Laetitia Casta A~Z
Quotes
"I dont believe in god, but when I see laetitia I'm tempted to change my mind."
~Vivienne Westwood
"Laetitia is beautiful inside and radiant outside. She is pure, honest, open, and natural. There is no advice that I can give her; she has her own life under control. The most important thing is not to become a star but to remain one! This I wish for her with all my heart."
~Brigitte Bardot
"(Laetitia) has a childlike gift for the camera, then she delivers something incredible...Laetitia is the most beautiful woman in the world."
~Dominique Issermann
"I looked into her eyes to understand her, and there I saw a beautiful, radiant soul. For that I chose her, not only for her splendid body."
~Paul Marciano
"I had enemies on the set because only I was allowed to kiss Laetitia. She has so many faces - one minute she is a young, sweet girl; then suddenly a hilarious, mature, knock-out woman! During shooting, she was unbelievably professional, which certainly doesn't come only from her recent work as a model. With her experience and her naturalness, she can become a huge success."
~Hardy Kruger Jr., (Tragicomix)
Loreal
L signed a contract with L'Oreal in 1998. Apearing at the Cannes film fest, she was a radiant representative for the company, which sponsored the festival for the second consecutive year. She appeared as one of L'Oreal's "diplomats of charm" along with top models Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss, as well as an assembly of international movie stars.
Rolling Stone
Laetitia was named the hottest model of the year in Rolling Stone's HOT issue in Aug 1998. The sizzling image of a nude Casta on the cover sparked a major controversy, and several retailers refused to carry the maga. Rolling Stone had featured nude stars on its cover in the past, but never before had it seen this kind of heat.
Pirelli Calendar (1999)
Pirelli Tyres Limited, world-renowned manufacturer of automobile tires for both road and raceway, is also famous for its sexy calendars, which they have published yearly since 1964. The calendar has never been sold in stores and is avilable only to those fortunate enough to be included on the exclusive Pirelli mailing list.
Photographer Herb Ritts collaborated closely with L'Wren Scott, Pirelli's creative director, and Jennifer Starr, Pirelli's casting agent in developing the concept and choosing the models and locations for the 1999 Pirelli calendar. "Women throught the Decades". The shoots take place over 5 days in May 1998 in three locations: Ritt's private studio, a beach house in Malibu, and the Smashbox Studio in Los Angeles.
For this calendar, a model was chosen to rep each decade. Ritts and Scott compared pics of model icons from 12 decades, beginnning with the belle epoque (1890's), with pictures of today's supermodels. When they saw Laetitia, their reaction was immediate - Laetitia, with her classic beauty and curvaceous figure, was the perfect choice for the 1950's. As the French mag, PARIS MATCH was moved to proclaim, "The souls of all the fifties pinup girls are reincarnated in Laetitia." The unofficial word at Pirelli is that Laetitia is the favorite pinup of everyone who has seen the calendar.
Sports Illustrated
Laetitia was chosen to fill one of the highly-coveted spots in the annual swimsuit issue of SI for 1997, 1998, and 1999.
While shooting in Kenya for the 1998 swimsuit issue, Laetitia found herself among the Masai. "When they love a woman, they slap her with their long hair. At the end of the day, my cheeks hurt alot. And hands on everything - they love to touch, the Masai."
Corsica
Corsica is a rocky island that lies just south of France and fifty-two miles west of Italy. Its strategic location in the Med has made it the target of many European nations who have tried to take it by force -- but it has had an especially tumultuous and colorful history with France and Italy. It has belonged to France since the 18th century, and before that it was a colony of Genoa.
Although French is the official language today, Corsican- a blend of Italian, Latin, and French - is still spoken. Centuries of fighting to protect their land had led Corsicans to forge their own fiercely-indpendent, very-distinctive identity; best exmplified by their most famous son, Napoleon Bonaparte. With it's crystalline mountain rivers, beautiful beaches, and aquamarine waters, Corsica today is a polpular vacation destination and the pride of its people.
Guess?
Paul Marciano, art direct and a founder of Guess, fell under Laeitita's spell several years before her first encounter with Saint Laurent. Marciano saw Laetitia for the first time in 1993, and soon there after offered her a Guess? Advertising campaign. It was through the famous GUESS? campaigns that Laetitia was introduced to the American market, and her career was immediately launched worldwide.
Marciano is unabashed in his admiration for Latitita and the impact she had on him. "I first met Laetitia in 1993 when she was about 13 years old. I had seen just two head shots of her, but never saw her in person. The first time she walked into my office, I though she was lost in the GUESS? building with her paretns - she looked like she was no more than 12 years old! But when I looked more closely, I was blown away by the perfect features of her face. And those eyes - I couldn't look away from them! Then she spoke to me in French, and I was so pleasantly surprised. She was so appreciative and enthusiastic about the possibility of being a part of the GUESS? campaign, that I have to say it was the sweetest and most refreshing moment I had had in many years.
"Laetitia and I share a deep personal friendship that has developed over years of working together. I consider myself very fortunate to have been the one to give Laetitia her first advertising campaign."
As Vincent Peter of Madison Models tells it, "She arrived around lunchtime with her father, wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt, and no makeup. It took me about half a second to see that she had something rare and special. It's indescribable -- that instant recognition that you have something fantastic on your hands. Laetitia was not yet 15, and shy and, I would say, a little tense...but only because she was in unfamiliar territory. She knew nothing about the modeling or fashion world. It was just something that happend to her.
A Laetitia (a la Corse), Quotes
Food
"I love food: hamburgers, pizza, gnocci, mashed potatoes, and especially chocolate. I enjoy eating for the sake of eating. Sometimes I feel sad for the models who don't eat. When you love food, you love life. When you love life, you love to love."
~Laetitia
Family
"My family is the most important thing in my life. I would love passionately to have my own children. To have a baby inside me - it's one of my dreams in lie. I would love to hold my children, to run to them, to give them the same happiness my family gives to me.
~Laetitia
Seduction
"I enjoy being a woman. It's what I learned from years of experience in modeling. You learn how to seduce; how to be sensual, how to play. It's very important for a woman, I think. But it's not by beauty that you seduce. It's a meeting - it depends on the image the other reflects back to you, how they see you and make you feel."
~Laetitia
Nudity
"...it's a natural state. I've seen more vulgarity in people wearing clothes."
~Laetitia
Water
"Water makes me feel at peace. In Corsica, I spend most of my time on the beaches or in the rivers. That's one reason I love it there so much. The water is so clean and fresh - you can drink it straight out of the rivers! This island is my secret garden."
~Laetitia
Clothes
"I feel best in soft and natural materials such as cotton and silk. I wear collections from all designers. They all have outstanding cuts and extremely pleasant materials."
~Laetitia
Men
"When I see a a man I look into his eyes to find his true self. I don't look at his body. It is his heart and his passion that will give me what I want. What interests me is a man's soft spot: his vulnerability. It is when a man is vulnerable that he is beautiful. When he is unguarded and honest, then a man is like a child."
~Laetitia
Books
"Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel that I have read over and over and over again. Tess is a pure child who has an inner glow none of the others in the book possess. They reject her because she is different, and they try in every possible manner to destroy her, because they are jealous. It is an extraordinary love story."
~Laetitia
Modeling
"In life, (the fashion world) is full of sharks. In this world the young girls lose themselves; become the property of others, live but for the job and their craziness...they don't know anymore where their home is. Many take drugs. It's strange. Perhaps the girls understand that this does not work for me.
I don't have many friendships with other models. I respect them and enjoy working with them, but I probably would not invite them into my home. My house is like my heart, and I open it only to those with whom I have a close relationship."
~Laetitia