She won the Miss Earth Mauritius beauty pageant less than 24 hours ago, but you were already acquainted with Anne-Sophie Lalanne's face before then. She appeared in 'Run for Water', IV PL@Y's Winter 2009 campaign and has since graced almost every major campaign, fashion show and magazine since - and at 1m76, she fits the standard model criteria. The girl who lives by "family, ethics and the colour pink!" is undoubtedly the model of the moment.
Photographer: Amaury Bouchet
Make-Up Artist: Cedric Lanappe
The 21-year-old beauty is currently studying interior decoration and is the ambassador for the LET (Les Enfants Terribles) nightclub. For all her celebrity status, it doesn't seem that the Mauritian media has caught on to her yet - and it's Style Mauritius' pleasure to introduce her properly to you.
She was involved in local fashion since her early teens."When I was around 13 years old, I started thinking that I wanted to get involved in the local fashion industry but I didn't know how it was going to be possible, I wasn't like everyone else - I have a handicap, and I am dyslexic. As a child, I was also the ugly duckling!"
Two years later, she was discovered by the HEAT modelling agency and her career took off. Things weren't always easy, however. "One day I heard that one of the most prestigious contests was to take place in Mauritius. I went to the castings, I was told that I fit all their criteria and that they would love it if I were to compete. Two days afterwards, the director of the contest calls me and told me that I couldn't participate because of my handicap. I will always remember that. I felt different and hurt to the core."
Photographer: Amaury Bouchet
Make-Up Artist: Cedric Lanappe
I admire her bravery and fighting spirit. She refuses to let her physical difficulties affect her. "So after that phone call, my mother then said that I shouldn't be sad, that best things were waiting for me...and that day I understood that my handicap was going to differentiate me no matter what happens, it will never change. So I decided to fight, not to be famous but to take a stand and forge my place in this world that wants to change you. I fight so that my handicap becomes a mark of strength rather than a weakness. I learned to know my body, to pose so that my handicap wasn't visible - and I can do that now, and thank everybody that has shown me how to do it."
She believes that one of the problems facing the local industry today is the lack of modelling criteria, but that "as Christopher Marlowe said, 'Il n'y a pas de beauté sans quelque chose d'étrange dans les proportions'" (there is no beauty without something strange in the proportions). She can't choose a favourite modelling moment so far, as "every experience was a magnificent opportunity for me. I make the most out of the present moment because everything can stop very quickly." She doesn't think that she will continue modelling in the future, however. "There is just one little thing that I have to do before leaving the modelling world...win a beauty pageant! Once done, I will have accomplished my goal: to have fought for difference." Does her new title as Miss Earth Mauritius 2014 herald her retirement from the industry, then? Time will tell. She has no definite plans for the future: "Why not travel around the world in a pink Mini Cooper? Ahaha! I can't even tell you what tomorrow holds..."
xoxo
Alex
email: stylemauritius@live.com
