Thanks for all of the pics guys posted by OriginalSin at tFS Beautiful Spirit New York Munemi talks with Michelle Buswell and Tiiu Kuik. Top Model Best Friends. – Friends are fortune. Interview＆Text by Munemi Munemi: How long have you guys been best friends? Michelle and Tiiu: 5 years. Munemi: How did you guys meet? Tiiu: At a fashion show. Michelle: In Paris! Tiiu: I was putting my socks on. That was for… I think Karl Lagerfeld. Michelle: Yeah, Lagerfeld. Munemi: And you guys hit it off right away? Tiiu: Yeah, we were the two outcasts that didn’t have any friends. (Laugh) We were kind of stuck. Michelle: Yeah, but also I think it has to do a lot with Tiiu being free, fun to goof around with, somebody who I can eat a whole pizza with, tell jokes, not take things too seriously. She is my class clown buddy. Tiiu: Michelle is great. She always has a smile on her face so she always makes me happy whenever I am with her, still 5 years later. Munemi: She sure does have that beautiful smile always. How do you guys like living in New York? Tiiu: I love NY. I never get tired of it yet. Michelle: You can’t. You can’t get tired of NY. That’s the problem. The energy here is incredible, it's alive 24/7, every hour, every minute, something is going on in the city that you could do. You can’t just sit home and go “What can I do? Nothing to do.” Tiiu: Actually, first time I came here for 2 weeks I hated it. Then after I went home I started missing. Second time I came here I knew I wanted to live here. And food! And also I love the energy here. I think NY always pushes you. Anything from work and to finding yourself. You have to know who you are when you are living in NY. Munemi: Any spot you like for going out? Michelle: I would like to mix it up if I go out. I like homes. Tiiu: Me too, the only place I keep going back is Indocine. http://www.indochinenyc.com/ Because it’s one of my good friend's favorite, favorite, favorite place. And food there is pretty good too. Munemi: Oh, that’s where you guys held my birthday dinner. Lovely. Do you guys have a place you like for spa, massage, and dermatologist? Tiiu: I go to the dermatologist, Dr. Dennis Gross. http://www.mdskincare.com/ He is very good. I was having some problems on my skin and he completely fixed it, everything I was complaining about. I was referred from a friend of mine, who was suffering from really bad acne that nobody could help, and she finally went to this doctor and he fixed it in like 2 months. Michelle: For me, it’s Korean body scrub. They are the best in the city too. It’s called Hanyang Beauty Salon & Yi Pak Spa. 10 W 32nd St. 3rd Fl. (212) 868-0851. After the treatment your whole body’s skin feels so smooth and great. Munemi: Yeah, I love that place too. And for their 2 hours course, they do a cucumber pack that feels really good on your face. Favorite beauty products? Michelle Buswell's favorite cosmetics. BOIRON – HOMEOPLASHMINE Rodin - olio lusso BIODERMA - Clealine H20 la prairie - cellular lip renewal concentrate Rosette Cleansing Paste 舞妓さんのあぶらとり紙 [English translation not available] Burt's Bees Lip Blam Becca - Luminous Skin Colour/Becca - Shimmering Skin Perfector YSL - Touche E'clat Too Faced – Lash Injection/ Divinora mascara BOURJOIS - Eye shadow 54 Marron Glace est - emotional aura gloss EX11 / est - advanced lips 301 / YSL - Gloss Pur 4 DR. HUNTER'S - Hand Cream est - nail color 23 est - emotional multiple eyes 01 MAC - Eye pencil – Taupe Deborah Italia - Authentique 302 madomoiselle, Rouge Baiser Paris 209 Shu Uemura - UV UNDER BASE SPF 10 Tiiu Kuik's favorite cosmetics. md skincare DR. DENNIS GROSS -ALL-IN-ONE FACIAL CLEANSER WITH TONER BECCA - Liminous Skin Colour Tinted Moisturiser SPF 25+ BIODERMA - Sebium H2O BOIRON - HOMEOPLASMINE Dove - Facial wipes est - nail color 02 / essie - 653 SHORT SHORTS / OPI - NAIL LACQUER DON'T BE KOI WITH ME Cover Girl - Smoothwear Lip Tint Blush wine est - emotional aura gloss EX22 Stella MaCartney - Eau de Parfume ( bottle customised for Tiiu ) PERFUMARIA GAL Madrid VASELINA PERFUMADA a la MANZANA est - emotional multiple eyes 03 SERGE LUTENS - MASCARA SHISEIDO The Makeup - Stick Foundation MAC Brush - 168SE, Shu Uemura Brush - 20 pony KIEHLS - Blue Herbal Spot Treatment Shu Uemura - Eyelash curler [pics of beauty products included at the source] Munemi: What’s the best part of modeling? Michelle: Traveling. I Love traveling. I live for it. Tiiu: Yeah, traveling. And meeting the best friend! Michelle: And becoming worldly. Just have the opportunities to be so young and get a chance to live on your own in New York City, get the opportunities to meet people we get to meet, experiences that we get to experience, it’s priceless. Tiiu: And it’s the only industry in the world that women have the upper hand and kind of cool to be part of it. Munemi: So you guys love traveling. Where is your favorite place so far? Michelle: Phuket, Thailand. It’s got the best people, the best food, and the best beaches. People there, how kind these people are - speechless. Honestly as whole, I never imagined it could be a community. And not to mention the beaches and islands. Take a speed boat around you get to see some spots that don’t even seem like from this planet. It’s just breathtaking. And food, it used to be when people ask me what food you like, I would say everything except curry, but after coming to Thailand it’s in my top three. Tiiu: I have a lot of favorite places because they are all different, but I would say one of my top three is South Africa. Kruger National Park and there is a hotel called Lukimbi Safari Lodge. http://lukimbi.com/static. You go there for safari stuff. It's run by five rangers who do