Snejana Onopka

She is one of the most promising girls at the Viva agency; and she was just photographed by Mario Testino made up like Anna Wintour for Vogue France. In barely two years, Snejana Onopka has entered into the inner circle of the best-booked top models.

The young Ukrainian Onopka gives the impression of living in a dream. Every other phrase in her backstage interviews is, "It's cooool!" Her diaphanous, almost evanescent, extremely classical physique renders her mysterious. Onopka grew up in her native Ukraine in a modest household surrounded by a loving family; she never dreamt of glitter and catwalks.

It was during a trip to Kiev that her life changed direction. She was scouted in the street and offered an agency contract. Onopka, then 15, accepted. She left to work in Japan where her physical type was in high demand, but was not successful. Fortunately, she did not take the Japanese casting rejections personally because bnecoming a model was not yet a real goal for her.

After her return to Kiev, she signed with Metropolitan. Soon after, however, her agent gave her the possibility to join the American agency, DNA. When she learned which other models worked for DNA (e.g., Natalia Vodianova and Linda Evangelista) she signed immediately, and her career began to take off. She said later that she was in the right place at the right time.

Like many other models whose careers took off after barely arriving on the scene, her path crossed that of Steven Meisel. He made it possible for her to quickly access the strategic landmarks necessary for a future top model, e.g., the cover of Vogue Italy. Supported by the master fashion photographer, Onopka was quickly included in prestigious ad campaigns: Prada, Lanvin, Gucci, Calvin Klein and Dolce&Gabbana whose glamourous and sexy work she adores as she herself needs to feel sexy to feel good.

The next logical step in her career path was conquering the catwalks. Her slender silhouette, porcelain face and perfect complexion easily won over the designers. The spring-summer 2006 collections saw her in the most exclusive shows: Christian Lacroix, Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Balenciaga and Chanel. She met Karl Lagerfeld and candidly told him of her desire to be the next face of Chanel.

Her absence during the fall-winter 2007 New York shows was noticed. It had nothing to do with a renouncement on her part or a lack on interest on the part of the designers. Onopka simply had to choose between the shows and the Shiseido campaign. As absence makes the heart grow fonder, she was on all the catwalks during the Milan shows, from Burberry to Gucci to Dolce&Gabbana, and was one of the It girls of the season.

A small blemish on an otherwise perfect surface: Onopka was banned from the Madrid shows due to her excessive thinness. The minimum BMI (body mass index) is 18 to not be considered underweight; Onopka was at 14.6. This stopped only the Spanish, however, and Onopka was booked for the haute couture shows that summer.

As for her life outside of the shows and the photo shoots, Onopka remains very close to her family and visits them whenever she has time. She lives in New York by necessity for her work, but says she would like to move to London in the future. She appreciates the financial aspect of her modeling career that has allowed her to buy several apartments in Kiev and satisfy her desire for a limited edition Bentley.

As for fashion, she loves Fendi crocodile bags, but wears simple jeans. Luxury bag + casual look - she understands the basics of the "hype-cool" attitude that the models love. If everything were to come to an end tomorrow (which seems as unlikely as spotting Anna Wintour in thongs), Snejana Onopka would love to study linguistics and become a lawyer.