TABLE FOR TWO

There’s a revolt at the office because I’m going to lunch with Velencoso.
It’s not for less because seating in front of the most international Spanish
model it’s something that you can not improvise. He was the Louis Vuitton
guy next to Jennifer Lopez, has been in campaigns and it’s the face of the
Allure Sport Homme by Chanel. He’s 1,90m tall and very beautiful (the photos
speak for themselves and most of them don’t make him any justice), simple
guy (he knows he causes passions and he takes it very easily) and sportive
(he loves to scuba dive). And I ask myself: does this guy have any defect?
For a Madrid fan like me, he only has one: being a big fan of Barça.

WHERE DO WE MEET?
In Lágrimas Negras, Madrid, at 2:00 pm…

He’s always going up on a plane: New York, Tokyo, Milan, Paris… I’ve found
him recently back in Madrid where he’s coming to receive an award. Then he
will go to Tossa de Mar – where his father and sisters live – before going
back to Japan.

- Do you think Lágrimas Negras is ok? - I say to him – It’s the most
fashionable restaurant in Madrid. It’s in Puerta de America hotel.
Very good, whatever you want - he answers.

He appears with a look a hundred per cent yankee that gives a lit repel:
cap, jeans, a tremendous shirt and slippers All Star. Badly we began for the
first appointment. Thank heavens that by stylist and magic art, a square’s
shirt transforms him quickly into a gentleman. “I look like a father, no?
“He says between laughter. He’s tired, the effect of the jet-lag flies over
his eyes, but he’s a good talker and he speaks with calm. The chief
recommends us the specialty of the house and in front of the conchinillo
confitado, with vuelco de cocido and a Ribera de Duero (food and wine), we
spoke about politics, fashion, love and even submarine fishing.


THE APPETIZER
“In my work, if I were a woman I would be rich”

You could see that he’s not used to shirts because he doesn’t stop moving
and he’s always adjusting them on the arms and he’s always touching his hair.
Is he nervous? I shoot.

Because of work, you live in New York for a few years, but for what I have
understood your arrival there was not triumphal - I say to him.

I could write a book called A Spanish man in NY (Ah Ah). It was a disaster:
I didn’t speak English, people from my agency couldn’t understand me, the
credit cards didn’t work… It was terrible and I was about to come back home
after a week. I’ve stand there because I was fascinated by the city and
working there was one of my dreams.

You left of tourism to be a model, what have made you change the books for
the photo shoots?

My mother and my sister insisted until they’ve made it. I had already begun
to travel and to make fashion articles. Tourism bored me and I’ve decided to
leave it to dedicate full time to fashion.

For Allure campaign you received 200 000 euros but if you were a woman you
would receive thirty or fifty per cent more. Maybe the only advantage is
that men have a longer career? Does it comfort you?

That’s right. I know models with fifty years who still work, but I prefer
not to think about the money or I’ll have a depression. I’m sure that if I
was a woman I would be rich. But it’s also true that I’ve never gained
more money then any female model that I’ve worked with - he adds with
vanity, but he doesn’t convince me. Everything else instead of recognizing
there’s a little pain there. Typical of a male.


“There aren’t idiot’s models that triumph. You need more than a good physique
to be at the top.”


FIRST PLATE
Girlfriend, me?

You work has a model since you’re twenty. Do you see yourself with fifty
years in front of a camera and traveling as intensively as you do now?

I don’t think so, but it would depend on how I’ll be physically and on what
priorities I’ll have then. For now, it’s difficult to have a girlfriend and
to start a family – he says to me with a studied smile. I made him the
question he wants to hear.

Are you telling me that a guy like you doesn’t have a girlfriend?

Perhaps I don’t look for her or I don’t want her. I run away from commitment
but love is unpredictable. If the woman of my life shows up, she will be
welcomed, but I hope that she arrives late so I don’t loose the freedom to
move from here to there.

I try to go to centre of the question and so I ask him: but while she
doesn’t arrive, your phone agenda must be making smoke?

If you’re talking about going out with girls without having a girlfriend,
yes.

What girls do you like?

Funny, with character, that knows what they want and that they connect with
me. The eyes are what I first pay attention to.

With the social life you have: parties and evening-parties full of glamour,
beautiful people…How do you take care of yourself from the inside so you
don’t let yourself be eaten by the fashion world?

Fashion gives me food but there are other things that I don’t like: the
superficiality, hypocrisy and the tyrannies that there are on it. I know
about fashion trends but they aren’t something essential in my life. For
that reason I don’t understand people who only live to be in fashion.

Now I understand his made in America look. He stops, thinks and says “I’m
lost” but he doesn’t let me open my mouth as he says “Ah, yes, yes! About
taking care of myself. The truth is that from the outside: little, no diet,
no gym, nothing. From the inside, I’m a reserved person - although I like a
lot to speak – I surround myself with good people and I read. I like
spiritual books that allow me to know myself better and novels. Right now
I’m reading “Los pilares de la tierra” (The Earth pillars, just for fans to
have a clue). The beginning of it is a little tostón, eh?

