From being one of the world’s most in-demand models to running for European parliament, CARMEN KASS has been on quite a journey. She tells NATALIE EVANS-HARDING about the career that’s taken her across the globe and the life lessons she’s learned along the way.
I am anxious to meet Carmen Kass. It is not her beauty (though the image of her Dior campaign is burnt into my mind), which, given how celestial, could easily be intimidating. It is not her bravery, despite stories of a bikini-clad Kass cage-diving with sharks for a photoshoot no other model would book – it was so dangerous, the photographers wore chainmail.
It is not even the thought of attempting to navigate Kass’ notorious intellect: she ran for a parliamentary seat in the European Union 10 years ago, served as president of the Estonian Chess Federation for eight years (she still plays every day, “otherwise I would feel like my brain was shrinking”) and, at one point, had more than 10 side-line businesses, comprising everything from property to loan companies.
No, the main reason I am concerned about meeting the 35-year-old model is that I am en route to Germany, where her agent has told me that if I get to the right place, at exactly the right time, I will catch Kass as she speeds through Europe on the latest leg of her perpetual road trip. But even though I have now landed in Germany and we are due to meet within the hour, there is no news as to where free-spirited Kass is. The anxiety mounts.
“I think I must have been born late,” she shrugs, when we eventually rendezvous at a little Italian restaurant in Wiesbaden. In fact, she is happy to admit to more than just tardiness. “People used to call me a real b****, but I’m just direct. It’s the only way to be. Apart from that, my only [diva behavior] is being late. I’m really relaxed.” Kass has shaken off a big, tough black vintage Chloé jacket that screams ‘fashion’ in this tiny, sleepy German town, and sits in front of me, unblinking hazel eyes set in a makeup-free face, creased flannel shirt falling off her sprite-like figure. I notice a recent-looking two-inch scar running down her right cheek. “Bad doctor,” she waves it off. “I had a cyst.”
But within minutes, the daredevil image crumbles. The Gucci ‘G’ she had shaved into her pubic hair for Tom Ford’s infamous campaign in 2003? “It wasn’t me!” Kass protests, holding her hands up. “They asked me, but I have a scar there,” she nods downward, “that would have ruined the picture.” So the sharks aren’t true either? “No, I did do that, but I told [the crew] to take me up near the surface. I love nature, but when you get in the sea and go down and down, the sound is different. I panicked. I have a real respect for animals and nature. I don’t want to get too close to their space.”
Kass is undoubtedly a free spirit; a nature-loving adventurer. Her never-ending global road trip is not about rock’n’roll cool, but a desire for a slower pace of life; to stop living in airports and discover, from the ground, the exotic locations her career takes her to within sight of. It is also how she has kept her 10-year relationship with German Grandmaster chess champion Eric Lobron alive – they drive everywhere together. “It’s really when I made modeling work for me,” she says. “I had never traveled before, I didn’t even dream of it. Growing up in the Soviet Union you weren’t supposed to, or even allowed to travel. I hated geography at school because I thought, ‘Why should I learn about it if I never get to see it?’’’
Kass was still a student when she was scouted, aged 14, in a supermarket by an Italian model agent who encouraged her to move to Milan. Understandably, her mother was wary. “There were these Italian guys telling me all this stuff, and she was like, ‘Are you out of your mind? You’re not going anywhere!’ But for me, coming from where I came from… The world was opened. It was like the rush of a door opening. I forced her to let me go. I told her if she didn’t sign [the visa], I would. My brother and sister had taught me how to forge her signature.”
Despite being sent back to Estonia after her first attempt to emigrate and losing all of her savings in the process, which Kass describes as one of the most difficult times in her life, that move was her entry into modeling. Within two years she became one of the most in-demand faces of the industry, reportedly commanding $200,000 for every runway show (and she walked every runway), appearing on high-fashion magazine covers and shooting campaigns for the likes of Chanel, Givenchy, Michael Kors, Versace and Calvin Klein. Today, after 20 years at the top, Kass credits her steeliness for such success. “It has something to do with the way I was raised. I had a lot of this… this toughness,” she says. “My family weren’t rich and I would always have my older brother’s or sister’s clothes, and when there was talk in the city, like, ‘Oh, the mother can’t even buy this or that…’ You learn to be strong. I know who I am.
“The most difficult thing about being a model is always having hands on you,” Kass continues. “I have this ability to switch off, to not even notice what they’re doing. That helped me. And when I did get stuff wrong, or feel stupid, I told myself not to show it. If you show it, you start feeling it.”
Kass says this plainly, picking her way through a pepperoni pizza, and not for one minute do you doubt her. She is searching for Destination Happiness, wherever it may be, and she wants to involve as few people as possible who might mess it up on the way. “I’ve had people show up in my life and then start using me,” she says.
“So-called friends who weren’t friends. I’ve been hurt, I’ve been used, but that’s life.” This doesn’t sound cold coming from Kass, but empowered, strong, born of the courage of conviction. “If you get stuck to pain, you can’t move forward,” she continues. “I don’t really trust anyone. I trust my boyfriend. And I trust my mum, too. I’m not afraid.”
Not only is Kass unafraid, she is excited, full of plans and confidence. “I want to buy a house with a vineyard in Italy and open a B&B,” she says. “I’ve been looking for a long time but I have something specific in my mind. I’ll [model] as long as there are offers, too. No surgery, but if I’m gray and wrinkled and someone still wants to photograph me then fine. For me it was always about having the work, enjoying the work, making the money, rather than, ‘Oh, I’m fabulous, I’m famous.’ So many of these [models] you see on Facebook [with] all these pictures with stars; they push [their fame] more. But I never have done…” Kass trails off to correct herself, “apart from Bill Clinton. But that’s because he was one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. Tony Blair however...” Kass widens her doe eyes, referring to the time she met the former British Prime Minister when she was running for European Parliament. “He scared me,” she giggles.
Pizza demolished, Kass pulls on her leather jacket and prepares to hit the road for the next leg of her journey, and the next adventure.
but i respectfully have to disagree with you & say you don't know what your talking about
. Imho she looks AMAZING
. She's still the flawless goddess she always was
