Numéro:
– So, Josephine, as you know some collections of SS2020 are inspired by sexuality, what do you think about it?
Josephine:
– I think honestly any woman should be allowed to feel as sexy as she wants. If sexy for her is to be covered up or show a lot of skin, she can do that. We all should be allowed to be who we are. It’s great that fashion has opened up, because some times being stylish is about «Be a modest woman», and now trends are expressions of yourself, having fun and letting your hair down with how you look. And whatever trend is going on right now, nothing wrong with it. Sometimes trends fit certain people and sometimes they don’t. I think we all should be allowed to dress exactly how we want.
Numéro:
– What makes woman feel sexy and especially yourself?
Josephine:
– I think it’s more of a state of mind. Obviously there are certain outfits and sometimes clothing makes you feel good. But for example it can be a completely covered-up look, but because you feel good, you wear the right underwear or put on the red lipstick, or you tried a little harder for yourself that day because you want to feel that confidence, and for me sexiness is confidence. When you know that you look awesome today and you own the room. You can wear sweatpants, but if you have that attitude, it doesn’t matter.
Numéro:
– What you do to feel yourself more con dent?
Josephine:
– I think as females we are our own worst enemies. We have to take the conversation inwards first. Have that talk in the morning with your mirror. Wake up and give yourself 3 compliments each day and start building yourself up. Love yourself, because self love is the best thing we can do to ourselves. It’s not something that comes for one day, it takes time, you build it. Once you built yourself up, try build your friends up, give people compliments. Just this little things like smile can do a lot. If we would be kind to each other, we would be a lot more confident.
Numéro:
– When we talk about sexuality, it usually goes with beauty. How do you see beauty? What is woman beauty for you?
Josephine:
– To me beauty is happiness. It’s a smile across someone’s face. Beauty comes in so many different ways. For me, it’s truly happiness. When you really see that shine from the inside, people are the most beautiful.
Numéro:
– You were scouted at the age of 15, but became full-time model only after your studies. Why so?
Josephine:
– At that point I was already signed up for Sports Academy, where I was playing soccer everyday. And I looked forward it since I was probably ten. So, there was nothing that could stop me. For me, modeling was more of a fun or means of getting money, and I couldn’t see it as my career. So I didn’t want to stop my education, but at one point I asked myself a question: do I want to continue this education or do I want to give modeling a try. So, at the age of 18 I decided to go fully into modeling.
Numéro:
– Now as a professional model, what is the most important thing for you in modeling?
Josephine:
– Be kind to everybody. If you are a model, it doesn’t mean you are the most important. It always teamwork and everybody contributes to creating something amazing product. Being kind to everyone and staying grounded, remembering your family and where you came from is very important. I think it’s important to remember that being a model is not who you are, it’s what you do. For me, remembering that makes it easier, because you will meet a lot of criticism along the way. Being your own product can be very hard at times. My mom told me once: imagine if you are a shampoo, some people are going to like it because of the color, or they’re going to buy it because it foams more or because it smells the right way. It never personal to the shampoo, it’s just people like certain things better. So, every time someone would criticize me, I’d just say «I am a shampoo». It helps me understand that it wasn’t me they’re criticizing, it’s just the girl we are creating that day or the product. It sounds tough, but understanding that you are a product, you understand that people prefer something else and it’s not personal. Understand that you are a product, be nice and kind, take it as a job not a personality, keep your head up and work hard.
Numéro:
– Do you think we can make people more tolerant to people around?
Josephine:
– 100%. The more we are willing to listen to people stories, the more we travel and talk to the strangers next to us and listen to their stories, the more we gonna understand them from different sides. You might not always agree with them, at least you would learn something and hopefully you would understand them more. I thinks it’s so important to share everybody’s stories, to talk to people from different classes, cultures, countries. Because we are all born in our own bubble and it can feel super safe to stay there. And intimidating to me that it’s super easy to hate what you don’t understand. When we listen more, we can do a lot better. How much I travel and how much I’ve grown in my perspective as a person, meeting people of different culture, age, race, classes taught me so much as a human that I wouldn’t learn if I just stay at home. But one thing is traveling and another is to be willing, to be open minded and to listen to people.
Numéro:
– In our latest 4 issue people from fashion and art world talked a lot about ghting for rights. What do you think about it? What we can do else?
Josephine:
– Honestly, I think it’s a lot about what we have done. But I think there is still a lot of people, who haven’t been willing to listen. I think you should be careful saying people are wrong or right. There is no right and wrong, it’s all about own perspective of life. But if we can realize that we have a different perspective, but we should all tolerate each other, we should all be allowed to have basic human rights. It’s as basic as why wouldn’t you want your wife or daughter to succeed as much as your son, your husband, your friends did. Why wouldn’t you want same opportunities for everybody. The same with LGBT. Why wouldn’t you let people fall in love with who they want and be them themselves. Why it others you that people live differently. We are all humans when it comes to the end of it. I think the more we communicate, the more people and companies speak it out and normalize things, the more we put commercials with especially LGBT community, where you see people willing and doing things, the more it helps. It’s as basic as in football. There is female coach who is openly gay. You’ve never seen them in football before and she became a coach and it’s normal. And the more you do so, the more people understand that it’s possible, the more normal it becomes.
Numéro:
– You once said that what you believe in and ght for is very important. How to never lose hope and your belief?
Josephine:
– That’s a hard one for me. Because it’s so deep in me. I couldn’t imagine ever losing hope. I’m just hoping the more I share my story, the more I’m hoping to reach even a few people, even if it’s one kid, who is scared to come out or a family, who is scared to adopt, or the guy who’s never thought this way. It’s about exposing and meeting everybody with love. My mom always told me, that you cannot judge anyone before their story. And everybody starts out innocent and we become what we become because of circumstances, what happens to us and how we decide to deal with it. You can’t judge people until you sat down and had a conversation on what they are coming from. I think as you keep love first and you do everything with love in mind, it’s hard to lose hope, I don’t think it’s possible.