“I like funny women with character. My best weapon to conquer? A good
smile.”


SECOND PLATE
“The solitude has helped me to be better person”

Because of your work, the solitude is a habitual companion?

I recognize that is the worst part of my job, but that had taught me a lot
of things: to know myself better, to think well what I want in my life, to
remove all by myself the chestnuts from the fire…

Do you see yourself as a better person as you did a few years ago?

“Being away from home had made me grow up.” He stays silent and thinking
before he continues. “My mother’s death four years ago had changed my away
of seeing life. It was her who incite me to be a model but when I started to
travel more she started to not liking it so much because she didn’t had me
next to her… My father isn’t the most communicative person of the world, but
in his way he tells me to be honest with myself. I don’t know if I’m a good
person, but I try to be.

Now tell me about your dark side. Where does your shoe tights up?

What I don’t like about myself? That’s easy: I’m easily distracted,
impatient, insecure and I think more about myself instead of thinking about
people around me. I admit that, I’m selfish.

Well, at least the guy is honest, or he seems so.
In the best models ranking you’re at twenty three position. Confess, where
do you spend your money?

I used to be at number one, but models.com list is not very trustworthy… I
give myself whims once in a while – the last one were a Barneys shoes that
cost me an eye – but I’m not manirroto at all. I spend the money on going
out with friends in New York, dinners, travelling and scuba diving when I’m
in Tossa de Mar. I had planed going to the Red Sea but I’ll not be able to
go because of my schedule work. It’s a pity because it was already paid.

Do you do submarine fishing?

No, no, I like to see animals on their habitat, without hurting them. I have
seen giant’s octopus, lobsters, sea horses…It’s very relaxing; I’m addicted
to it!

PERSONAL MENU

- His name is Andrés Velencoso Segura.

- He grew up in Tossa de Mar (Gerona) and he is 28 years old-

- His mother died four years ago. Three months later he tattooed her name on
his chest: Lucia.

- He prefers photo shoots from fashion shows. “Fashion shows are live and I
get nervous. Photos you can always repeat.”

- He lives in New York for five years. “I miss the Spanish culture and
Spanish people. I can’t stand more than a month there.”

- He had already worked with famous photographers: Patrick Demarchelier,
Steven Meisel, Jean Baptiste mondino…

- He has a contract with a Japanese magazine and he flies to Japan every
month. “I love the Japanese culture and food.”

- Within two years he would like to study dramatic art in New York “although
being an actor isn’t my dream.”

- In the next autumn he will appear on Jean Paul Gaultier perfume and H&M
campaigns.

THE CRUMBS OF THE TABLE CLOTH

- “My small pleasures? Going for a walk in the early morning, having dinner
with my father and sister and the cakes.”

- “I’m a very familiar guy and I have very good friends. Friendship is a
think of two and you have to work it as in a relation ship.”

- “My movies: Blue Velvet, Sin city, City of God and The Constant Gardener.”

- “I had to work outside Spain I make the Louis Vuitton campaign with
Jennifer Lopez so I could be recognized in Spain. What do I remember of her?
That she was very rigorous and professional.”

- “I try to maintain myself down to earth. A short time ago I’ve made photos
in an Arab sheik yacht that cost sixteen million euros and he only uses it a
month per year. I thought that was a waste and an injustice.”

- “I have already realized a lot of my dreams: working on United States,
knowing Japan and travelling to Africa and South Africa.”

- “One passion: first thing I do when I arrive to Tossa de Mar is going to
the L’amfora scuba diving centre (Puig Gros, 9).”


DESSERT
“In New York I go to a bar to see Barça”

The Constitution, immigration problem, Government dialog with ETA… Do you
follow the politics?

No. I’m not a politic person. I only vote in my hometown… and almost forced
by my father. Sometimes I read the news on the internet to know what’s going
on in the world. Soccer is what I follow.

Are you a Barça fan?

Off course. In New York I go to a bar to see the games live on TV. The bar
gets full of Spanish people.

I don’t tell him I’m totally merengue so I won’t damage his digestion.
(Merengue is how people from Madrid are called. Merengue is a dessert made
off eggs and sugar.)

Do we order dessert?

Andrés doesn’t hesitate for a second “Yes, of course. Something sweet, I
love cakes.”

Bring us two merengues, please.


Andrés wears jacket and trousers from Just One and shirt from Hackett. Hair
and make-up by Pilar Llorens from Llongueras and P Brito from Llongueras.
Special thank to Puerta de America hotel, 41 America Avenue, Madrid Tel: 91
744 54 00

Translation by Silvia - thank you hon!