Daniela Pestova
By Ines Mendoza & Sara Templeton
Daniela
is your more traditional model, coming from Europe, sporting
blonde hair and blue eyes. She was born on October 14, 1970
and, as an over-30 supermodel, is doing very well for herself.
She was given the nickname 'Chameleon' because of her amazing
ability to change her look to many different styles for any
given shoot.
There's often a stigma that goes with modelling that if you're
over a certain age, you can't cut the mustard in the ultra-competetive
world of fashion. What a load of hog-wash - just take a look
at the stunning figure of Daniela Pestova.
Sure, there are many young Southern American models rising
through the ranks at a fairly young age, but without the worldly-wise
models, like Pestova, Campbell, Klum et al, the industry would
be even bitchier than it already is as there'd be precious
little guidance.
Daniela was born in Teplice, Czechoslavakia (Czech Republic)
in the early 70s, a time of political unrest, which would
have been quite scary. She had dreams when she was only young
and came from a privileged family, but never thought that
one day she'd be a world-class supermodel.
However, as time passed the political climate in the European
region subsided and Daniela made plans to attend university.
At age 19 she was holidaying in Prague when she was spotted
by a bloke called Dominique Caffin. He worked for the modelling
agency Madison at the time and urged Daniela to enter a modelling
contest.
She entered the contest and won. Soon after she was signed
up with Madison Modelling Agency and was shipped off to the
big smoke - Paris.
A year later in 1990, Paul Marciano, Guess? head honcho and
president big wig, happened across Daniela and decided to
sign her up for his next Campaign. Marciano has often been
accredited with finding unknown faces and turing them into
world-class supermodels. Anyway, She starred alongside another
Euro-blonde - Claudia Schiffer - in the\ campaign, photographed
by Ilen Von Unwerth in Morocco.
Before
she even spoke a word of English, the Czech model was fluent
in Italian, Russian, French and of course Czech. You'd think
it strange, then, that Daniela would move to New York the
next year, in 1992. Even so, the world of fashion beckoned
- who was Daniela Pestova to argue?
Soon after moving to the Big Apple, she landed many new contracts.
She landed the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire
and Galmour. Then came a huge L'Oréal contract in 1994,
basically cementing her place as one of the dominant models
of the 90s. L'Oréal quickly made Daniela one of its
spokespeople then, as most of the top models do, she became
a Victoria's Secret model - one of Americas biggest and most
widely recognised lingerie brands.
Perhaps her biggest triumphs, apart from being a mother,
were her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition
in 1995 and 1998. She married the then CEO of the Fashion
Cafe, Italian-born Tomasso Buti, but divorced the businessman
in 1998. Before this happened, the couple had a son together,
Yannick, and now Daniela looks forward to having more children.
In her spare time, Daniela Pestova likes to walk along the
beach with her dogs (I hope that's legal over there!) and
loves to eat bread. Yeah, it sounds a bit strange, but it's
a love affair with the soft stuff. She once said: "I'm
always watching my weight. I don't eat sweets like cookies
or chocolate. But bread is different. I can't even have one
piece, because when I start, I don't stop." We're not
quite sure what to make of that one...
The
model considers herself a health freak and we're not about to argue
with any supermodel who claims such. After her modelling career she
plans to settle down and perhaps have more children or even become a
translator. That said, she is still quite happy modelling - you would
be too if you could bring home about $12,000 a day.
With two swimsuit calendars under her belt and a plethora
of fashion accolades to boot, you'd think Daniela Petova would
just give up. Well, don't expect it to happen any time soon
- she's fighting fit and looking good.
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