Candice Swanepoel: ‘I’m an athlete. I use every single muscle when I pose’

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Candice Swanepoel covers the March issue of Self magazine. She’s not very exciting, gosspwise, but this is a very cool cover feature. No controversy or anything, but I always get excited when models take an athletic stance (like Gisele Bundchen’s Underarmour commercial). Candice looks so strong on this cover. She does talk about how her early career was met with criticism because she weighed too much. That’s the case for so many models, but I think she’s referring to muscle bulk. Here are some excerpts:

On being told to lose weight for her career: “I was so used to people criticizing me for being too thin that it was shocking to me.”

Her big break: “My agent said: ‘They want to see you. If you get the show, will you move to New York?’ I said: ‘If I got Victoria’s Secret, I’d do anything.’”

She’s an athlete: “I’m an athlete. I use every single muscle, especially my core and arms, when I pose. It’s so important for me to feel strong. When I have a show or a specific shoot coming up, I train for it full on, like an athlete would train for a game.”

Modelling is different now: “It used to be that if you had a swim shoot, you’d go away for two weeks and spend the first four days getting a suntan,’ she said. ‘Now we work 12 hours a day, every day, and I can be on a plane every two days. It’s almost like a chess game, where we’re the pieces.”

Her work ethic started early: “Africa is not for wussies. It’s in our culture to be hard workers.”

[From Self]

The modelling industry really is different now, especially for VS models. They’re a lot less curvy than they used to be, and there’s been plenty of criticism for that change. These girls also do a lot more events than back in the old days. It used to be a gig that mostly involved catalogue shoots, but now VS girls do more apperances and runway show blowouts for television. Candice is a good role example of a model who can be sexy and very atletic too.

Here’s Candice modelling the upcoming Apple watch. She’s the first woman to wear one on a magazine cover. Self made a big deal out of that fact.

Candice Swanepoel