MODELS

Natalia Vodianova - biography and best photos

Natalia Vodianova is one of the most famous top models of our time. In 2000, her face appeared on the covers of many magazines - the French "ELLE", the Australian "Marie Claire", the Japanese "High Fashion". By 2001, she was a sought-after model. She has a strong character that makes her unlike the usual standard models.

The most important and instructive thing in Natalia's biography is her path to success, where she started and what she came to.

Natalia Vodianova is a girl from Nizhny Novgorod, born in 1982. Her origins did not offer much of a chance for success. Natalia grew up in a family in dire need. Together with Natalia, two younger sisters grew up, and she had to go to work very early.

She helped my mother sell fruit in the market. An eleven-year-old girl had to carry heavy crates and baskets of fruit, take care of her sick sister, and do much more around the house to help her mother make money. These were the 90s. And what they were over the years in Russia, everyone who managed to be born in the 80s experienced themselves, not to mention those who were born earlier.

A family with a single mother and an alcoholic father - this was not surprising. They could hardly make ends meet. So they say about those who did not have a penny. What was to be done? Natasha started working early and growing up. One of Natasha's sisters was disabled from birth - cerebral palsy. All the girls were from different fathers. The mother kept trying to establish her personal life, to come to terms with her loneliness and to raise children without any relationship, she could not.

At school, Natasha studied very mediocre, and with this state of affairs, nothing could portend a brilliant future. Nobody wanted to be friends with a girl from a dysfunctional family. Nobody tried to help Natasha, even with a kind word. After all, people are frightened off by human misfortune. People were just passing by a little girl who was carrying heavy boxes ... But think about it - do we stop now when we see something like this? ...

Everything began to change at the age of 15, when Natalia started working in a modeling agency. One of the friends advised Natasha to go to a modeling school, because models were invited from there to participate in promotions. And this is additional income. Natasha went, and from that moment bright colors appeared in her life, since these activities gave her pleasure, helped her to turn away from the gloomy reality for at least a few hours, to feel as if she was living a completely different life.

She just had enough of this, and she did not even think about a serious career as a model. And what could one think about, if here behind her, like a train, stretched her gloomy and dysfunctional state of the family. The director of the model academy did not offer lucrative contracts, she was rarely invited to the most interesting events ... Natasha remained a supporting model.

At that time, there were many such modeling agencies in our country. For the most part, they resembled a school of good manners.

But the incredible happened. In the modeling agency where Natalia Vodianova worked, the Parisian agency Viva organized a casting. Moscow photographer Alexei Vasiliev noticed Natasha, and they became interested in her. An offer was received - to work in Europe. But for this you need to learn the language in two months.

Natasha has a strong character, so on December 1, 1999, she got on a plane.

It wasn't easy at first. Suddenly she didn’t fit the agency “Viva”, and in another - she didn’t like it. But Natasha has a stubborn and persistent character. The president of the Russian agency "Grace Models" once again took Natasha to the same agency "Viva". And suddenly she was not only invited to work there, but the managers who refused Natasha the first time were almost fired.

However, the first year was difficult - there were no prestigious contracts, she earned only $ 100 a week. She had to travel from one end of the city to the other, but she stubbornly appeared at every casting, even went to the casting, where a different type was required. She got used to working in such a way that she had no strength left. And her life in Paris was a fairy tale compared to Nizhny Novgorod.

At the end of 2000, she starred in two photo shoots. One came out in The Face magazine, where the photographer was Felix Lammers, known for his advertising shoots for Wella, Nivea, Bourjois, collaborations with Elle magazine and Vogue. This shooting was a success for Natasha, and offers followed. The second shoot came out in Marie Claire, Italy in March 2001, and was done by Jacques Olivard. He has collaborated with German and English Vogue.

A series of photographs was published under the title "Lolita-2001". The image of a gentle and seductive girl has become the hallmark of Natalia Vodianova. After these two sessions, the wave of proposals was on the rise. Natasha began to participate in fashion weeks in Milan, Paris, London, where she demonstrated the collections of Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, Vivien Westwood, Yohji yamamoto, John Richmond, Blumarine and many other fashion houses.

Natasha became a star. It was around this time that she met Lord Justin Portman. She soon learned that she was going to have a child. What to do? In the modeling business, this situation is not easy. On the one hand, the figure may deteriorate, at least for a while, and on the other, it is necessary to leave the podium for about six months. At a time when your star just shone, leaving the fashion world for six months is to stop your career. Then Natasha was only 19 years old, and she decides to give birth to a child.

From the point of view of the modeling business, this is madness, but from the everyday point of view? Single mother, she knows the word painfully. She did not know how the relationship with Justin would develop. But Natasha has a strong character. In the situation in which she found herself, what would each of you do? But Natasha knew that life is not only camera flashes. Let the appearance of the child put her career in jeopardy, but the life of her baby was more precious.

Natasha gave birth to her little Lucas, and after a while there was an official marriage with Portman. The beautiful Russian girl was wearing a wedding dress from the Gucci house, which was made for her by the creative director of the house - Tom Ford. Nobody expected from Natasha that at the time of her son's birth she would leave the podium. And when, a few weeks after birth, she returned again, it was again a surprise. But Natasha has a strong character. After that, she reached extraordinary heights in the fashion world.

The number of offers grew, the number of photographs on the covers of glossy magazines grew. And not only that, she starred in Roman Coppola's film Agent Dragonfly, was a model for the Pirelli calendar three times, and in 2003 she became the face of Calvin Klein. Fabien Baron, creative director of Calvin Klein - one of the most influential people in the fashion world, saw in Natasha that this girl is not just a portrait that will be forgotten in a season, he understood that there is something in her that will make the fashion world see in her her heroine for many years.

Subsequently, Natasha was filmed by famous photographers of the fashion world, who were able to make their model a star of the first magnitude. Natasha appeared not only on the covers of magazines, but also in art photographs. And this was a different recognition of her perfection. Natasha in these pictures was seen as a person with a deep character. But this is so - an amazing girl who went through many difficulties in her life. And this left an imprint on her soul and on her attitude to life.

Natalia Vodianova is a unique model and I must say even a tragic character. This was noticed by the legendary Peter Lindbergh. He always tried to see character in his models. Fashion looks serious in Lindbergh's photographs. And Natasha, in his photographs for Harper's Bazaar magazine in 2003, without makeup and smart dresses, a simple, defenseless star girl.