“You don’t think about what you’re going to wear, but about what you’re going to eat”: Natalia’s quote about her childhood that says it all 👀
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 1990s. Natalia Vodianova is 11 years old and helps her mother sell apples at a street stall that was not even legal.
In order to work without being bothered by the authorities and the local mafia, they had to pay bribes. Over time, Natalia set up her own stall with a friend, just to bring some money home.
Her father had abandoned them, and in her family she also cared for a sister with cerebral palsy. At 15, she enrolled in a modeling academy looking for extra income, never imagining that this step would change everything.
A talent scout discovered her, took her to Paris, and from there she leapt onto the world’s most important runways.
Today Natalia is 44 years old, has five children, is married to Antoine Arnault —son of Bernard Arnault—and her fortune is estimated at 50 million dollars.
She earned as much as 8,6 million dollars in a single year and signed multimillion-dollar contracts with brands such as Calvin Klein. But she herself sums it up better than anyone: I come from the very bottom of society, where you don’t think about what you’re going to wear, but about what you’re going to eat.
