AriLove
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2009
- Messages
- 59,503
- Reaction score
- 45
An old article i've found..
timesofindia.indiatimes.comSitting Pretty
22 july 2002
She’s the newest kid on the modelling block. From press campaigns to walking the Parisian ramp, Lakshmi Menon has done it all. She is, in short, a rage in the glamour world. But the 21-year-old tells Nayare Ali that she is disillusioned with the beauty business
Her flawless skin is the colour of chocolate mocha. Her dark, deep-set eyes are shockingly piercing. Her long tresses are matted in fascinating curls that frame her angular fine boned structure.
The aesthetically defined contours of her face are every photographer’s delight. This long-legged lass towers over the average Indian male at 5’10”. She is slender and appears deceptively fragile but for her deep, confident voice, which is a dead give away. This is no babe in the woods. She is only 21. And she is already a rage in the fickle minded modelling world, constantly in search of a sensational muse.
She is the haute couture model with a seemingly haughty demeanour. Lakshmi Menon is her name. She seductively peers out of the Lifestyle chain of stores hoardings. And the next moment, she poses in a prim and proper business suit for the Allen Solly women’s range.
She’s lent her face to Vama, Garden Vareli, aand Numero Uno press campaigns. And just recently, she shot for Taj Mahal’s Wah Taj commercial with Zakir Hussain, which will be on air soon. She’s been besieged with offers for re-mixed music videos. “All they want me to do is wear short dresses and dance. It is not that I have anything against music videos. I would love to feature in a Lenny Kravitz or Jacob Dylan music video. Hey, I heard Bruce Springsteen is going to sing again. I would love to appear in his video,” she chatters half-laughingly, in a girlish excited voice.
The mask slips layer by layer as she quietly assesses how much she can trust you. Lakshmi was discovered by Bangalore-based model co-ordinator Anila Anand, who sent a hastily-shot photograph to Prabuddha Das Gupta. “He liked what he saw and almost immediately I flew to Delhi to shoot a catalogue. I have done most of my work for Prabuddha,” she says.
Lakshmi is a reluctant debutante. She is neither glamour-struck nor sees herself as a permanent member of the modelling circuit. Just back from a month-long stint in Paris, she says, “I hated the experience. Even though I did shows with Christian Dior, Lanvin, Barrere and Alexandra Barthet, I don’t have pleasant memories of my Parisian experience,” she emphasises in a sing-song voice. Possibly, the influences of a seven-year training stint in Hindustani classical music. “No,” she says quickly, “I have no intentions of cutting an album. I better make that clear otherwise I will have people flooding me with calls!”
Lakshmi’s initial foray into ramp modelling was a disaster. “It was my first show for FedEx in Bangalore and I was given four-inch heels to wear. And I hate heels.” She is a complete misfit and flaunts her idiosyncrasies. “I also hate wearing coloured lenses.
I do wear contact lenses but that’s because I am blind without them! And coloured hair is something I detest. I think we are losing our individuality to this beauty business.” So why then, is she in modelling? “It’s good money,” she repartees without batting an eyelid, “but I don’t see myself doing this on a permanent basis. I am disillusioned with this whole beauty business. In order to sell beauty products, companies are hell bent on promoting perfect-looking faces with flawless figures. I think corporates make money by fooling people like us. People who work with me don’t find me comfortable. There is no soul in this field. You wake up one day, you discover that you have grown older, you have wrinkles and then nobody wants you.”
Just one year old in the industry and this young woman has accurately gauged the vacuousness that she quite obviously doesn’t want to experience. So the lure of the silver screen, which might tempt other girls, holds no fascination. “At 5’10”, I’ll end up giving the heroes a complex. I want to pursue a career in either sociology or economics where I not only earn a fat pay cheque but also feel that I have utilised my time and intellect sensibly,” she explains.
Her balanced upbringing can be credited to have instilled the right values in her. “And the fact that my family doesn’t take my modelling too seriously helps. My mother is amused. She can’t understand what the fuss is all about. To her I am just a normal girl,” she smiles.
A normal young woman who is in the first flush of love, “But I can’t talk to you about my boyfriend. All I can tell you is that I am in love.” Her glowing happy face says it all. “But I’m not thinking about marriage. I need to sort out my career and make something of my life first.” Like she hasn’t already.
I don't think she's ever walked any Jill Stuart actually..
hopefully the H&M ad will be better then the last one she did..but it's awesome nonentheless..and i'm really looking forward for Gap 
