Reinventing yourself is vital for catwalk professionals. For Vanesa Lorenzo it is a learning journey. With a hypnotic blue gaze and sculpted face, the Catalan top model's journey began at the age of 11, walking for El Corte Inglés, and at 18 she made her big leap: Paris. Just landing in the French capital, she was signed by Pepe Jeans. Many more destinations followed, such as New York at the age of 20, where she conquered the covers of Vogue, Elle or Harper's Bazaar, among many others.
Today she continues to star in international campaigns and shares her expertise in the industry as a fashion consultant. Her last stop places her in Andorra, where she, together with her husband Carles Puyol and her two daughters, preaches a slow lifestyle, based on yoga and connection with nature.
You star in fashion campaigns all over the world, do you prefer it to the catwalk?
I have done a lot of runway throughout my career and I still do it. However, I think there is not enough investment in models from other generations. Yes, there are small incursions, but it is more of a marketing strategy than a real commitment to diversity. It is a change that is in process and that just needs time to consolidate.
What do you have on your hands now?
After so many years in the industry, I am in a process where brands come to me to make requests as a consultant, both at the level of brand creation and accompaniment to their creatives. It is a job that I really like, in which I can put into practice all the information that I have collected over many years in another way to accompany brands. As a businesswoman, I continue my work in the children's brand The Animals Observatory.
This interview is accompanied by a photo session in the emblematic buildings of Paseo de Gràcia. What does this great avenue in Barcelona mean to you?
Paseo de Gràcia is a majestic and quiet street. It is an elegant walk that is loaded with luminosity, like the city. It always evokes elegance, good taste and, above all, Catalan culture since it partly functions as a showcase for some of the most important historical and iconic buildings of Catalan modernism.
In such an extensive career, do you have any dreams left to fulfill?
There is an Italian photographer I have never been able to work with and I would love to do it. His name is Paolo Roversi.
A designer I admire.
I admire many, but if I had to choose one it would be Josep Font. The first show I did with him impressed me very much. He didn't do fittings, when he saw you he created the garment thinking about your measurements and on the day of the show it fit you perfectly. He discovered a world of poetry for me, it seemed like haute couture. At the age of 18, thanks to him, I began to taste the beauty and art that fashion entails. It was the first contact I had with the magic of the catwalk.
What is the best advice you have been given and who gave it to you?
It wasn't a specific phrase or a speech, but when I went to Paris to try my luck as a model, my parents placed a lot of trust in me. They let me fly and that gave me security. It has taught me that by overprotecting your child you are doing them a disservice.
Talk about positive discipline; What led you to write a book about this type of education?
I came to it because when my oldest daughter was two years old I had the second one and I realized that things were starting to get complicated for me. She needed tools to educate and I went to a workshop on positive discipline taught by a child psychologist. That changed my way of understanding education and I decided to share it by writing the book Growing Together.
It works?
It's about mutual respect, understanding that as your child you are in a learning process. When you talk to him as if he were an adult, without threats, you place trust in him, cooperation is created at home. If you give children responsibilities, you also give them self-esteem and confidence.
What would you say to a mother who feels overwhelmed?
That you have to learn to differentiate between unconditional love and knowing how to educate. We have to lose the fear of feeling like bad parents for not knowing how to educate. We have to inform ourselves, educate ourselves so we can educate them.
Now his home is Andorra. Has it been difficult for you to adapt?
No, because there we are very in contact with nature. We live next to a forest and every day we take walks, breathe fresh air and oxygenate our minds.
A place that gives you peace.
Nature. I can no longer live without her. For me it is healing, when I go for a walk with my dogs in the forest, it oxygenates my mind and gives me clarity of thought.
