comprehensive summary of vanity fair 9 models bikini story:
"slavs of fashion" the new beauties": vanity fair april 2005: by evgenia peretz & patrick demarchelier
I really like demarchelier's pictures here, shot on harbour island, bahamas, 1/29/05. this is an obvious response to sports illustrated's famous swim issue, and imo these pictures are infinitely superior to any pics or girls in the latest SI ish. obviously SI swim ish is the very definition of 'commercial' modelling, so VF's crop of new & older high fashion girls blows SI out of the water.
also evgenia peretz did a great job writing here, this is a lot more truthful than the natalia and especially the gisele VF pieces over the last 6 months, which both just amounted to stale PR hype. peretz is far more candid, from the 'pecking order' of these girls, to their years & travails in the business, and even their lifestyle choices & consumption. I'll just go one by one given peretz 'pecking order' hierarchy & summarize significant statements.
the story opens with the girls romping in 50 degree early morning chill by the seaside. natalia asks demarchelier if he's 'mad' and says 'its really f*cking cold, ' and then jumps on his back! nice to see she picked up justin's refined unievrsity speech! natalia is introduced as the most successful of all the girls, & the most able to joke with demarchelier. the article repeats many of the bio details we've read before about nati in VF, vogue & elsewhere: her selling fruit at 14, her hard working mom. her care for her sisters.
after natalia peretz focuses next on carmen, who provides juicier copy with more provocative off the cuff remarks.
she says, 'our skin have goose pimples. good for nipples for sure.' its a little odd that after 12 years of western modelling carm still cant properly conjugate the verb 'to have.' so much for her acting ambitions. peretz deals candidly with carmens resume: she calls herself 'the grandmother of the group' and admits that at age 26, her career is nearly over. i will point out however that carm's body is admirably trim on the cover & on a good day she can still pose like the star model she is. [witness lagerfeld edit on carm in bazaar a few months a go] peretz also mentions carm's unsuccessful bid for estonian parliament, and her somewhat ego-centric self-image as estonia's most celebrated export: she is ONE OF estonia's richest [not THE, as she claimed famously a while back]. check this ego-centric quote & grammar: 'I actually worry about they selling newspapers while Im not there.' so much for hollywood!
carm also recalls her first modelling trip to milan- it was worried that her lips were too thin and she 'had to do something about them.' touching on the reality of cosmetic improvement demanded by many agencies. carm calls herself in those days 'rather like boy.' here's carm on her meeting with chanel's gilles dufour: 'f*cking ***hole, why couldnt he look at my 3 pictures.' of course she got the job.
currently carm is dating german chess grandmaster eric lobron. like natalia, carmen travels with her mate everywhere she goes. peretz' article is not shy about mentioning carm's fondness for liquor [she's been arrested for DUI on more than one occasion]. peretz says carmen's voice is 'raspy from 10 years of wild nights.' just hours before the girls 6:30 am beach call, carm & natalia had been knocking back vodka shots deep into the night with justin & eric. carm says 'excuse the alcohol breath.' on the beach an assistant asks if she needs anything? 'just a bloody mary' carm says.
karolina is rated 3rd in the group, age 21, working for 6 years. she calls herself 'old chicken' and also feels her modelling time is nearly past. peretz also recounts KK's career-making meeting with anna wintour, 9/9/99, when anna gave her blessing and booked KK with meisel. not to quibble, but does anyone remember when KK first appeared in 99/2000, there were rumours that she was actually about 3 years older than stated? and has actually had a few false starts as a model? pictures of brunette KK were few but there were a few around. so maybe shes actually 24? that would explain her feelings that things are winding down, and the charmingly maternal approach she takes with the younger girls: 'she takes it upon herself to tell the confused, somewhat zoned out newer girls which forms they need to fill out at customs.'
that kind of candour really endears me to KK and peretz' reporting.
KK is also apparently extremely professional work-wise & 'doesnt party.' while reputed by others to be hyper-talkative & somewhat scatter-brained, KK comes off well in these quotes: "I was never really falling into the circle of 'Oh my God Im so this & I make this & Im the best & youre sh*t. Lets get f*cked up.' I was never into that."
while refreshing to hear KK say that, it also makes you wonder what models, photogs or designers she's parroting there...Im sure we all have our guesses.
Its certainly true to the general public that natalia, carmen & KK are the best known, and the cover stars, so that suits peretz' storyline.
but we know that euguenia, also 21 like KK, has arguably been even MORE successful in high fashion the last few years than even carm or KK. Imo, euguenia is another girl, like natalia, like KK, like liya, like daria, that was chosen by anna wintour to be a 'top girl.' and lets not forget that VF is a conde nast mag just like vogue, and that demarchelier shoots for both mags. so wintour is still lurking behind the scenes prominently in this piece, but still it's a credit to euguenia that she is presented as the #4 girl, and the other 5 girls, too, are getting an impressive conde nast/wintour boost by their very appearance.
euguenia [her name is spelled with a second 'U' throughout] has a great quote: 'we have beautiful skin, beautiful faces. The Brasilians are finished!'
