Natalia Vodianova

[Sunshine06]

Thank you thank you for the translation CandyLady !

[Candy Lady]

You are welcome!

Second part (not the last):

Oasis in hell

A few hours before this, I get out of the rented car (my shoes are wet, the driver got lost and I had to get out of the car and ask for a direction) and enter the wooden and a bit rickety door of Natalia's house - in press, constantly talking about her happiness mixing it with rumors about her upcoming divorce, they call this house a manor. It is called "Mill house", because it was rebuilt of the old mill. The wooden stairway leading to the living room was decorated with a knitted countryside-styled rug and ended up with a small gate that closed the stairway from children, so they don't fall down. Natalia's youngest children - Neva and Victor - were riding that very gate with a happy yell and risking to pinch their fingers.

Natalia wore a faded stretched skirt, washed-out shapeless sweater and her hair was messy. She was trying to cook a dinner for children. A whole army of women, as if they were picked from a home catalog, was helping her: a nicest buxom Russian-speaking nanny, a decisive-looking strict female friend in square glasses, first assistant with a laptop, second assistant with a car keys from Vauxhall (Opel in Britain) - she was about to go to do some orders, but couldn't leave for some reason.

Angel Neva was running around a huge kitchen table and kept throwing a pink teddy pig to me every circle she made. Angel Viktor crawled onto his mother's laps, took my milk and started to pour it from milk jug into a cup and then from a cup into the milk jug, while little boy is allergic to milk. Neva took all the cups away from Viktor and he started crying disconsolately. And then the eldest Natalia's son Lucas came from school and brought a candle he made himself, which Viktor instantly broke and started crying again, but not because of the candle, but because he was hungry - the turkey was cooking too long...

Natalia was amazingly patient with her kids. She told crying Viktor: "My sweet little darling", she said to naughty Neva: "Give him at least one cup", she mended the broken candle so good, that Lucas, who went out to wash his hands, didn't even notice anything. Natalia told me, that that house where she lives in Sussex is an absolutely wonderful place, that there is a river outside, that about every three months her friends come over and they play intellectual games. That you can run to prepare for the Paris charity marathon ("Oh! I am training for 6 months already! I can easily run 12 miles, and I could run 24, but my knees hurt because of running and I don't like running at all in general.")

Or you can ride a bicycle, and once right before a big contract she was riding around and fell over the rudder, scratched her face on the rocks and lost the contract.

"And those people, you know, they didn't even send me flowers, knowing what happened to me. That is so weird. I think you should respect a person, if you hire him for such a big money." - she shrugged her shoulders and it looked as if she believes that for advertising campaigns they hire a person, but not just his face and skin - if you are talking about cosmetics.

Viktor was raving. Neva was teasing a cat in the corner. About cats: one of them belonged to Neva, the other one belonged to Viktor, an Lucas' was ran over by a car the second he went outside. Lucas kept trying to tell me this story properly and in English, but that only made the atmosphere more noisy. And Natalia was showing the wonders of patience: "Just a minute, my baby... Don't torture the cat, please, honey... Be patience, my love, you'll have a chance to tell your story a bit later..."

It might have been not polite, but I asked her, how she manages to be so patient and stays calm in all that blond angel-looking gang?

"And how else?" - Natalia was surprised. - "How can I be patient about the rest of the world if I can't even be patient with my own kids?"

And that moment I got it - the main occupation for a woman named Natalia (a celebrity, a beautiful rich woman) - is to be patient. That is why a model sits for hours and patiently waits for a stylist to make her hair and for photographer's assistant to arrange the lightening.

In return she provides herself safety - at least in her own house.

She sincerely thinks that this house full of noisy kids is her safety island in the middle of a cruel world you can never escape. An oasis in hell, if you please.

The moment you stick your nose outside (like Lucas' cat), you'll know that is true. You can build a career, you can marry a baron, you can move to New York and by a spectacular penthouse on Manhattan with your young husband, but one day you'll come up to the window with a beautiful view and see how Mohammed Atta is crushing into the left tower of the World Trade Centre on a high-jacked plane. Natalia saw it. And you can enter the suit of an expansive hotel in Moscow, fall on the bed, switch on the TV and see how some terrorist called Magas or Colonel is high-jacking the Beslan school.

Because around us is hell. We are in hell. All we can do is make some small asylums in this hell with some kind of wellbeing - like her house, that smells a baked turkey ("Oh! It's ready now! We are about to eat, my darling!"), like playgrounds for children that she builds in small Russian towns, like fashion shows and finally like good parties.

