oxygen.com.my

As Oxygen shot Ana R for the August cover, the ever cynical Nabila Nasir discovers why it’s really hard not to like the Hong Kong based supermodel over a conversation of fashion, sugar rush and the reality of modeling.

It was a hot scorching day enough to make a dessert out of KL and there I was circling Shamelin Perkasa in Cheras, over and over again, desperately looking for the studio they were shooting Ana R at for Oxygen’s August issue’s cover. By the time I found the shoot location, I was sweaty, grumpy and so thirsty I could out-drink a camel.

Prior to that, researching on Ana R led to a bunch of articles – all gushing about how she is beautiful, smart, and oh-so-sweet. I thought, right, they were probably written by male writers looking for points. I also pondered the fascination of these model types with one word last names, coming up with a few nasty possibilities of my own to what R could probably stand for if it wasn’t Ana Rivera. We just love to hate the beautiful, don’t we?

As I sat and probed the Spanish-Korean tall drink of water and got past the initial stage of introduction, I realized that all those articles were indeed, true.

She really was all that, and perhaps a little bit more.

Born into a family of a Spanish US military father and Korean homemaker mother, Ana and family moved around a lot every two or three years from one army camp to another. As a kid, Ana was shy. But a seemingly yet another normal day at her dance school when she was just 14, where she was discovered, would prove to change the rest of her life, taking her on a jet-set life of fashion and modeling.

With over ten years of experience as a fashion model, she started her career in Europe working the runways and various print fashion spread.

When asked about the competition between fashion models in Milan, she answered, “I wasn’t really competition to the rest of the girls. Cause I had a different look altogether. The rest of the girls had blonde and blue eyes. We weren’t in the same category. We had looks that appealed to different markets and we all went to different casting. So they didn’t really pay any attention to me, like, they didn’t really see me as competition.”

“But is it really bitchy though, the modeling world?” I explored the question further. Her reply was simple and sincere. “It is a little bit bitchy, a little bit not. I am mostly nice to people, so people tend to be nice to me too. Other models have an aura about them. You know, they walk in and they go like, look at me, I’m a model kind of aura. Not me, so probably that’s why people are less bitchy to me.”

“Tell me about your best modeling job ever,” I queried.

“Hmm, I was a model guest and dancer at Andy Hui’s concert. I had to dance for one of his songs, the same song that I did a music video for. It was a really huge stadium, and there were god knows how many thousand people, and I was very nervous. But he was so nice; he said just keep looking at me, look at me and you will be fine. And that’s what I did. That has got to be one of the best ones,” she replied.

“What about embarrassing moments on the job? Was there any?”

“Oh my god. There was this one job, it was SO embarrassing. My best friend and I still laugh about it till today even though it happened a few years ago,” she said, laughing.

“So tell me about it!” I said, curious.

“Okay, it was at this catalog shoot in Taiwan. The photographer was coming to me really near with the camera and he kept saying no problem, just relax, just relax. And he kept telling me to relax. So I relaxed. And then I farted. I turned red immediately and everyone laughed, especially my best friend who was doing the shoot with me. I could hear some people whispering oh my god, was that really her?”

“Okay, that was really funny. I can’t believe you farted in front of everyone,” I smiled, appreciating her honesty and zest.

Broaching the subject of reality TV shows in the likes of America’s Next Top Model, Ana believes that they disillusion girls who are aspiring models as the modeling world is much more strict that what is portrayed on the screen and ironically, very unrealistic.

Ana is also a little bit of a style guru, helping her friend with a little bit of styling at a boutique in Hong Kong and plays dress up with her best friend Lisa S, model and Channel V VJ. “I do have a lot of really random and different things in my closet that I collect bit by bit. And I mean a lot. So my girlfriends love coming to my place before an event to pick something out.”

She is the model with a soul, musing her travels instead of the clichéd glossy pages of fashion magazines so many hail as their style bible. When she travels for shoots or leisure, she takes inspirations from the flea markets and off the beaten path of the cities she visit, citing Barcelona as one of the most beautiful, moving places she has ever been.

In terms of style development, Ana admitted not having much money growing up, so she had to be creative with her choices of clothes, mixing and matching whatever clothes that she could afford in her size. If the clothes did not fit, her mother, who was also a seamstress, had to alter them for her or make a new one. Now that she could afford to splurge, she indulges in shoes, saying “I love gladiators. I just bought 2 pairs last week, so they better not be on their way out anytime soon! I have over 120 pairs of shoes. I even had a cabinet made especially made from China to fit into my wardrobe. I was so excited about it when it arrived.”

A self-confessed sugar addict, Ana doesn’t go anywhere without a packet of candy with her. Naturally, it wasn’t a surprise when she tells me that someday, she wants to own a coffee lounge with a chilled out ambience, serving delicious cupcakes. Although her mother wants her to take over the family dry-cleaning business, Ana has already started looking at lots to make her coffee lounge dream come true but have not found a suitable location due to Hong Kong’s price of properties.

“If you had a daughter, would you encourage her to become a model?” I asked.

“No. I would prefer for her to get an education first before anything else. I did it because I wanted to help my family. We didn’t have that much money so I did it because of that. And I could continue studying now, but it’s really hard to go back to school after you’ve done a whole bunch of other things. I tried to, but it didn’t work out. So if I had a daughter, I would make sure she would get an education before she wanted to do anything else.”

“What about your advice to aspiring models? What would you tell them to get to your level?” I said, closing up the interview.

“Be nice. Be confident. Always walk into a room with a spark. And don’t forget to eat. And eat healthily. It’s not healthy to not eat. You get really cranky. Most of the models I’ve met are moody because they are not eating, and they are hungry. So if they get bitchy with me, I always tell them to have a Twinky or something.”

“A hungry woman is an angry woman?” I quipped.

“Exactly,” she concluded with me.

As the interview ended and the shoot proceeded accordingly, I finally figured my own alternative for the R in her last name. Evidently, in the fast moving, often-dubbed superficial world of fashion and modeling, Ana Rivera remains grounded and real. That’s what the R in her name stands for, she is Real.