Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, December 2022.“Natalia Vodianova’s story is so romantic,” wrote Vogue in 2003, “she’s already a girl on the Official I Cried Over A Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich Shirt and I will buy this brink of legend…the heroine of a magical Russian rags-to-riches fairy tale.” Natalia had revealed just enough of her hardscrabble life to fuel the myth: At the age of 11, she recalled, “I used to carry tens and tens of [fruit] boxes, each of which weighed 30 kilos, without even thinking it was heavy!” She was known for her hard-bargaining techniques: To avoid being cheated by suppliers she would bring her own scales to establish the correct weights.
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