Natalia Vodianova

By Sara Templeton

Just a few years ago the catch-cry for jaded fashion writers was "Another day, another Brazilian bombshell."

But my, how the times change. While Brazil will always be a hot scouting ground for up-and-coming talent, Russia is the 'new' Brazil, with more and more models from the eastern European country rising to prominence in the often cut-throat fashion industry.

The thing about the latest string of Russian models is that unlike the Brazilians, who often reinvent themselves in very nouveau chic ways, the Russians are coming to catwalks with a much more elegant, perhaps traditional look and feel.

Take Natalia Vodianova for instance. She's a hot new model from the former communist country, whose image is as far removed from Gisele Bündchen as your ever going to find. At the same token, a model's image can be largely fashioned by those who dress them - for example designers - and in future Vodianova's image is likely to diverge from her current look.

Natalia's rise to prominence in the fashion industry has made her somewhat of a heroine, as her humble beginnings are in stark contrast to her current situation.

Natalia Vodianova was born in Russia's third-largest city, originally called Gorky, now named Nizhni Novgorod. She lived with her mother and two half sisters, but no, there was no sign of a giant pumpkin carriage or glass slippers.

Far from the whimsical fairytale, Natalia lived in poor conditions and was at the mercy of her mother's sometimes abusive boyfriends.

She helped her mum with her fruit-selling business when she was quite young, and by age 15 had moved into her own flat with a friend. With a good understanding of how to sell fruit, she went on to set up her own fruit stall, which made quite a tidy sum, the proceeds of which she used to help out her struggling family.

Before moving out of the family home, Natalia enrolled with an agency where she learned how to be lady-like: That is, aspects such as etiquette and so forth. At the same time, she also attended some casting sessions for models, and everything changed when she was spotted by a Parisian model scout.

Simply put, he said her life would change, but that she had to learn English in three months.

Not one to back down from a challenge, the feisty 17-year old Vodianova studied the English language and was justly signed on by the Viva modeling agency. She flew to Paris and was keen to work hard and prove her worth, something the agency viewed as a big positive for the teenager.

Two years on, and Natalia was making good money on the catwalks with her restrained, elegant look. She hadn't hit the big time, but at age 19 had fallen big time for a rich British real estate heir, one Justin Portman. The pair fell madly in love and Natalia soon gave birth to their first child, Lucas, which was followed by a wedding with plenty of bells and whistles in St. Petersburg.

With the wedding and her first-born taking up much of her time, many critics predicted she'd fall off the modeling map, but she bounced back with a renewed vigour. At first she participated in quite a few low-key runway shows, but soon an offer from Yves Saint Laurent came in, where she was to headline the show.

After this widely publicised event, her star was on the rise, and names like Gucci and Calvin Klein (see the photos below) were scrambling to book her services to promote new perfume ad campaigns and model ready to wear ensembles. She appeared in all the glossy magazines, some of them on the cover, she even scored a cameo role in Roman Coppola's film CQ (which starred French stalwart Gérard Depardieu and Billy Zane).

Today, Natalia Vodianova lives a much happier life than when she was a child in Russia - as does her family - and at 24 years old (circa 2003), the Russian beauty's still got a decent career ahead of her.She's now worked for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton and currently lives in New York with her husband and son Lucas.