Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Laetitia Marie Laure Casta

Laetitia Marie Laure Casta (born May 11, 1978 in Pont-Audemer, Normandy) is a French supermodel and actress.

Laetitia's mother, Line Blin, is from Normandy. Her father, Dominique Casta, is from Corsica. She has an older brother, Jean-Baptiste, and a younger sister, Marie-Ange.

On October 19, 2001, she gave birth to her daughter Sahteene. The father is her former boyfriend Stéphane Sednaoui. Casta is engaged to Italian actor Stefano Accorsi. They have one son together, Orlando, born on September 24, 2006.

Time magazine once named her one of the top ten most influential people of the year.

Casta's career reportedly began when she was discovered by a photographer during a family holiday in her father's native Corsica, at age 15.

Casta was the official face of L'Oréal, Dior, and Chanel. She has appeared in and on the cover of Victoria's Secret catalogs, ELLE magazine, and Vogue magazine. She was featured in Guess? Jeans and Tommy Hilfiger ad campaigns. She also appeared in three consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions, Rolling Stone, and a Pirelli Tires Calendar.

She once had a close relationship with designer Yves St. Laurent, whose outfits she would regularly wear at public appearances.

Laetitia Casta has appeared on over 100 magazine covers and has been credited, along with Tyra Banks, and a few others, with bringing back the notion of the voluptuous models.

Casta, whose curvaceousness has been a subject of discussion in the world of fashion, spent her childhood in Normandy and has stated in an interview with ELLE magazine: "I tell people that my breasts are 'Made in Normandy,' from butter and crème fraîche!" Casta has also said that she only needs to be in the mountains with some cheese and some bread to be happy.

In 1999, Casta came out first of a national survey ordered by the Association des Maires de France to decide who should be the the new model for the bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, which stands outside every French town hall. She succeeded model Inès de la Fressange in this role. Furthermore, Casta's image is scheduled to appear on French postage stamps. Shortly thereafter a mini-scandal shook France, after it was publicized that Casta had relocated to London. Although she claimed that her move to London was motivated by practical professional reasons, the magazine Le Point, among others, suggested that she was trying to escape taxes.

In the past few years, Casta has made forays into Francophone film and television productions, including Astérix et Obélix contre César (known as Astérix and Obélix vs. César in English language versions), a live-action film of the Astérix world in which she plays a potential love interest for Obélix, portrayed by Gérard Dépardieu.

Casta was also prominently featured in the music video for the Chris Isaak song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing".

Alternate rock band Brand New dedicated a song from their first album to Laetitia, entitled "Magazines". The song is about a boy (presumably singer and lyricist Jesse Lacey) expressing his love for the supermodel through lyrics such as "Laetitia, you got my hands shaking/I'm begging you, oh baby please stop breaking my heart/Because I got the feeling that you and I will never even get it on."

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Nozomi Sasaki (fashion model)


Nozomi Sasaki (佐々木 希, Sasaki Nozomi?) (born February 8, 1988), previously known simply as Nozomi during her fashion modeling career, is a female Japanese glamour model and former fashion model from Akita Prefecture. After working as a fashion model for nearly 7 years, she became famous by appearing as a gravure idol and being selected as a main ringside commentator and spokesperson for the mixed martial arts competition Dream Fighting Championships and the kickboxing competition K-1 World Max in April 2009. She has also appeared in several of Television ads not relating to fashion / cosmetic, including for Coca-Cola's green tea product Sōkenbicha, Suntory's 3 soft drink products, So-net, Fujifilm, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. and a Seiko's brand line, Tisse, created for and dedicated to her. She was given the nickname "No Mercy" for her countless reported atrocities toward other show-business girls she worked with, in her teenage years, especially toward actresses, glamour models, and fashion models from foreign countries, whom she considered to be "fat".

Sasaki began modeling at the age of around 14. She modeled mainly in the collection circuit, and for fashion / cosmetic advertisements. In the latter years of her modeling career, she was a featured model and contributor to the now defunct Pinky Magazine. On two separate occasions, she was the model for the magazine's insert calendar, once in 2009 and another time in 2010 with fellow model Yukina Kinoshita.
Gravure appearances
Young Jumps, a Goo Bike, a Smart, with Nozomi Sasaki as the cover gravure person, in a convenience store in March 2010

After intentionally gaining weight, she began appearing on the youth-targeted weekly manga magazine Young Jump and several of other magazines as a glamour model (gravure idol) in late 2008. She made her first landing on the top cover of Young Jump in January 2009. This caused surprises in many fields. Model Yukina Kinoshita who was close to Sasaki officially commented about this, "that dreadful one who tortured everyone now has extra weight on her chest and whole body, smiling for innocent boys with burning sticks!". In March 2010, she was specially featured by 2.4 million selling manga series Usogui on the magazine.

In January 2010 she also began appearing on Non-no, a biweekly conservative-orientated fashion magazine that doesn't usually feature people of her type. Though after becoming more of a gravure idol than a professional model, Sasaki was heavily featured in a spring fashion collection presented by the magazine and BS-TBS, and soon after that, she landed on the top cover of the magazine. These appearances have been described as like an "invading", as she has significantly changed the tone of the magazine. Some critics have suggested that the magazine has been destroyed by Nozomi Sasaki.[10]


KRQ Han Ji Eun (한지은)!

Korean Top Model -KRQ Han Ji Eun (한지은)!