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Pick yourself up by your bootstraps, re-invent yourself, look within, don’t blame others, take steps to change, analyze what went wrong, develop the courage to move forward, call your family for support, kiss your dog and more positive goodie good stuff are all respectable responses after life just grabbed you by both ears, kicked your butt sideways, backwards and forward.
It didn’t just give you lemons, it used your face for a lemon grinder if you bought it at Walmart or a lemon squeezer if nicely packaged and purchased on a Platinum Card from Macys.
Either way it hurt like heck.
So when you are a bright, beautiful, sophisticated (aren’t all gorgeous women with British accents sophisticated) and are a shapely runway model and your agency drops you, how would you describe what life just did to you?
Did it just give you lemons or did it use your………..
Some people would say when life gives you lemons, turn around and squeeze the juice back in its eye but not Saffi Karina.
She responded powerfully.
How did she respond? Her resume seems to speak for itself.
A group close to Saffi’s heart and who know her better than anyone, curveprojectlondon.com is qualified to share, “Signed to Storm Model Management, Saffi has over six years of international modelling experience and has fronted numerous high profile campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands.
Her work has allowed her to explore every aspect of the modelling industry thus far – from catwalk to catalogue, editorial, commercial, pop promos, film and TV.
Having started out as a regular size model early on in her career Saffi was constantly aware of the pressures to maintain the size 8-10 fashion ideal.”
So far it sounds like a model…..well model’s bio, except that very suspect last sentence inferring that there are curves ahead.
Hold tight to the steering wheel as you approach the bend because someone’s pickup whose gate was not secure in the back just dropped a load of lemons on the highway where you are now high up in the mountains and there is no guard rail.
On April 16, 2013 the Huffington Post reported, “Saffi Karina has founded Curve Project London, the UK’s first plus-size model workshop that will arm young ladies with the tools necessary to make it in the fashion industry at any size. Karina, a former straight-size model, was dropped from her agency six years ago after her body changed and her hips grew.”
I think we all agree that Saffi’s response to her life challenge is to be greatly admired.
She didn’t just heal and move forward, she thought about others and decided to help them as well.
The enjoyable site afkinsider.com agrees. They delight, “Saffi is a rare case: she was once a regular-sized skinny model who decided to turn plus size after her agency dropped her for gaining weight. Her stunning new curves landed her campaigns for Speedo and Debenhams, to name a few.”
Let’s please take a closer look at her life affirming organization.
The leaders at Curve Project explain, “Curve Project London is the UK’s FIRST Body confidence masterclass & intensive curvy model workshop.
At Curve Project London we welcome any woman that has an interest and passion for modeling as well as those who simply want a confidence boost and the chance to experience a fashion shoot in all its exciting glory!
Curve Project London is also a wonderful opportunity to meet and work alongside some of the Fashion industry’s most talented creatives, as well as the chance to produce beautiful photographs you can cherish forever.
At Curve Project London we want to break the stigma of having to be super tall and thin to get ahead in the fashion industry.”
Their hard work is paying off and garnering attention from other great minds in the industry.
The insightful site blisstree.com sends flowers. “The world of modeling is not a diverse one. Most models are “standard size,” meaning their bodies are around 5’10″ or so and between a size zero and four. Fortunately, the number of exceptions is increasing as more women become intolerant of the rigid restrictions set for female bodies in fashion, and model Saffi Karina is one of the people taking action on the matter with her plus-size modeling workshop called Curve Project London.
The first of its kind in the United Kingdom, the workshop will help young females understand how the fashion industry works, what to do, how best to do it and more in an effort to get more women into the plus-size modeling industry.”
Even within a talented and regal group of beautiful models, Saffi still stands out and has a strong following of loyal fans.
The dailymail.co.uk surely admires her. “Saffi Karina towers over her diminutive entourage like a thoroughbred racehorse surrounded by jockeys. Her skin, eyes and hair are the color of chestnut honey, and she carries off her challenging outfit of a totally sleeveless and semi-backless black silk shirt, teamed with skin-tight jeans, with the aplomb of the professional model. She is unarguably beautiful. And, to civilian eyes, she is also very slim – 5ft 10in and a toned size 12, with finely muscled arms, a neat waist and a perfectly flat stomach.”
Thus far we love Saffi’s reaction. We’re still trying to think of the right lemon colored box to package her story in.
Maybe this quote from Ron White who is an American stand-up comedian and actor, best known as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. He says, “I believe when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade…and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.”
I think we’re getting closer.
Saffi’s project is a serious, purposeful and beneficial endeavor but somehow I think when models get together to collaborate on anything, they still have a lot of fun.
So much of her success seems to be in her can do spirit. The dailymail.co.uk quoted her as expressing, “As you grow older, you become more womanly and I actually didn’t want to change that, so I started looking for what else was out there. I began working as a plus-size model and it is a very positive and happy industry. I still got to do what I loved and travel the world.”
Good for her.
I think I’m getting closer to her inspiring methodology.
Here it is.
It’s a quote from Anthon St. Maarten, a Life Coach among other professions. He smiles, “When life gives you lemons, you don’t make lemonade. You use the seeds to plant a whole orchard – an entire franchise!”
We are very glad that when life gave the breath taking model Saffi lemons, she planted a wonderful orchard that both fans and women of all shapes and sizes can nourish and flourish from.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/lemons
http://boardofwisdom.com/togo/?viewid=1005&listname=Life#.VrPh0ll7ykw
http://afkinsider.com/41207/17-black-plus-size-models-changing-face-fashion/9/
http://saffikarina.blogspot.com/
http://curveprojectlondon.com/about-us.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/saffi-karina-plus-size-model_n_3090957.html
http://beauty.allwomenstalk.com/plus-sized-models-that-prove-weight-doesnt-define-beauty/6
