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Paulina Porizkova speaks her mind -- as a model, actor, writer, mother
Pp Q: What are you wearing?
A: An Escada dress. I really like it. I'd been wearing it all day, so I asked the store if I could get a discount. Instead, they gave it to me. I don't usually buy expensive clothes. It's a waste of money. I don't even like clothes. Well, I do love clothes for what they can do for you -- how they can make you look and feel. But I don't like trends. Ruffles are in? So what? At 44, I know what suits me. I'm happy to find clothes that suit me -- but I don't care about trends.
Q: What's your view of super-skinny models?
A: When I was modeling in the 1980s, retouching was very expensive. It was hardly ever done. The models had to be a certain size, have perfect skin. Then along came Adobe Photoshop, and suddenly a 55-year-old actresss can be doing a beauty campaign. I'm happy for her. But it did kill the model. Now models are nothing more than coathangers -- skinny coathangers for hanging clothes on. It's the designers' fault. They're designing with no regard for real women. They're designing for a model who looks like a crow on a stick.
Q: You really don't like fashion?
A: I understand women who announce themselves through their clothes, who define themselves as fashionable women. But I prefer other things.
Q: Such as?
A: I prefer being a mom taking her kids to school on my Vespa wearing an oversized leather jacket a friend found at a consignment shop. I wear it because it's warm. I prefer being a wife, cooking fabulous meals in old sweat pants and a washed-out Hanes T-shirt. I prefer knitting poodles and bears for my son's school fair. I'm teaching all the other mothers to knit bears. I'm a good teacher. I should have been a teacher. [At left, she's knitting herself a pair of leg-warmers.]
(Paulina has two sons, ages 16 and 11. She was born in the former Czechoslovakia, fled with her family to Sweden when she was a toddler, was "discovered" by a photographer at 15 and movd to Paris, where she was a top model in the early 1980s. A couple of years later, she came to the U.S., made the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue twice, posed for most major fashion magazines, and landed a $6 million contract with Estee Lauder . She has had several minor film roles, and appeared briefly on TV's Dancing With the Stars. She was fired from America's Next Top Model this spring. [Her comments on that episode later!] She has been married to Ric Ocasek, lead singer for The Cars, since 1989.)
Q: Do TV shows about modeling have any impact on the industry?
A: They have zero impact. Fashion people laugh at those shows. They're fun to watch, but they're cheesy b------t. The problem is, young girls believe it. They believe if they just try harder, they can become models. That's nonsense. On America's Next Top Model, when I tried to tell how it really is, my comments were not included.
Q: So yo were fired for speaking your mind?
A: I could have said I quit. Most celebrities, when they get fired, say they quit for personal reasons, or family reasons. But it's more fun to say I got fired!
Q: Are you and Tyra Banks still feuding?
A: There was never a feud. People would ask, 'How was Tyra?' I don't know. She never spoke to us. I was told I was let go because I had a big ego. I had a big ego because she was seven hours late?! And not just once!
Q: What advice do you have for young aspiring models?
A: That's easy: Read my book. I write what I know. [Her book, A Model Summer, is about a young girl modeling in Paris.] That's what I do now: I write. Writers have issues they keep returning to. Mine is mother/daughter issues. My mother and I have big issues. Some is her fault, some is circumstances. Ours is a broken relationship.
Q: Is it different, being a mother of sons?
A: I think you're luckier if you have sons. I live with three men who think I'm the most gorgeous, wonderful thing on the planet. They don't take my clothes. They don't take my makeup. I think if if I had a daughter... It would be difficult to have a homnely daughter.
Q: Would you encourage her to be a model?
A: I would discourage her from being a model. I would encourage her to get an education, get a sense of who she is, become her own person.
So ... there you have it, all you model wannabes. One of the world's top supermodels wouldn't wish the career on her own daughter. Sorta suggests it's not as glam as the TV shows portray. On the other hand, Paulina comes across as a pretty well-adjusted and happy woman, so it couldn't have been all that bad. So who knows?!
