Esther Canadas struts towards stardom
October 27, 1997
Web posted at: 5:31 a.m. EST (1031 GMT)
From Correspondent Elsa Klensch
NEW YORK (CNN) -- She glides down Europe's fashion runways and has become one of the spring and summer collections' hottest faces.
The Spanish-born, ambitious Esther Canadas has her heart set on becoming a supermodel and if this season is any indication, she's well on her way.
During her first New York collections, she was booked by twenty designers in just two days.
At her mother's suggestion, Canadas took a shot at modeling when she was still a school girl.
"I wanted to be a criminologist (but) my mom was always telling me that I should be a model," she recalls.
At first, modeling was not her passion.
"I did the first job just...to try something. And then I (felt) like it's the thing that I really wanted to do," she says.
Canadas entered and won a local competition for a teen magazine and then represented her country in a model search that her to South Africa. From there, she jetted on to fashion mecca Milan.
A year ago, she moved to New York where she now lives with her boyfriend, who is also a model.
She says that regardless of whether she graces fashion spreads or catwalks down the runway, she wants to be the best.
"I like both...because you have the show season twice a year which is great, and you have those months when all the time you are shooting," she says. "So it's great."
She says she does not have to psyche herself up before a show because the enthusiasm comes naturally to her.
"As soon as you are dressed and you have your makeup on or whatever, it (comes) naturally, When you put on the clothes you feel like that kind of person who is wearing the clothes," she explains.
Canadas says her attitude changes constantly, depending on the particular outfit. Outside of work, she generally likes to wear relaxed, casual clothes.
"I like to wear more masculine clothes, but it depends too," she explains. "Normally, I'm more like natural with jeans or baggy pants, those kinds of things. But I love once in awhile to be in a beautiful dress to go out for dinner or something."
Canadas says that modeling has changed her life by swooping her out of her maternal home and allowing her to travel all around the world.
Canadas says she comes by her lean looks and model beauty naturally. She doesn't diet and rarely exercised on a regular basis.
Even more than that, she believes that personality is important to a model's well-being. The often solitary lifestyle demands an inner strenth, she explains.
"I really don't have to be busy or have people around having a lot of things, but at the same time I enjoy the people too," she says. "It's like a combination."
Ultimately, she says she does not know what direction she wants her life to take.
"With this life you can never make plans because everything is changing all of the time. So we'll see at which point is my life when my career is finished," she says.
The 20-year-old beauty hopes she has a long way to go.
cnn.com