Andrés Velencoso - The world, His runaway
 

It had to arrive to him a Louis Vuitton campaign next to Jennifer Lopez for fashion gurus to notice him. They totally adore him now, but behind there were left 5 years of castings, runaways and travelling around the world like “another one more”. Our most international “male top” breaks barriers.
 

It could be that what he has gained in recognition and reputation he lost it in proximity and accessibility; but that’s what success is all about… Even that, he didn’t pay a lot to achieve is dream: “For now, I only start to collect what I have planted. It arrived late but I’m already enjoying it”.
 

It was worth it all the work?

Without a doubt. I decided it in a summer, seven years ago. I was tired of working in my father’s restaurant and I wasn’t feeling motivated by the studies. My life was about working and studying. I had made in the year before some modeling works in Barcelona to make some money. I enjoyed the experience…
 

And you decided to dedicate yourself to this.

Fashion came to me casually. What I wanted was to study Sports; that’s what I really liked. But just before the college exams I broke my shinbone and my perone and I had to give up. I enrolled for Tourism and started to do real jobs as a model…
 

How was it the “mum, dad, I want to be a model”?

My mother really believed in me. She encouraged me, she saw me as a beautiful man… It’s my mother! And she was so sure that she went to an agency. With my parent it was different… I was studying Tourism but that annoyed me. And I saw fashion as an opportunity to travel, which I love. Then I got full of courage and told my father just some days before enrolling. It was hard. He told me I was responsible for my own life and that this job had no future. We were mad with each other for a long period. I went to Milan without speaking to him.
 

And now?

He is proud of me. He is the first one to show people my photos. A few months ago they did in Tossa, my village, an exposition about my career. The all village was full of ads announcing it and my father was always the first one to grab pictures of me and free entries and give it to the restaurant clients. Now I know he is happy, and even if he doesn’t tell me that, I know he tells it to the others.

Did you ever regret leaving the books?
I regret for not studying what I like and for choosing a career because it had to be that one, a career with a very predictable future… I let myself go. I didn’t like studying a lot, I had to admit it, but if I had chosen Sports, I would have been a good student.

When you look back in time, would you still made the same decisions?
Without a doubt. The most important ones, yes. The decision of giving up the studies, going to New York, changing agency and bookers… I don’t regret anything. On the other hand, I would have changed some details on other decisions.

From Tossa to Manhattan. How was this adventure?
Before arriving in New York, I spent 6 months in Milan and Paris and that worked as training for me.

Were you aware of the choices you were making?
Yes but I saw everything as an adventure without taking it too serious. I wanted to know how far I could go by my own. I wanted to live, to know… I didn’t take the modeling as a career but as something that allowed me to live in Milan, Paris… But in New York I realized I could be making money out of this.
 

The worst of all this then?

Being away from my family and friends although I always tried to come often to Tossa… Especially when my mother was sick. If start working as a model and things don’t go right to you, which is the most usual, it’s tough. I was doing things I didn’t like and trying not to spend money.

Which means you were this close to give up, right?
Yes. Lots of times. Two weeks after arriving in Milan I wanted already to give up. In Paris, again. If you don’t get along well with the agency, if you are searching for an apartment… There were some moments were I asked myself what I was doing. In New York, the first week was terrible: I didn’t know how the phone cards worked, I was going to the agency to call my parents and in the agency they didn’t appreciate that. It was tough. The city was overwhelming me. I would get lost in the subway, arriving late to castings and getting in troubles with the agency. Buff!
 

When everything goes well, the bad moments get sweeter?

I don’t want to lose any reference. For sure I had bad times in the beginning. I left Tossa believing I was going to conquer the world and I thought of returning back home more than once. But destiny was a good friend of mine.
 

How do you deal with the dark side of this profession?

With hope and faith. If I didn’t see a bit of light in the end of the tunnel, I would have given it all up. On those moments, even my mother told me to return home, but my pride helped me to pass through them. The pride of letting everything behind and telling my father I was pursuing a dream. My dream was to travel and I was doing it. In those days, I already knew more places of the world that he did in his entire life. That’s how my pride saved me; but my luck also changed like from the night to the day…
 

A man learns to live with the loneliness?

Now I know how to share my life with it. It has been a slow process but I managed to make it. At the beginning it was my worst enemy: I couldn’t stand being alone, always wanting to share an apartment. Now it’s the opposite: I tell the agencies I want to be alone in the hotels and apartments. I search for company if I want to. Today, the loneliness is my friend and I take advantage of it: I like to listen to silence, read, going to the cinema alone, visiting the cities without a company… Before, I would call my friends for not being alone and now I call them to have dinner and nothing more. I enjoy the loneliness.
 