everything, take you out to safari, cook, and they are amazing cooks. It’s such a cozy amazing place that makes you feel so at home. And the safari tour is definitely people should experience once before you die. It was amazing. I was taking a bath in my room in the morning. There was this big floor to ceiling window and elephants walking by. We were having dinner out side at night and you hear lions. It was nothing like I have ever experienced before. I still get shaky thinking about it! I would love to go back to Africa and spend like a month. Michelle: That makes you think that it’s important to preserve Africa’s nature, right? Tiiu: Yeah, definitely. Second one is where I went with Michelle, Trancoso, Brazil. This is more for beaches. It’s a very quiet place and food was amazing. Food is very important for me when I am traveling. Just the energy there was very relaxing. Everyone was very calm. Michelle: It shocks you how kind everyone is. Fragment Rock of South America is the first place the settlers settled so everybody has respect for this town even those just passing by. No violence, people keep their door open. It’s only an hour from San Paolo where every day people are being robbed with guns and knives. To just see that different energy and respect, it’s kind of amazing to see that the world does have that. Tiiu: When we went to rent bikes, they don’t even give you locks they just give you a bike. Tiiu: And then next place is my home, Tallinn, Estonia. Because every time I am back there it’s like traveling back in time to my childhood. It’s changed a lot but it’s still so small such a compact place that every time you go back you see the same people from your childhood. It’s changed a lot but the same time everything is kind of still the same. To me, it’s so beautiful. I think it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Munemi: Which designer did you guys have the most fun working with? Michelle: (Jean Paul) Gaultier. Tiiu: Gaultier. I love him. Michelle: And he is so down to earth. I would walk into a fitting and he would ask me “How’s your sister?” Just the things you would never expect to directly remember. He is so real thinking how much celebrity he has in fashion. Tiiu: He is amazing. He is one of the nicest people ever. Michelle: Everything he makes, touches, is great. Tiiu: And Tom Ford for me, of course. I love him. He is so funny. He’s got a great sense of humor. And he always looks perfect. Michelle: And he decided every model has to look like Tiiu Kuik. That’s when all the tall girls came in. Tiiu: My career took off in Milan when I met with Tom Ford. Until then everyone told me “Oh, you are too tall, too tall.“ Then I met with him and he put black tape on a wall and said, “From now on, everyone has to be this tall in my show.” Michelle: And he made every girl have a mole on her face that season! Tiiu: I always feel like I owe him a lot. Michelle: It helped all the tall girls including myself, Hana (Soukupova), Julia (Stegner), all 6' plus girls ruled for a couple of years. Tiiu: I even remember going to a Gucci casting. My agency was like “Uh, you are not really the type of girl they usually book, you are probably not going to get it.” And that made me more determined to get it. Michelle: She was the first girl I met who wore the big heels when my agency was like “Don’t wear your heels.” Tiiu dressed up with the biggest heels she has. She carried her height with so much confidence. I had never worn high heels until I met her. Now, I discovered that's the most fun thing in the world. With Tiiu, two people, 6’7 enter a room dressed up and everyone looks at us. Munemi: What would you say, what was your break, Michelle? Michelle: Steven Meisel. Trudi Tapscott, the booking editor at American Vogue then really liked me first time when I met her. That was about a year later, I moved to NY and I only had a Polaroid in my book. I was very relaxed and being myself and she picked it up and really liked it and said, “Oh, it’s really rare, usually girls come in here and barely say a word.” So I had her support from the very beginning and she tried to get me a “shape issue” with him. And the whole year she pushed him, pushed him over and over and when the next shape issue came up she told him “Well, I still really think we should use this girl.” And he said, “Okay, why not? You have been pushing this girl for a year.” So I went to do that shoot and it went really well. And Steven truly sat down with me and he told me “You really have what it takes. We think you should take it more seriously, get a trainer, make sure you are on point, ready to go, because this is what’s going to happen when this comes out. You are going to notice a difference.” The difference to have a photographer like him under your belt is insane. Because until then people would tell me “Oh, you are too tall, too commercial.“ Then it came out and in a week everyone was so different to me. It just shows you that there are thousands of beautiful girls out there and you can’t just give up because this one little break could change everything. Once I did that American Vogue shoot with him, I did a couple shoots with him for Italian and American Vogue. And he was doing all these groups of things and since I was a part of it, I shot campaigns for like Versace, Prada with the girls like Isabeli (Fontana), Daria (Werbowy), Raquel (Zimmermann), and now my career matched with all these girls and people comparing me equally with these girls boosted my career, since I am so commercial and such an American girl. For me to get the chance in high fashion was just amazing. So I took all of it. PART 2 UP NEXT source: openers.jp
