Were Goldilocks ever to go denim shopping, she could do worse than to invite Maryna Linchuk along. “It feels like all I ever wear is white T-shirts with jeans,” the model says, breezing through her five-point selection criteria for the just-right pair. “They have to have the right fit; they have to be the right color – black or gray, never dark blue; they can’t stretch too much; they have to hit your waist in the correct spot; and you have to be able to just put high heels on with them and go out.” She takes a breath. “I never stop looking for the perfect pair of jeans.”
Linchuk, with her foxy cheekbones and sparkling, spirited eyes, is a runway star with a slew of campaigns to her name, and, it’s safe to surmise, a full menu of jean choice at her disposal. But her first denim memory is linked to geopolitics, not fashion. “Denim didn’t come to my country until the ’90s,” says the 27-year-old, who was born in Belarus. “When the Soviet Union opened up, everyone was bringing [back] Calvin Kleins from America. I didn’t get jeans until I was in second grade – my parents would get me one pair a year, always in September, and every time, it was really exciting to wear the new jeans to school.”
Linchuk lived in community housing in Minsk with her mother as a child. Although Soviet control ebbed through her childhood, change felt tentative. “You know when you see those films when they stand in line with tickets to get a glass of milk or a bag of bread?” she says. “I have this one picture in my head from when I’m four, standing in line in the winter. It was so cold.”
Scouted aged 15, Linchuk moved to Japan and lived in an apartment with other models while she worked for brands including Comme des Garçons. She stayed for more than three years, until photographer Alexi Lubomirski saw her photographs at her London agency and booked her for a shoot in the US. Linchuk never went back. In her first runway season, she walked in shows for Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Versace. Afterwards, she fronted campaigns for Mulberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and Christian Dior cosmetics and fragrances. (That was her, floating away on a passel of balloons in Sofia Coppola’s campaign film for Miss Dior Cherie; she also made a
cameo in Coppola’s 2010 film Somewhere.)
Eight years into her modeling career, and Linchuk is working harder than she ever did as a new arrival in Tokyo. Her appeal on the runway, as on the page, comes down to the cross between her kinetic personality and humor (“I’m like, super-funny,” she deadpans. “My friends crack up all the time”) and her unabashed sensuality. Witness it in her confident strut down the Victoria’s Secret runway – Linchuk is a six-time Angel. But while wearing lingerie on camera would be enough to make any civilian shudder, Linchuk says that lingerie and bikini modeling is the easiest part of her job. “I’m just really comfortable being naked in front of a lot of people,” she shrugs. To ensure that she remains so at ease, Linchuk exercises every day. She works with a trainer, but
variety is key – she also practices ballet and yoga, and is “obsessed” with barre classes and Barry’s Bootcamp sessions. It all helps her meet the physical demands of her work. “Modeling might not seem so hard, but 12 hours of jumping in high heels is tough on the body. You feel it,” she says. In August, she added hiking in the Hollywood hills to her list of athletic pursuits when she made a part-time move to LA, with a view to trying her luck with “a little bit of a movie thing”. Any dream roles? “I would love to do something psychotic and weird. Maybe shave my head.”
The closet shelves in her Manhattan apartment, meanwhile, remain full – mostly with jeans. Favorite pairs in rotation at the moment come from BLK DNM, Rag & Bone and RE/DUN, a new line of reworked vintage Levi’s from sister-stylists Chloé and Marielou Bartoli. “[RE/DUN jeans are] cool and easy and every pair is different,” Linchuk explains.
Whenever the bicoastal back-and-forth finds the model in need of restoration, her go-to destinations include a Russian bathhouse on Wall Street (“Gross, dirty and disgusting, but the heat they have there, and all the Russian people… It’s so amazing”) and Tulum,
“I go to the TULUM jungle and spend time with local SHAMANS, talking about stars. I just feel NICE there” fashion’s favorite Mexican beach town. “I’m very spiritual. I visit Tulum almost every month. I go into the jungle and spend time with local shamans, talking about the stars. I just feel nice there,” she says, smiling.
A friend recently gifted her with a horoscope for the coming year. It foresaw, perhaps unsurprisingly, that she’ll enjoy a consistent pace of work – not up, not down, just steady. All of which is just fine with Maryna Linchuk, the girl who is happiest in a dependable pair of jeans. “I’d rather go up slow than do one big thing and not do anything else again. I’m just going to keep trying to deliver.” She will, you can count on it.