Red Bentley. A cigarette. Smoky shades covering tired eyes. Capricious lips. Secretive past and even more secretive present. Dangerous connections. Large money bills. Cover of Italian Vogue…
I hear top-model Snejana Onopka before I see her. “Well, maybe I should order the red ones, instead of the leopard ones?” Thin girl in large shades walks out on the terrace of the Kiev restaurant Sanahunt, chatting on her blackberry. By her looks, you wouldn’t tell she could be picking from something red and leopard. Skinny jeans, t-shirt, closely cut nails, hair in a ponytail – the standard for a European model. Snejana plunges into a seat across, orders a crab in mayo, ashtray and black bread, in other words, all forbidden items, but she completely ignores the alcoholic drink.
“No, not behind the wheel. And I sold the red Bentley. Bought another one. In black. And hired a driver. I’m too nervous for driving. People cut me off – I swear terribly. I have a complicated personality. Even in school, I couldn’t get along with anybody.”
This personality has long ago became a part of her image. Queen Neverlaugh. Doesn’t smile, reserved, with a trait of untouchable and the all famous I don’t give a **** walk – a sort of, I don’t give a damn walk. “I don’t understand why laugh if something’s not right – Snejana justifies herself – I’m not always like that, I just have sad eyes. My nature made them so.”
Of course when a camera’s stuck in her face backstage, she repeats happily, “Hello, my name is Senajana. I’m from Severodonetsk. I really like this dress….” But doesn’t put her soul into it.
Since age thirteen she tried out for Miss Donbas, Miss Kiev, Best Top Model. And it didn’t happen. Went to model to Japan and came back in a month with nothing in a month. “I was booked for one single shoot and wasn’t even paid for it. Couldn’t get along with other models. Sent the whole business to hell.”
But the business didn’t go to hell. A couple years later she met a DNA scout at a house of her acquaintance. “[We] laughed, took a couple photographs. Then they called me from New York and said, get a visa.,” without much enthusiasm she recalls 2007 (editor’s note: I think they got the year wrong and by extension the order of events in the next paragraph)
In New York, unsmiling girl with difficult personality got a role – and this role fit her like a glove. At this very same time, Mario Testino was planning a provocative photoshoot for Vogue
Paris. For the stylish shoot, whose main heroine was Anna Wintour, the artist sought a girl with a detached half-smile, characteristic head tilt and stoic expression behind dark glasses. Onopka, like Wintour, greeted without taking off her glasses. And [Snejana] played the role [well]. Paris shouted:
believe!
After Paris came others. “I was told that Steven Meisel laid his eye on me, I didn’t even know who he was.” – recalls Snejana. Steven picked Snejana for the black and white Dolce & Gabbana campaign alongside Inguna and Doutzen. “He gave commands to everyone: Raise your head, turn there. But not a word to me. I thought, Damn, all is lost. Turned out, I did excellently.” And Meisel shot her for the cover of Italian Vogue. “Steven is not just cool, he has a strong team. Without his makeup artist Pat M, he refuses to work. I had the most beautiful makeup. Meisel cared for me like for a child. [He’d say] Give her a chair, she’s tired. Give her a cigarette, she wants to smoke.” Result, magical fairy-hippy in a paper helmet, with a cut out foil star on her forehead. And Snejana’s first tattoo – a star on her wrist, in memory of her favorite photoshoot.
Second tattoo – on the inside of her finger. “The breakup was difficult – Snejana explains – We dated five years. The next two years as if crossed out off my life. Of course, I had admirers. I even planned on getting married.” The man who wanted to marry Queen Neverlaugh was widely thought to be an oil tycoon, and president of Federation of Horse Sports, Oleksander Onischenko. Didn’t materialize. “Now I’m dating another businessman. His name is Nikoali. He’s 29, I’m 24. In my opinion, he’s the one.” So does Snejana want to get married? “I do want. And I want to have a baby girl. I will name her Dasha/Daria. Just don’t ask me whose dress I will wear. I’m not concerned about that.”
She’s not really concerned about her modeling career either. “You must understand, in the 90s there were only 4-5 top-models and they were known by all. Nowdays, in Paris, Milan, New York, thousands of beautiful girls are brought in. Always search for new faces. I caught a wave when the trend was for thin, light-haired Slavic girls. Today it’s the curvy Brazilians. To remain number one in this never-ending vortex is impossible.” Such rational thinking doesn’t prevent her from hoping for another contract like the ones she had signed with Gucci (Eau de Parfum II) and Shiseido. Bentley always needs to be refilled with gas. Even a black one.
It would be strange if Snejana didn’t dream of a world of real, not runway, limelight. “I want to enroll in acting classes. I’m ready to play whatever they give me.”
We offered her a role of Wallis Simpson, that same femme fatale for whom British monarch Edward VIII gave up his throne. This persistent American inspired Madonna on her upcoming movie and John Galliano on one of his last projects for Dior.
Under a watchful eye of our director – star photographer Norman Jean Roy, a girl with sad eyes gave us what is usually hard to beat out of her – she smiled. Madonna is biting her elbows. [By Natalia Arkhangelskaya]
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