Along with the turkey she puts a DVD-player on the table. Natalia turns on the cartoon about "Cheburashka" and instantly children stop fighting and screaming and are glued to the screen, because there is an oasis of happiness for them. And Natalia goes upstairs to change into the evening dress, high heels and red gloves over her elbows, because you can only leave your fortress well-prepared - with weapon and armor.

Translated by me

[Sunshine06]

Amazing reading !

Thank you so much for your translation CandyLady !

[Candy Lady]

Natalia Vodianova is not hungry anymore

Modeling is a glamorous gig, but it can also be harmful to your health, says Natalia Vodianova. The Russian-born beauty, whose face and figure have been used to sell Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, and Marc Jacobs, says she used to be a scrawny mess, down to just 106 pounds and losing her hair. 'It just sort of happened to me without me knowing it', Vodianova told us yesterday. 'My weight was never an issue before I started modeling'. The consequences of the catwalk are the subject of next week’s 'Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion', sponsored by the Harris Center at Mass. General. (Vodianova will be joined on the panel by high falutin fashion designer Michael Kors and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.) Reached yesterday in London, where she lives with her husband and three children, Vodianova said many girls begin modeling at a very young age – 15 and 16 – and then try to maintain that same slender look as they develop. 'To be a model is a gift that you are born with. Not everyone is meant to look like that', she says. 'The industry should employ women who are mature. Don’t put a delicate flower into this world of great disorder and then throw them out'. Asked about the gold standard of supermodels, Gisele Bundchen, Vodianova called Tom Brady’s bride a consummate pro. 'She hardly drinks, doesn't smoke, and does not party. Gisele is very smart and treats modeling as a business, not a lifestyle', said Vodianova. Registration for the March 22 event closes today, and we’re told it’s already at capacity. But there are still a few tickets – at $500 a piece – for the reception beforehand. (Ticket info is here.) In addition to the panelists, VIPs who have RSVP’d include Steve and Jill Karp, Rue La La’s Ben Fischman, Eliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture, hotelier Dick Friedman, WBUR’s Paul LaCamera, liquor store magnate Carl Martignetti, and Steven Kolb of the Council of Fashion Designers of America".

source: www.boston.com

[Candy Lady]

Natalia as Medusa (source: ANV):

[dizzymisslizzy]

thank you for the translation!

[Candy Lady]

One more part from the interview (there will be about 3 more parts):

Feelings of an armor-bearer

Already wearing all her armor Natalia went to kiss her children goodnight. Then we got in the car and went to London, where on one of the many parties the supermodel Vodianova was supposed to meet the super football player Arshavin so she could invite him to her charity Love Ball - in other words make it happen that Arshavin would like to give some money.

And so we are driving in the dark. The fox crossed the road. I've read about the Beslan. Natalia's changed her mind about crying.

Natalia asks me what do I think about the idea of building playgrounds in Russia. I really like this idea: it's very rare example in charity when something is done for everyone, and you don't have a question why do you help these kids, but not the other - why the ones with the heart disease, but not the ones with viscidosis.

I ask Natalia in return: how did she come up with the idea of building playgrounds?

"Play is very important. Childhood is a hard time. A child that had some sort of trauma gets completely lost when he gent on our playground, he runs around with happy eyes and climbs the stairs..."

"As if all kids have had some kind of trauma..."

Natalia's silent.

"Are you saying that ALL kids have had some mental trauma in the past?"

Natalia's silent.

"Are you saying that YOU have had a mental trauma in childhood?" - I finally get it.

Natalia nods. A long pause. It is so quite in the "Mercedes" that you can hear how a conditioner works. It's raining outside. A fox on the road is eating a partridge that has been ran over by a car before us. That is why they are running here, I guess. Rare street lanterns light up Natalia's face and hair. She has such a face that you just want to turn into an old man and just to caress her without any romantic note and say "Wait a bit, little girl, we are almost in London, and there will be lights, lights... A Christmas eve chaos... A bright crowd on the streets". Expensive cars arrive to the place where the party is held, and there is no place to park even if you are a celebrity. We'll have to walk about 50m from the car to the entrance under the rain. And you are wearing an evening dress and high heels. I'll offer you my hand and lead you to the entrance. And the people will stare and wonder: the great Natalia Vodianova with some old punk who looks like Shrek and has never been seen in the media before. And you will whisper to me, that if photographers appear would I be so kind to take your mantle - as if you're instructing me in case some shooters appear.

Because this is a battle for you. And I am your armor-bearer tonight. And all these heels and dresses and rings and mantles - are weapon. And do you know what an armor-bearer feels when he walks you - Natalia Vodianova, a supermodel in her full battle dress - down the London street? It feels as if you carry a small bird in your hand.

