The fairy tale climb to fame of Russian born 2011 Sports Illustrated Model of the Year, Irina Shayk!
Russian born beauty Irina Shayk, has a fairytale story ! From the tough early days in Eastern Block Russia, to wearing the crown of the much coveted 2011 Sports Illustrated Model of the Year. She has come a long way, simply by loving the beach, and letting the beach love her .. like any princess would in her domain !
The Russian princess in question, is Irina Sheyk, sometimes credited in her photos as Irina Sheik, and who was born as Irina Shaykhlislamova on January 6th, 1986 in Yemanzhelinsk, Russia.
Irina’s parents are typical for the area and the time; her father Valeri (now deceased), was from Turkish background (called Tatar), and her mother was native Russian.
“I get my un-usual looks from my father”, she says, “he was very dark skinned becasue he was Tatar, and sometimes Tatars can look Brazilian”.
She is quite adamant though that her light coloured eyes are from her Mother.
Her mother was actually responsible for more then just the light color of her eyes; she was a pianist you see, who was the music teacher in kindrgarten. It was this influence that caused Irina to start playing piano at age 6, and then to enrol in music school from the age of 9.
She studied there for the next 7 years, both playing the piano and singing in the choir. This influence from her mother was what started her thinking in terms of entertaining others, and although she could not have thought it at the time, it’s what put her on the road to seek more than her country could provide for her. And that of course led her to the shores of the great USA where these dreams for fulfillment and self actualization have a tendency to come true !
But more on that later.
Irina’s father died of complications of pneumonia when she was 14, leaving her family with little funds and forcing her mother to work two jobs to provide for her family.
It was after school that Irina’s big break came though. Whilst bored with her marketing studies, she decided to enter a local beauty school where she was asked to enter the local beauty pageant, “Miss Chelyabinsk 2004!”
Of course she won, otherwise this would not be the fairy tale story that it is !
Her big break followed soon after when famous model scout, Guia Jikidze noticed her and escorted her to France at the tender age of 19 to start her modeling career.
She was successful in becoming the face of Intimissimi in 2007 & then debuted in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which led to her real claim to fame.
From 2007 to 2011, she has appeared in many photo shoots of Sports Illustrated and been rewarded with adoring fans.
Consequently, her fame started to spread and she was sought after for many projects.
She appeared on cover of Paris Capital, Annabelle, Bolero, Woman, Jalouse, Ocean Drive, GQ South Africa and Elle Spain magazines.
She also held contracts with Beach Bunny in 2009 and Guess spring/summer 2009. She started to work with IMG Modeling Agency in the same year, and modeled the Armani Exchange spring/summer campaign in 2010.
Irina got her first taste of pop video, by starring in Kanye West’s video clip called “Power”.
Irina also did her first `nude’ appearance that year. It was for the GQ Spain December issue, but reportedly she was actually wearing lingerie in most and the photos digitally altered to appear nude.
Her greatest success as a swimsuit model came in 2011 though, when she won the coveted cover title the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
That was a great success for more reasons than just the title. She was the first native Russian model to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Irina later appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman where she announced that she is the cover model of the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
She also became the face of famous swim label Luli Fama’s 2011 advertising campaign in early 2011.
Irina’s successes continue; Glamour Spain chose her as the Best International Model of 2010, she ranked number 1 in the “50 Hottest Russian Women” list by Complex magazine, and she ranked 10th in the “Top 20 Sexiest Models” list on Models.com.
Her latest award, was in 2011 where she was voted “Sexiest Woman In The World” by the Hungarian magazine Periodika.
On the more romantic front, the gorgeous Irina, who has been described as having awesome full lips and dangerous curves, has been dating famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo since May 2010.
We have to conclude that the inspiration given by the gorgeous Irina, is the reason for Ronaldo’s improved on field performance this season! <
See more of Edition 48 – The intimate Swimsuit Edition, right here ; https://autobabes.com.au/edition-48-the-intimate-swimsuit-edition-is-availablenow/
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