Lovely Yasmin featured in a new Canadian fashion mag, FQ!
pg 28, FQ List/BIO of CONTRIBUTORS:
FQ's first cover girl, Somali-born Yasmin Warsame, defied all odds in the modelling industry with her impressive career's "late" start - in her twenties. Since her introduction to the world of fashion in 2002, bookings have streamed in - for
Vogue, Elle, and
Bazaar - and she has landed plum ad-campaign jobs for Escada, Dolce & Gabbana, H&M and Banana Republic. But according to Yasmin, her greatest accomplishment to date is her toddler son, Hamza, who keeps her busy and happy, as does a recently acquired interest in photography. In this issue, her firsthand account of a week in the life of a supermodel chronicles her journey from Thailand to Paris to Senegal ("Catwalk Confessions," page 61).
pg 61, cover of Yasmin with make-up artists (sorry I have no scanner

)
Title: "Catwalk Confessions: Star Model Yasmin Warsame records her inner journey as she travels from Thailand to the runaways of Paris Couture"
Pg 62:
July 6, 2005
En Route to Paris from Thailand
The sun if finally coming out, the traffic seems to part, and it looks like I am going to make my flight to Paris after all. In Thailand, where I've just completed a location shoot with legendary photographer Sheila Metzner, I have been given a guide and she is supposed to check me in without too much hassle. Through a car window, I see a young mother pull out a breast for the baby on the lap while she holds out her freed hand to passerby. I feel paralyzed. My worries appear so selfish and smal compared with hers. To seek some kind of distraction, I turn my attention back to my future destination and wonder kind of fate awaits me in Paris. I was supposed to be there two days ago for Couture Week and most of my clients don't know whether I will make it there or not. I myself thought that I was not going to make it, but here I am, heading that way. I am used to dragging my own luggage and fighting my way through the human traffic in the airport but was told that I must not carry anything apart from my handbag and must stand aside while the guide checks in for me. It feels silly not to help, especially since I am younger and healthy as a horse. In my Somalian upbringing, children are taught that labour takes place in a pyramid fashion; we are taught to have the utmost respect for our elders and if a job needs to be done, the younger and stronger ones do it before the elders. You can imagine my discomfort in standing aside. I couldn't, so I didn't.
top picture: Yasmin's
self-portrait: 'I love the ability a camera gives me to observe... the magic of fashion as it unfolds'
4 juxtaposed bottom pictures, counterclockwise from top to left: "Off we go to the next show... but not before we grab some treats that look way too good to pass by! backstage primping and getting ready."
pg 64:
July 7, 2005
Paris Couture Week
Backstage at the Elie Saab Show
As I stand in line, pampered and polished, my face painted to perfection, I look around to take in my surroundings. There is so much going on, and although from the outside it seems chaotic, on the inside it's so organized and everyone has a reason for being here. It is breathtaking to see how much beauty and talent interwine in this small room. From the outside no one would know, yet when you are in here, surrounded by all this, it is huge, so it's easy to forgot that there is a world outside of these walls where it is life as always.
I just got word from London [following the July 7 transit bombings] that my family is safe - thank God. It was nerve-racking waiting to hear from them. I did not have a chance to read about it or watch it on the telly because here I am backstage in a whole seperate world. I sometimes think that the world coud end and the fashion industry would be the last to know, but then again, the same goes for those people working in offices who never see daylight.
These girls are so beautiful, I think to myself. As I look at them, the garments seem to obey their bodies and follow their curves to perfection. In turn, their personalities bring the garments to life and give them their shine and magic. I pull my camera out and take a couple of shots. It feels so natural and it takes me some time to realize that most of the photographers are taking pictures of me taking pictures of the girls. When I do realize it, I take the pleasure of turning the camera on them as they always do to us. It feels fantastic playing the role of both model and photographer, though I wouldn't call myself a photographer just yet. I just love the ability a camera gives me to observe freely, usually in unsuspecting corners of the room, enjoying the magic of fashion as it unfolds. Like laughter is to the sick, so is beauty for the eyes.