INTERVIEW / January
INTERVIEW / January
Ginta with her friend,
also a model, and
now business partner
Karlīna Caune
So, personality is important, and so are the values
you stand for and the things you want and are able
to give to this industry – added value, so to say. Of
course, appearance is important, too, but at the same
time, the importance of personality is overwhelming.
Especially nowadays, when models are no longer just
models but represent a certain movement or beliefs.
You have to be your own boss,
and you never have to do
anything you don’t want to do
The agency will stand by you, but you need to keep
an eye on your own finances. Also, you need to un-
derstand that getting or not getting work depends in
large part on you yourself. Your agency can send you
to good castings, but it’s up to you and your personal-
ity whether you get the job.
You touched on a crucial topic – we’re not talking
about standards of beauty anymore but about per-
sonality. There are very many young women with
the right figure, and there’s also a trend now for
plus-size models. But what separates a good model
from a very good one? Is the role of personality
becoming more important again?
Definitely, both personality and also personal beliefs
and values. The trend for plus-size models, by the
way, has changed the fashion industry greatly. It be-
gan with Ashley Graham. But it wasn’t because some
people just decided to photograph her and suddenly
start a trend and declare that they’d had enough
with skinny models! No, Graham began the trend
herself, by approaching a lingerie manufacturer,
developing her own line of lingerie, and believing
that plus-size women need to wear beautiful, sexy
lingerie, too. She really advocated for that, and only
then did the industry start to approach her.
How have your felt the influence of the #MeToo
movement in the fashion industry?
I’m very happy that it’s withstood the test of time and
has changed the fashion industry, hopefully for ever.
Women are more protected now. It seems that, first
of all, they have more privacy; there now need to be
changing rooms at both shows and photo sessions.
Secondly, I feel that photographers are behaving a
little differently, with much more respect and paying
a lot more attention to what they say and how they
behave towards models. I think that’s all very good,
because models are very young, and they need to
feel safe.
I was pleasantly surprised at the big changes that
took place after American Vogue editor Anna Win-
tour and the whole Condé Nast publishing company
advocated for and actually instituted real changes,
including promising to stop working with photogra-
phers about whom they received complaints.
Have you ever been harassed?
Lots of people have asked me that, but thank God
I’ve never been in any really tricky situations. Maybe
one time, when the photographer suddenly, com-
pletely unexpectedly, asked me to take off my clothes
and model in my underwear. But I was able to turn it
into a joke, say no, and continue the job. You have to
be your own boss, and you never have to do anything
you don’t want to do.
Who have been the most inspiring people in your
career? Who are people who have introduced you
to totally new things in your life?
The first person I’d say is definitely Donatella
Versace. She’s been very, very inspiring for me. She
believed in me from the first day! We met at a casting
before a fashion show, and it’s blossomed into a won-
derful friendship. She was the only designer I’d ever
heard of before I started working as a model, and it
was then simply unbelievable to me that I ended up
at her home. We’ve been photographed together for
magazines, I’ve done looks for her before shows.
It’s beautiful to see her creating garments – how
she’s able to create such beautiful things seemingly
from nothing, and how much love she puts into
her work. I’m very thankful for that experience. In
photos she looks like such an ice-cold woman, so
reserved, so unapproachable, but deep down she’s a
very simple woman, and that inspired me. I thought
wow, I want to be like that, too. I once had the
honour of opening one of Donatella’s shows, which is
actually the greatest honour a model can have.
I give credit to designers, because they’ve given me so much.
Besides, the whole creative side of the industry fascinates me.
And the opportunity to be present for that process, to witness
all of that – I value that very highly.
I’ve also worked a lot with Miuccia Prada and seen her
working in the studio. I enter her studio, where the entire floor
is covered with fabrics, and she says, ‘So, we received these
fabrics today, and now we need to make a dress for you, Ginta.
Let’s make it!’ And then she does it – she creates a garment in
front of my eyes, a garment that I’ll later wear on the runway!
At tea time, her butler wheels a little cart with tea and cakes
into the studio. And she – such an elegant woman – she sits in
her chair, eating little cakes and adjusting the garments! It’s mo-
ments like that, and people like that, that I find so very inspiring
and because of whom I love my job.
THE
AUSTRIAN
Q UA L I T Y
SHOE
BRAND
What is the main principle that has guided you as a person? I
mean, in relation to these big people, these big personalities.
The principle of preserving myself, showing my real face,
showing who I really am. The Ginta who attended the Riga
School of Design and Art, in the glass department. The girl who
wanted to become an interior designer. These people really are
interested in how you’re doing, where you’re from, what Latvia
is. I always try to talk from the heart, to tell more about myself,
about the place I come from, about my roots. They really value
that – simplicity and openness.
Speaking of which, Olivier Rizzo comes to mind. He’s a stylist
who for many years was Miuccia Prada’s right hand, and he has
also played a big role in my career.
I remember getting ready for my first Miu Miu show, and
Olivier said to me, ‘Ginta, don’t you want to stay a little longer?
We’ll do your hair and makeup.’ It was already one in the morn-
ing, and I had to get up at seven the next morning. But I said,
‘Yeah, OK, I’ll stay.’ We finished at around three, and then he
says, ‘You know, maybe put on the dress that you’ll be wearing,
let’s drive over to the venue where the show will take place,
and try it out. I want to see how it looks all together.’ I said,
‘Alright, let’s go!’
We were both tired, but at the same time, you have to know
how to make the best of a situation like that. I started telling
him about myself, where I went to school, that I know how to
make stained glass windows and how exciting all of that is for
me. He was so surprised and so interested! He thought, ‘Wow,
this girl here has managed to distract me at a time when the
only thing on my mind is the next show, and here she’s telling
me about stained glass windows and glass.’
We got to be pretty good friends on that nighttime drive,
and from then on I always did Prada and Miu Miu shows. We
collaborated very well. And since then it’s also been clear to me
that these ‘big’ people also gladly receive something from us,
for example, maybe they’re happy to have learned something
new from us.
Yes, otherwise the relationship is always just in one direction.
But there needs to be an exchange of energy. And again we
return to the issue of personalities.
But that’s exactly the way it is! It goes hand in hand. Because
people will always want to collaborate with people that are
interesting to work with. Not with the person who has nothing
to say, who has no opinions – girls like that get forgotten very
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