Famous Russian models

First wave of Russian models abroad (mostly in Europe) was connected to Russian revolution of 1917, when many aristocratic people had to escape their native land and to search the way to survive in the other countries. Young nice-looking Russian women worked as a models with the dressmakers as they didn’t use to work hard in their families before. For the second time locally grown Russian beauties poured into Europe in the early nineties after the Soviet Union fell. First of them to be called Kristina Semenovskaya, who became the face of Dior at the age of 18, Olga Pantushenkova representing Cacharel brand, Diana Starkova – Chopard. Probably the most successful and famous Russian model till now is Natalia Vodianova. Her story of coming from the very province of Russia, where she was working as a seller at the market, to Paris and becoming a cover girl for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and the face of L’Oreal – plus her marriage with English noble man – is a dream for every girl, who wants to be a model. It’s a classical Cinderella story of our days.

Certainly to become a model every woman has to be not just beautiful, but to respond definite requirements. The height is usually 172 to 180 centimeters which is not really typical for a woman. That’s what all beauties have to be 90–60–90 is not a designers’ fancy, or even a morbid sign of the times, but a production necessity: the camera makes you look fatter and a woman with a normal figure will look rather plump. Also nice long hair is a necessary thing.

Mostly Russian girls, who go abroad to work as a models, stay there and don’t come home. But there are exceptions as well: such as the celebrity of Russia today Anna Azarova. At 16 she went to Paris to try her luck with the Idol modeling agency. She worked with Armani, Paco Rabanne and Comme des Garcons. And suddenly she broke her contract, returned to Moscow and made her debut on TV playing herself as a Russian top model, who returns home after many years in Europe. Now Anna’s got real fame in Russia as compared to the other girls, who can be well-known at the West, but not home. It’s the common Russian models story.