The first big challenge that Estrella Gómez (Barcelona, 2000) had to face in her career was getting into heels. As a child, she was never that girl who stole them from her mother and walked down the hallway strutting like a catwalk model. She confesses that she never fantasized about the idea of parading in fashion weeks, or seeing her face on the cover of magazines. Her story starts from that same stroke of luck that such iconic supermodels as Naomi Campbell or Christy Turlington had before conquering the Olympus of fashion.
“I was discovered while I was at a student demonstration near the Uno Models agency in Barcelona. They told me to send some photos to an email, then I had my first meeting with them and they signed me.” Remember that 19-year-old Estrella, an Architecture degree student, very unmotivated and wanting to change. “I wanted to leave my career because it didn't fulfill me and this opportunity arose.” A train that she took and that has taken her, four years later, to walk for brands as renowned as Valentino and Loewe and to pose for Balenciaga and Givenchy campaigns.
How do you remember your debut on the catwalk?
It was in Paris, with Acne Sudios. Before signing with IMG Models, she had not done any fashion shows, only specific jobs. After confinement I made the international leap. I remember being very nervous, I had never worn heels before. Suddenly I arrived at the agency and started giving intensive classes on how to walk or descend stairs. Today, the heels and the cold that is felt in the sessions are what I hate the most about this profession.
Behind the scenes he will have shared talks with very experienced models. Do you remember any conversation that marked you?
I remember once when I had to open a show for a very large brand and I was very nervous because you feel very observed, you are the focus of attention, and it is difficult to manage. I will always remember a boy who came to me and said: “Think you are going to be the first to leave and the first person to finish.” It was logical, I know, but you don't know how relieved I felt at that moment.
What do you think makes it special?
I would say my androgyny—said of a person who has both masculine and feminine characteristics. Obviously being tall and thin helps, I'm not going to lie. But I think above all these are more ambiguous features. Over time I have also seen that the luck factor plays a very important role, in addition to the work that agencies do behind the scenes.
Has this same trait that has made you stand out caused you any insecurity?
Not now. At first it was quite inevitable to fall into comparison, at the end of the day I do not meet those standards that were sought in conventional models. There is still a lot of work to do in that sense, but there is a change in the type of beauty that is sought. In fact, I think that now the model's attitude and character are valued much more. I feel like I've gotten a lot of jobs by being nice to people. That the team behind the brand knew me and knew that the session would not be boring or monotonous makes all the difference.
His career is now taking off internationally, but not everything will have been a bed of roses. What has been the biggest learning from her?
The most complicated thing has been managing the rejection of brands that I used to work with and that, for whatever reason, no longer have me. Over time and a lot of therapy with people who have gone through the same thing as me, I have learned that these things do not depend on me. That is to say, the decision whether or not to hire you is made by many people and if one of those people doesn't like you, it is likely that they will not hire you for that job. Before I thought about it a thousand times and looked for the reason why they had rejected me, what I had done wrong, if I felt like I was giving my all. The answer was very simple: not everyone can like you.
Is it a profession that can be maintained long term?
In my opinion there are two important issues here. One is the wear and tear it produces and the other is the level you can achieve. Physical and mental fatigue is crazy, it is a very stressful life and difficult to manage. I don't know if I could see myself doing this for ten more years, maybe five, yes, we'll see. Then there is another very important point, and that is that to have a very long career you have to reach a fairly high level of iconicity. You have to be very mediatic.
Aitana Lopez, the model created through artificial intelligence, is generating around 12,000 euros per month. Do you think they can become a threat?
I, personally, don't perceive it that way. Using AI to advertise a product or brand seems very impersonal, soulless to me. Now there is a boom resulting from the novelty, but I think that in the end people want to see real people with whom they can feel more or less identified.
