ACTRESS

It always seems strange to think of how some of these supermodels started out; for Irina Shayk it was a beauty pageant in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Modelling wasn’t some kind of first love for Irina though – she wanted to be a teacher of literature as a child because she liked making up stories and reading. What a waste of talent it would have been if she only ever stood up in front of a class of schoolkids. Pushed on by her mum’s influence she went to a music school for seven years, and then started studying marketing at college but found it really boring so enrolled in a beauty school with her sister. In a twist of fate, next door to the school was a local modelling agency (convenient), and a scout noticed Irina, telling her to enter Miss Chelyabinsk 2004. She won, drew the attention of more scouts and within a year was modelling in Paris. She started learning English and then started taking the modelling world by storm. In 2007 she became the face of Intimissimi lingerie