girl,” she remarks about the misinterpretation of her long legs and blond hair, “and I guess I am – but not as good as they think. When someone tells a dirty joke around me everyone stops saying ‘you said that in front of her?’ even though I’m laughing at it.”

At this juncture in the conversation, with hair perfectly coiffed and makeup fully applied, the creative director walks over and kindly asks if we’ve talked about anything that she doesn’t want to see in print. She replies with a perfectly straight face “Erase everything!” before breaking out again into her bubbling laughter. “See, I’m not as good as people think – I’m about 90 percent angel, 10 perfect devil!” So far, its’ proven to be a winning combination.

I love both and ,,

[Moofins]

Oh my goodness. Thank you for typing up all of that! She seems to be such a darling.

[agneslo]

I summed up Hana's work in 2009 and made a list:
(I hope i didn't miss out anything)

Runway
Zac Posen SS10

Campaign
Versace Jeans Couture SS09
Ipekyol FW09
Anne Klein FW09
Tory Burch Accessories FW09

Catalogue
Macy's Catalogue
Saksfifth Avenue Spring Preview Catalogue
Neiman Marcus Holiday Catalogue
Madeleine De Magazine SS09

Printed

February
Glanc Czech (cover + editorial)
Vogue España Belleza(cover)
Elle Slovenia Feb (cover+editorial, reprint from Elle US SEP 2008)

March
Vogue España (editorial)

May
Elle Czech(cover + editorial)
Vogue España (editorial)

June
Vogue US (editorial)
Allure (editorial)

July
Vogue Italia (editorial)

August
Glamour Russia (editorial, reprint from Allure July)
Vogue España Belleza (cover, reprint from Allure July)
Dazed and Confused (editorial)

October
L'official Paris (cover + editorial)
Vogue Latin America (cover + editorial)
Flaunt (editorial)
Allure Spa 2009 (cover + editorial)

November
Vogue Dutch (editorial)

December
WSJ magazine (cover + editorial)
2 magazine (cover + editorial)

What a GREAT YEAR for her!!

[tullepen]

aw Hana.Neat to know she was in Maui,close to me.

[Moofins]

Wow. She had a lot more work than I remembered, this year!

[SirSunday]

MILK Gallery Photography Exhibition & Book Launch for No. 3 from the Saguaro Series with photographs by JAMES MACARI
Milk Gallery, NYC
© Patrick McMullan
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Photo - BILLY FARRELL/PatrickMcMullan.com

[agneslo]

good to see her showing up in events again! thanks

[weathergirl]

Unknown Event


fashionista.scom

[agneslo]

awwww