the fashion world's embrace of the russian & eastern european model is the most significant theme of this story, and then the star-making moves of specific girls.
upon closer inspection I found these pics to be quite sexy, including one where euguenia poses before poly, inguna & valentina, showing them the difference between 'mere models & supermnmodels' [shes pushing her tank top up to show her erect nipples- carmen is correct- euguenia, valentina & marija all seem to benefit beautifully from the 50 degree conditions.]. while euguenia is introduced early in the article and prominently featured in the pics [looking GREAT i might say] shes also brought back at the very end after #8 valentina and before #9 inguna- and peretz mentions that euguenia has had several years of big $$ success [we knew that] so shes actually a lot closer to KK & hana than peretz indicates- in fact shes arguably the MOST successful after natalia in recent years.
hana is then embraced as the #5 girl after euguenia, shes 19. peretz says hana is "SIX FOOT ONE." Ive been telling everybody forever that's her height & finally the people who said 5'11" can hush. peretz describes hana as being very thin- we know very well!- and actually shes a daring choice for a swim edit, but the pictures didnt really show her skeletal limbs, actually her body looks good in bikini & of course her face is very pretty. imo hana also is another 'vogue/wintour' girl like KK & euguenia, so that is another reasson shes here.
[peretz also mentions that FIVE of these girls are with DNA- which ones? I dont know agency affiliations as well as some people do. That may have had some bearing on who was chosen too]. as we know hana's english is halting so we get these quotes on her first days in NYC: " it was really hot & then the black people in the city!".
I guess she means they dont have that many blacks in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic? KK seems to have adjusted welll! ooops.
the article closes with girls 6-9, who happen to be my faves in the group. Poly is selected #6, shes 19 and from Perm Russia. Peretz uses her pervasive Gucci ads as an example of her current fame. As is to be expected from vanity Fair, a conde Nast mag with pages of luxe ads every month, this is a very label-centric article, with these top accounts named as favoured achievements for the top girls: CK, ralph, LV, gucci, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, KL, Bulgari, Valentino, versace, D&G, TH & escada, and L'oreal, Gap & VS. I hope anyone who claims that labels dont really matter in the fashion biz will shut up now, as everyone knows that there is a symbiotic relationship among the top mags, designers, labels/campaigns & shows that signifies the ultimate in fashion success. the very labels I just named [plus a few more like hermes, balenciaga, rochas, lanvin...] are stated throughout the issue as the girls greatest achievements- more than actual dollar sums, although the top 3 or 4 girls are called "six-figure day-rate girls." I think thats pretty accurate, I can see the top 4 or five girls earning $10,000 an hour. For Inguna, thats obviously not the case.
Poly looks great in thes pics, her face is especially cute, but both Peretz & I agree that possibly the next girl to join the elite of nati, carm & KK will be #7 marija. shes 20 & peretz calls her the most determined. shes still dating her bf since age 14 [ouch!] and her W shoot with mcdean made her [was it that dressing room story? she also had some hot bazaar shoots early on & captured my eye immediately.] peretz mentions these campaigns : D&G, YSL & maxmara, she was actually sick during the maxmara shoot- cant you just tell? those pics are a little blander than marija usually looks! maybe its the clothes...
not to be dismissed is #8, valentina, its funny as soon as i saw these beach pics I said 'valentina looks the most beautiful' then I read that peretz also says 'shes the prettiest!' For once a fashion writer who tells the truth! Val is 22 [!!] shes married [!!!] to Maiko Kurahara, a japanese/brasilian businessman. she sees 2 more years in modelling. Peretz mentions val's great success with ralph lauren who signed her to an exclusive 7 figure contract.
inguna is obviously the new girl here, peretz says that 2 months ago [!] in november she was still in latvia playing her violin. how old is she? 16? 17? peretz says at times she can look like a 'grubby cashier,' and at other times ' like a movie star.' inguna looks good to me here, and shes a none too subtle reminder that at 26 carmen is effectively a 'granny' in the business, and that 19 year old hana & poly, & 20 year old marija represent more closely the working girl that gets more edits & shows, if not the mass media 'fashion' coverage. that's why its refreshing to see marija, valentina poly & eugenia here- WE know that they are already at the top of the high fashion world, even if 98% of vanity fair readers have never heard about them. I consider julia, winberg, louise, elise & gemma to be in a similar position, but of course that doesnt suit VF';s geographic theme!!
as I mentioned this is better model-article than one usually sees in mass media mags, its more truthful & better writtten, and i only wish that we had more pics by demarchelier. [there are some outtakes on-line, in another SI-style twist]. he shot some super hot white bikini pics here [marijas & maybe valentinas look best of all] and I only wish we could have a 20 page edit here for more pics, white bikini beach pics is one of my perennial fashion faves. this story puts the lame & overhyped SI swim ish to shame, and this model casting is far superior to your average vogue issue, which could dearly use marija, inguna, valentina etc in some swimsuits. was it that long ago that carmen was in a whire bikini on the cover of us vogue? apparently so. well its nice to see these girls in hot bikinis in vanity fair and with a well written, candid model-oriented story to match. everybody should buy this issue.
great work!! rating 9 out of 10. B)