A perfect and well-proportioned body, delicate features, smooth muscles...You might not have heard of his difficult-to-pronounce name before, but this face, you surly have seen before. Being the model with the highest exposure among all the world male supermodels, he attracts an unlimited amount of attraction --- be it men or women.As the top male model of the world, from his popularity to his income, he is actually no difference from the stars of Hollywood.
Alex Lundqvist, a name that comes from Northern Europe, to most people, is very unfamiliar; but if his photo is put in front of you, your initial response would be: know who he is!? A perfect and well-proportioned body, delicate features, smooth muscles..., the image of Hugo Boss delivered this face for the whole world to see, not as an unique or cool image, but a shy, childlike smile , gentlemanly mannerisms, just a pure, unadulterated kind of beauty, is the major reason of how Alex becomes so popular. Even the gap between cultures or the differences between peoples 'idea of beauty cannot affect the fact that this is the face that everyone likes.
A hot summer in New York, Manhattan, makes the pedestrains on the street seemingly extremely hot-tempered. Taking on a fast pace, I walked from Soho to a studio in Broadway, today job will be to interview and take photographs of this supermodel. Not only that, but one of the world most important and popular show Vedio Fashion will also be here to shoot the making of GQ Chinese version of this issue cover page! The photographer and I had already had a meeting with the vice-president of Alex agent company Wilhelmina (one of the world greatest models agent company), and covered quite a lot of details: including the revelation of the most important point: Alex favourite food is sushi. OK, that is why we prepared a whole table of sushi and fruit juice for today interview!
Walking out of the ancient lift, and into an air-conditioned room, filled with the natural sunshine that passes through the specially designed roof-top of the studio interior, clearing away all the sweaty heat of the street, refreshing me up considerably. Although I've been here before, this initial feeling I have when I entered the room instinctively tells me that today interview will be carried out quite smoothly! All the workers are already there, each preparing their own equipment, the people from Vedio Fashion are also making ready on the set. After all the greetings, everyone began to get ready for the appearance of the man-of-the-day.
GQ has shot a lot of internationa supermodels before, and everyone of them has the same unique point, that is, the unstatement which attracts peoples attention! Indeed, they just try hard to be understated, but there are just certain little things which catpures everyone attention. Alex is also no different. T-shirt, khaki pants, sport shoes, just like that. He walked into the studio, and his attention was immediately captured by the table full of sushi, but then he turned around and greeted the photographer, all his actions natural and smooth. I stood at the side, quietly observing, his every action and mannerism tell me he is a very sociable in his profession. (But of course, he knows very well that the table of sushi is especially prepared for him; but he also understands that there is no great difference of a model role and position whether he is with the media or in the studio). I did not hurry myself to go up to him and introduce myself, I just stood aside and observe him casually. And while I was speaking to a person from Vedio Fashion regarding their work, he courteously and gentlemanly joined our conversation; he intelligently and expertly developed a kind of natural situation where we can introduce one another. This caused me to have a very deep impression of this male supermodel: mature, and have a great understanding of how human beings work.
The first picture was taken at the roof-top, an open-air studio. This was one of the pictures we have considered for the cover page. That right, straight away start from this picture! Wearing a new set of clothes by YSL, at the first moment when the camera was aimed at him, Alex immediately slipped into his role as a professional, no time was taken for warming up; to him, this is as casual as going up to a table and taking a piece of bread from the bread basket. The rest of the pictures, from a turning of the body, taking a stride forward, to a certain facial expression, Alex just naturally gives the perfect pose, easily adopting any character you want him to express. It is really admirable! But all these are nothing compared to his innocent smile, that at the turn of the next second, miraculously melted into one that is so full of emotion or melancholy and blue; but his best expression is self-confident sexiness, and simple, unadulterated elegance. For Alex, the control of body language and facial expression, whether it is to express or to hide, is already something that he has mastered.
It is lunch time! Alex finally cannot hide his passion for his favourite food, like a child who is so happy that he has received his favourite gift for Christmas, Alex ate heartily, while he talked about his experience of eating sushi from all over the world. The first time I saw Alex was in Milan two years ago, what a coincident it was that we happened to live in the same hotel, and reasonably we met during breakfast time. One of my girlfriends has been admiring him for quite some time, and at the first sight of him, regardless that he was in the company of a few other male models, in the process of helping themselves to the buffet breakfast, she just walked up to him and asked to take a photograph with him. During that time, my impression of Alex is that he is very quiet and gentlemanly, somewhat very different from the Alex now who cannot hide his love for sushi. While we are eating and chatting, at the same time I am also starting with my interview. When I asked him what he likes best, everyone answered for him: sushi!? He laughed in response to show his agreement, and even before he swallowed the piece of sushi in his mouth, he immediately added another answer: other than sushi, the Apple computer is his even greater love!
For the rest of the free time, he kept holding on to his newest model of Apple notebook while discussing all kinds of software for graphic design. Actually, Alex has always wanted to get into New York Parson School of Design to pursue his study in graphic design, and when he knew that it was also my alma mater and major, he was even more enthusiastic in showing me the designs he had created himself. His knowledge of software and hardware is so great, that I was really astonished, because he is really very professional. And as the ice started to thaw between us, I began to ask him the more private questions, which he also replied without pause. He said that for most things, he does not have too high hope or too much expectation, because this way, the disappointments will also be considerably lesser. Is this the way he protects himself? Maybe. Out of curiousity, I asked him about his love life, he revealed that he is waiting for someone, other than that he does not want to talk more.
What is unbelievable is that, originally from Sweden, Alex has been a tank platoon commander before, he finds the experience is not bad, but a bit boring. After army life, the Alex who has never left Sweden before, decided to start his modelling career in Milan, until three years ago, Sean Patternson ( the present vice-president of Wilhelmina) found him, and brought him to New york for training, and then he began to turn famous, and categorised as a male supermodel. He has been the face for Guess, Versace, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger... and many more famous brands. His exposure rate for magazines is shockingly high, and now even his television advertisements are getting good feedbacks. As Sean has said, Alex has a bright future in this career, how far he can go is really unlimited. But Alex expresses himself as not so passionate about fashion, because having to wear so many different designers?designs for every season, he is already immuned!
As a supermodel, he does not think the word fashion is that important. Knowing one own good points or strong points, in today restrictions, find a path that belongs to oneself, is one focus point in life!
GQ special interview from New York.
Produced/translated by :Ting Lo
Photographs by: Chiun-Kai Shih
Styling by: Stefan Wiklund
Lexi, thanks a lot for translating this interview!!!
If you want to see the photos which were attached to this interview, please click here!