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Pp Q: What are you wearing?
A: An Escada dress. I really like it. I'd been wearing it all day, so I asked the store if I could get a discount. Instead, they gave it to me. I don't usually buy expensive clothes. It's a waste of money. I don't even like clothes. Well, I do love clothes for what they can do for you -- how they can make you look and feel. But I don't like trends. Ruffles are in? So what? At 44, I know what suits me. I'm happy to find clothes that suit me -- but I don't care about trends.
Q: What's your view of super-skinny models?
A: When I was modeling in the 1980s, retouching was very expensive. It was hardly ever done. The models had to be a certain size, have perfect skin. Then along came Adobe Photoshop, and suddenly a 55-year-old actresss can be doing a beauty campaign. I'm happy for her. But it did kill the model. Now models are nothing more than coathangers -- skinny coathangers for hanging clothes on. It's the designers' fault. They're designing with no regard for real women. They're designing for a model who looks like a crow on a stick.
Q: You really don't like fashion?
A: I understand women who announce themselves through their clothes, who define themselves as fashionable women. But I prefer other things.
Q: Such as?
A: I prefer being a mom taking her kids to school on my Vespa wearing an oversized leather jacket a friend found at a consignment shop. I wear it because it's warm. I prefer being a wife, cooking fabulous meals in old sweat pants and a washed-out Hanes T-shirt. I prefer knitting poodles and bears for my son's school fair. I'm teaching all the other mothers to knit bears. I'm a good teacher. I should have been a teacher. [At left, she's knitting herself a pair of leg-warmers.]
(Paulina has two sons, ages 16 and 11. She was born in the former Czechoslovakia, fled with her family to Sweden when she was a toddler, was "discovered" by a photographer at 15 and movd to Paris, where she was a top model in the early 1980s. A couple of years later, she came to the U.S., made the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue twice, posed for most major fashion magazines, and landed a $6 million contract with Estee Lauder . She has had several minor film roles, and appeared briefly on TV's Dancing With the Stars. She was fired from America's Next Top Model this spring. [Her comments on that episode later!] She has been married to Ric Ocasek, lead singer for The Cars, since 1989.)
Q: Do TV shows about modeling have any impact on the industry?
A: They have zero impact. Fashion people laugh at those shows. They're fun to watch, but they're cheesy b------t. The problem is, young girls believe it. They believe if they just try harder, they can become models. That's nonsense. On America's Next Top Model, when I tried to tell how it really is, my comments were not included.
Q: So yo were fired for speaking your mind?
A: I could have said I quit. Most celebrities, when they get fired, say they quit for personal reasons, or family reasons. But it's more fun to say I got fired!
Q: Are you and Tyra Banks still feuding?
A: There was never a feud. People would ask, 'How was Tyra?' I don't know. She never spoke to us. I was told I was let go because I had a big ego. I had a big ego because she was seven hours late?! And not just once!
Q: What advice do you have for young aspiring models?
A: That's easy: Read my book. I write what I know. [Her book, A Model Summer, is about a young girl modeling in Paris.] That's what I do now: I write. Writers have issues they keep returning to. Mine is mother/daughter issues. My mother and I have big issues. Some is her fault, some is circumstances. Ours is a broken relationship.
Q: Is it different, being a mother of sons?
A: I think you're luckier if you have sons. I live with three men who think I'm the most gorgeous, wonderful thing on the planet. They don't take my clothes. They don't take my makeup. I think if if I had a daughter... It would be difficult to have a homnely daughter.
Q: Would you encourage her to be a model?
A: I would discourage her from being a model. I would encourage her to get an education, get a sense of who she is, become her own person.
So ... there you have it, all you model wannabes. One of the world's top supermodels wouldn't wish the career on her own daughter. Sorta suggests it's not as glam as the TV shows portray. On the other hand, Paulina comes across as a pretty well-adjusted and happy woman, so it couldn't have been all that bad. So who knows?!
source