Supermodel ANJA RUBIK has hit the nail on the head with the name of her debut fragrance: Original. Bold, bright and unafraid to speak her mind, there really is no one like her. By ALICE CAVANAGH.
There is far more to Anja Rubik than meets the eye. The supermodel, with her incendiary looks, might be happy to assume the position of muse to some of the industry’s most talented designers, stylists and photographers, but that doesn’t mean she plays a passive role. In fact, in recent years, she has become almost as vocal as she is visible, on the just-as-incendiary subjects of nudity, sex, female empowerment and body image.
Take, for example, a recent article Rubik wrote for Style.com about an incident during a shoot on a Miami beach for Vogue Paris. A passerby complained to the police about the model posing topless, saying, “What if my seven-year-old son saw all this?” Rubik was incredulous. “What would happen if her seven-year-old saw me topless?” she challenged. “If his future was irrevocably damaged from seeing my tiny breasts, then God help the rest of the world.”
“I find it strange that people are not used to seeing other people’s bodies,” Rubik says now, when we meet on a cold November evening in Paris. “I’m not saying in a spread -eagle position, but if someone feels very comfortable with their body, why not show it in a beautiful way? I think a woman’s body is beautiful, so why is a topless image so terrible? On YouTube you can see someone’s head being chopped off – why is that OK?”
Rubik has more authority than most to comment on the subject of female nudity. After more than 15 years in the fashion industry, she has a point of view, built on invaluable experience, that she’s given a great deal of thought to. Two years ago, she took over the running of independent magazine 25, wherein she addresses the subjects she’s passionate about, the first being the idea of erotica, a celebration of sensuality as seen through the lens of female photographers. Here was her forum to communicate her vision of a woman’s perspective. Rubik declared that she “wanted to create something inspiring, beautiful and sensual, to get people to think in a different way”. Needless to say it caused a stir for its content, but it also stirred the necessary debate Rubik was after.
Today, the 31-year-old Polish model is very much clothed, and fabulously so, in a checked Céline shirt and drainpipe jeans, a Gucci camel coat flung casually on the chair. Her blond hair is pulled back, girlish tendrils framing her angular face and eyes rimmed with kohl, giving her a wide-eyed, earnest appearance. She looks delicate and her voice is hesitant, yet she tackles her subject with quiet self-assurance.
“In the States you feel that there is something wrong with being naked, that it is awkward – so much so that people start to develop complexes,” she says. “But when you go to countries like Austria or Germany, you’ll find that men and women are often naked together in the gyms and saunas. You become accustomed to other bodies, of all shapes and sizes, and you see that nobody’s perfect.”
Body image can be a difficult subject for any model to comment on, and Rubik brushes off the question about whether she has hang-ups of her own. “Of course there are things I’m not fond of, but I don’t want to talk about that. My point is no one is perfect,” she insists. She’s also quick to assert that her esteem isn’t driven by her looks. “If there’s a project I’m working on and it goes well, that’s when I feel powerful. Also, on a personal level – and this will sound like a cliché – finding yourself and making peace with who you are is the way to feel most confident.” That, she admits, comes with age. “You just start to know yourself better, your strengths and weaknesses, and confidence comes from being comfortable with that.”
At the core of Rubik’s stance, though, is her desire to rebel against the idea that women need to take on perceived masculine traits to get ahead. “If a woman is strong and tough she’s considered a b*tch; if she were a guy, she would be successful,” says the model. “I really admire [women like Vogue Paris editor] Emmanuelle Alt – she has incredible style and vision, but at the same time she is very sexy.”
Rubik has always gone after what she wanted. She wasn’t ‘discovered’ like most models, but pursued the career of her own accord by entering a competition at the age of 15. She didn’t win, but she did land herself an agent and left Poland for Paris, unaccompanied, at the age of 17. She worked weekends to put herself through a “fancy private school” and would only model during vacation times, before moving to New York. Ever forthright, she arrived at her agency in Manhattan armed with a list of photographers she wanted to work with. “They were a little shocked,” she recalls with a laugh, “[but] for the first couple of years I was the motor of my career. I was really mobilizing the agency to do better things... I don’t like to be comfortable, I get bored.”
Quickly, Rubik became one of the top models of her generation – a favorite of powerhouse photography duo Inez and Vinoodh, and one of the first of Chloé’s iconic campaign girls. But while she has no immediate plans to move permanently to the other side of the lens, it is 25 that most inspires her. Not for her a vanity project; she is entirely hands-on with its staff of four (and roster of contributors), and works on it from her home in NYC, where she lives with her husband, model Sasha Knezevic, and their dog, Charlie.
The next issue (out February 2015) is a compendium of the five senses, an idea that inspired a new endeavor: the launch of her own perfume, Original by Anja Rubik. As with everything she does, the fragrance is wholly Rubik’s own execution: she worked with a small perfumer in New York and employed 25’s art director, Julien Gallico, to design the packaging. “I was approached to do it with a bigger company but I didn’t want to compromise,” she explains. “I have been the face of so many perfume campaigns, but that was someone else’s vision. I wanted to put something out there that was something I really believed in.”
The model’s drive to do things her own way is impressive and infectious. Indeed, it fuels the idea that the name of her new scent is eminently appropriate: Anja Rubik is a true original.
Shop Original by Anja Rubik from 28 November (US).
