Marla Maples, the mannequin blamed for the war of the Trumps, wouldn`t be a contender in the Soviet fashion arena.
First, fair-haired and fair-skinned girls are as plentiful as vodka, says modeling agent August Sehven.
Further, top Soviet models are 30 and over. Marla`s a bit young at 26.
As for dimensions, the woman reported to be Donald Trump`s paramour, shapely as she is, is too skinny by Soviet standards.
”Their concept of beauty is different from ours,” says Sehven, the president of Idols Model Management of New York. Hoping to capitalize on burgeoning free enterprise in the East Bloc, Sehven recently opened a division of his agency in Moscow.
Many models who couldn`t make it to the top there would be star material here, says Sehven, who recently brought seven Soviet mannequins-male and female-to New York. While the women in the group are beautiful by U.S. standards, in the Soviet Union they hardly turn heads.
Over there, they`re ugly
”These women,” Sehven says, eyeing his gorgeous imports, ”are considered ugly in Russia. When I was signing them, the Soviets would say to me, `What are you doing? These are not even pretty women.` ”
Already the models have signed or are signing deals with such colossi of capitalism as Estee Lauder, Chanel, Revlon, Baskin-Robbins and McDonald`s, plus Cosmopolitan, Self and GQ magazines.
”They will be enormously successful,” Sehven predicts.
Though the Soviets-all between 18 and 25-have been too busy getting haircuts, learning English and posing for photographers to check out much of Gotham, they have made some observations that might surprise smug New Yorkers. ”We do not have such obesity as you have,” Angella Ajrapetova, 22, says through an interpreter. ”We saw people we thought were ill because they were so fat.”
That dowdy, corpulent creature Americans envision is largely the creation of Western propaganda, she contends.
And 20-year-old Anna Tcmernysheva, a 127-pound, 6-foot-tall blond, says New Yorkers may be ”sportier and better groomed, but they are less elegant than the women in Leningrad.”
Oh, such skin
Even a seemingly impartial makeup artist claims the Soviet models have the upper hand in one regard: ”Their skin is wonderful,” says Sandra Bocas of the Benjamin Salon. ”It`s smooth, milky and even-toned.” She surmises that Soviets don`t sunbathe. And many homes lack central heating, which dries out skin.
What about reports that Soviets have smiles like jack-o`-lanterns? Nyet, nyet, nyet, says Sehvan.
”I`ve had to do some bonding and polishing,” he admits. ”But I have to do the same thing with many American models.” The Soviets don`t have good dental care, he allows, ”but Americans don`t floss their teeth every day either.” –
