A day in the life of Natalia Vodianova, the Calvin Klein supermodel who is now a tech entrepreneur
Most people know Natalia from her ads and photo shoots in glossy magazines. It looks glamorous. But real life is very different ...
... Natalia wakes up at 7 a.m., and wakes up her children at 7.30 a.m. She has four kids. The oldest is Lucas, 14, and the youngest is Maxim, 19 months. Natalia’s daughter Neva has never had her hair cut which means it is super long and needs a lot of attention before school.
Maxim’s favourite breakfast treat is pineapple. Natalia starts her day with hot water and lemon.
Despite being sleepy in the morning, Lucas is top of his class.
Viktor inherited his name from his grand-grandfather Viktor Gromov, along with his cheerful, sparkly personality.
With the children off to school, Natalia spends some time on Elbi. Today’s featured project is to draw princess pictures for Diana, a 3-year-old orphan in Uganda who is cared for by a charity called Whisper. It takes a few minutes but is worth the time to make her smile.
Each featured project lasts 24 hours. When this one ends all of the pictures will go directly to Whisper, the charity that cares for the 3-year-old in Uganda. Here is a sample of all the pictures members of the Elbi community drew for Diana.
Natalia is a longtime champion of the rights of people with disabilities. Her younger sister Oksana has autism and cerebral palsy. Today, Natalia has been invited to speak on a panel at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters for "Persons with Disabilities Day."
Here, Natalia meets Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO.
Natalia talks about her charity, the Naked Heart Foundation, and discusses Elbi with panellists from Africa, Japan, Chile and Brasil.
Natalia has been one of the top five highest-earning models for the past 10 years, according to Forbes. Supermodel status has enabled her to make a difference for thousands people through her work with the Naked Heart Foundation, the charity she founded in 2004, and Elbi. Today is a shooting day for one of the brand clients. It is only 10 degrees but the shoot promises to be hot.
Natalia poses on set.
Today’s shoot is being done by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Here Natalia is showing Marcus the campaign for Diana on Elbi.
A big challenge when balancing motherhood with a career? Picking up the children after school.
Natalia tries to exercise at least once a week and at the moment she loves dancing. It’s a great way of staying fit, switching off and doing something good for the soul.
She combines contemporary dance and modern jazz.
The dance class lasts an only hour but is very intense.
Like Natalia, her dance teacher Laura has a sibling with special needs.
Back at home in Paris, Natalia catches up with the Elbi team on progress and developments.
The team updates Natalia on user-testing and upcoming campaigns with Elbi’s charity partners. Natalia is always in contact with the London HQ and its team of 15.
One of the best moments of the day – seeing how Elbi has impacted a beneficiary. Diana's face says it all. She adores the princess pictures and now her bunk is covered in them. She sends a big thank you to the Elbi community.
Sometimes Natalia attends events and celebrations in the fashion industry. Here she is at the opening of the Louis Vuitton Exhibition at Grand Palais in Paris with Suzy Menkes, Karl Lagerfeld and her boyfriend, Antoine Arnault.
The end of a very long day, Natalia and Antione leave the reception at 8.30 p.m. to put the children to bed.
Just time for a goodnight selfie with the kids.
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