Translated by me

[Sunshine06]

Once again thank you CandyLady ! Big work Google translator couldn't do...

Maybe that's just me, but this article fills me with sadness... Maybe that's just the will of the author ?

[pautinka]

Once again thank you CandyLady ! Big work Google translator couldn't do...

Maybe that's just me, but this article fills me with sadness... Maybe that's just the will of the author ?

Who knows. But I think the author wanted us to see a differenet Natalia from her public shining and powerful persona. It is really touching.

[jodeci]

Thank you Candy Lady for all the effort you put through in translating the article.... it's really nice.

[Candy Lady]

Guys, you are all very welcome, I am so happy you enjoy it!

I'll post the rest later!

[ariti]

The Clash of the Titans clip Medusa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUoVEiLd_3E

[thedarknv]

thank you very much for the translation Candy Lady!

Ariti, thanks for the video!

[Sunshine06]

Thank you so much for your hard translating work CandyLady ! It gives a much deeper insight on Natalia's works.

Thank you too Cachet for some details I didn't know...

[Candy Lady]

Natalia Vodianova arrives at the Alexander Wang show at New York Fashion Week.

source: http://altamiranyc.blogspot.com/

[Candy Lady]

5th part of the interview (1 more to come)

Strategy to survive

Back at her millhouse Natalia showed me her childhood photos. Some were from school where kids sit in rows one behind another.

"So where are you here?" - I asked.

"You have to guess" - flirted Natalia.

I couldn't guess and she gave me the clue:

"Don't look at the faces, look at the legs."

Indeed, one of 6-year-old girl had those dramatically thin, stork-like legs, the legs that later were fabulously walking down the runways all guccies and calvinkeins. Unlike the others that girl wore not a store-bought dress, but a hand-maid one and her blouse was decorated with lace.

"My grandmother raised me until I was 6", - Natalia explains her extraordinary dress. - "She used to dress me up and called her 'clever girl' when I read her a verse "Mukha-Tsokhotukha" by heart. And when I was 6 my younger sister was born, and she was disabled (Natalia's sister had the cerebral palsy). And my stepfather left us saying we had to choose him or this child. And my grandmother and grandfather left. And so there were three of us. My mother worked while I was watching my sister. But I was happy because we were together with my mother, because we really united, because I was really needed."

You can't really say that from 6 to 15 years the life of a girl from Nizhnii Novgorod named Natalia Vodianova was awful - there was actually no time to think about this life, how bad it was. Natalia almost stopped going to school, nearly never played with other children, but - thank God - she never had an opportunity to feel sorry for herself, she always had to do something for her ill sister. The same happened many years after her childhood, when she saw how Beslan school was highjacked and when she felt that she couldn't live in a world where something like that can happen. So Natalia didn't stop until she came up with the idea to build playgrounds for children - not just to sign a check on a charity auction, but occupy herself with some real work. And that is the strategy to survive - you have to physically care about someone - then you'll have a chance not to notice you are in hell.

All she wanted in her childhood was a place where she could take her little sister: maybe not for long, but to be happy, to be safe, not to be a living oasis in hell for her sister, but for someone to create this some kind of oasis for her, Natalia. And I asked her:

"Why you don't do charity for children with cerebral palsy? That would be so natural?"

"Natural - yes. But you know, Valera, my sister had quite a happy life. Ill children, if they were not abandoned, are actually quite happy. Those who are with them are unhappy."

She said that and I thought that she builds playgrounds for herself - or, to be clear, for the part of her who is still a little girl that stayed in Nizhii Novgorod. For a little girl with thin legs who wasn't taken to the glamorous world of fashion, but where they took only her face, hair, her body, hands and legs.

You see, that is why people like models: you may admire their sickly pallor, not knowing about their illness. You may be touched by their thinness, not knowing about their hunger. You may see the weird combination of angelic gentleness and devilish viciousness on their faces, not knowing about their vices and prayer.

In her wonderful country house a supermodel and a wife of a baron Natalia Vodianova told me:

"Life is there" - meaning the darkness of province Russian towns. - "Somehow I need to recharge there. Like a tree, I need to put my roots into the ground."

And I thought:

"She just told me how awful life there is - and now - bam! - confessed she needs this awful life like a tree needs good ground. No, princess, you just need that little girl from Nizhnii Novgorod to come here, to the millhouse, and reunite with you. But that girl isn't coming. She has a strategy to survive. She's afraid she's going to die if she stops caring about someone unhappy even for one second."

Translated by me

I have a question: why does Natalia keep talking about her sister Oksana in the past tense? It is not my translations, it was throughout the interview when she mentioned her...