Always?

Sometimes you have your moments when you fell a bit down when you have the need of calling someone, talking. That’s when I call my friends and get fresh again.
 

Did you ever think you would be making money due to your body?

Never. You already know that my mother was the only one that believed in my talent! (laughs) Time helped me to see this way of life in a natural way. I take advantage of what I got, which is a body that people like and I get paid for it. What had started like an hobby turned to be my way of life, my job.
 

Despite people could see you as a sex object?

I felt like that many times, I can even say to you that every day. But it’s my job. It depends on how you see it.
 

And this career doesn’t lasts forever?

I know it could end tomorrow but I will manage to deal with that fact the same way I suddenly decided to dedicate myself to this job. I fell very lucky because I know that some people I love, also love me. And that will never allow for me to be sad. Sometimes I think that if I had a car accident and damaged my face, I would have to dedicate myself to other thing, recycling my life. And I assure you I’m mentally prepared for that.
 

That is called being down to earth.

My people help me to not lose any reference.

You still have the same friends with you?
Yes, but I’m realizing that it’s very difficult to maintain the connection with them. I changed because of the circumstances, I see life this way and they didn’t change as I did. But true friends will always be there, although that maybe less things relates me to them… But I gained friends in my job which I can share experiences with.

Do people change their attitude when you say you’re a model?

That always brought me troubles. There was a time where I avoided telling what my job was. I would lie because people would change their faces when I tell them I was a model. Even now that still happens! It depends on the person. I say I’m a model and I introduce myself as someone who works on the world of image.
 

Being beautiful causes you troubles?

Sometimes yes because you go against a thousand of prejudices. Being good looking had opened to me more doors then the ones that got closed because of that. But I had to deal with the jealousy from people around me and also from people who doesn’t know me and by seeing me on a magazine put a label on me.
 

To how many of those that shut doors for you, you know shut their mouth with your success?

To a few of them to be honest. At the beginning I went to castings where I was rejected for being too beautiful, too tall, too big… Now they are eating my success with potatoes. And that happened to me especially here in Spain.
 

That’s why you left?

I had to leave because of the facts. In Spain they didn’t trust me; they weren’t giving me opportunities…  And from a year to now on, I’ve been returning to Spain through the “big door”. But I don’t keep any kind of rancor. I think it was circumstances at the time. For me it’s like a dream to come to Spain for work, it’s a pleasure you can’t imagine. Now people treat me better, with more respect.
 

And how do you deal with the fame?

Fame is something that I still don’t understand. I don’t mind people knowing me; what I want is people to let me do my job and to respect me. I don’t enter that talking and selling my private life game. That’s nobody business if I have or not a girlfriend, where I live, how it’s my house and what I do when I leave the runaway. I get flattered for being recognized but it also represses me a lot.
 

What did you had to decline to pursue your dream?

It got lost in the way some friend that couldn’t understand the fact that I wasn’t always there. Also time to be next to my youngest sister, watching her growing; and time to be with my mother in her last days. Those are the things you realize later.
 

Do you cry in silence for it?

In a certain way. I cry a lot. It makes me cry: memories, a movie, a hug, that I love you in the right moment...
 

Despite all this come and going, do you pamper your relationships?

The models are always on the road and it’s difficult to focus on a relationship. Family is always there for you but it’s different in what concerns to others persons. It is difficult to keep girlfriend and friends because some of them tend to think you forgot about them because you are not physically there.
 

Despite all that, do you feel better then all this?

Do I give that impression? Not at all, I still have my fears. For example, I fear for not knowing to enjoy the good that life is offering me right now. I think what I’m experiencing right now haven’t changed my personality. I don’ know what vanity is but one think I know for sure is that in this life nothing is forever.
 

Even those looks of desire?

From the runaway I felt those desire looks, I will not deny it. But I always try to know if people approach me for what I am or for what I represent. It scares me not knowing to feel the difference. And women are very good at this; we men are more obvious. I felt very uncomfortable in many situations; and because in most of the times I don’t know how to deal with it, I end up by disappearing.
 

If a son tells you he wants to be a model, would you encourage him?

The world would fall down above me if I said no to him. But I would prefer for he not to be because I know the fashion world and my protective side would appear. I would say for he to try it, for not to be over hopeful, and if he didn’t succeed to return home. It’s a great job if you make it, you work on it with a great level; but it’s no good to be travelling around if you don’t make money or get recognized by your work. If I didn’t get a job quickly in NY, I would have quit modeling a long time ago.