I translated the interview myself, I did my best but I’m sure there will be a lot of mistakes, but anyways here you go:
His history:
Marlon Teixeira works again with El palacio de Hierro, now with the new edition “El libro Amarillo” The photoshoot was shoot in Brooklyn, New York, where we had a lovely talk with the Brazilian top model.
He was born in Santa Catarina, Brazil, 21 years ago. He spent all of his childhood and part of his adolescence in the beach, surfing and dreaming that a sponsor would sign a contract with him so he could travel the world. Now he lives in New York and travels all the time to do Runways or be the face of the best brands in the world. The website Models.com Lists him in the #12 of the best models. In 2011 he was named the model of the year. Everything started because his grandmother was a friend of the owner of the agency “Way Model Management” in Sao Paulo, one day they talked about Marlon:
"My mother didn’t want me to go, first because we didn’t have any money, and I was too young to travel alone”He was only 16 years old and he was dating with a 24 year old girl ”My grandmother asked me if my girlfriend was older than me (laughs) I told her yes, so she talked with her and ask her to take me to the interview. She gave me the money to pay the transport and to make a book. And, she told me that if I get work I had to pay everything she gave to me, but if I didn’t I owed her nothing. It was the first time I made a trip, with my girlfriend! I was very excited. At 16 years old I found myself in the craziest Brazilian city”
Marlon didn’t have an idea of what was coming. Maybe the fact that he didn’t have many expectations helped him and everything went well. Just a few days after he did the interview they asked him to do a casting, and he said, Yes, but first.. what's a casting? That's how his first opportunity came along.
The first steps:
The first time he left Brazil was to make castings in Paris and Milan
“When I got in Paris I thought something was wrong, I went to almost 15 castings and I only made one contract. I’ve never heard anything about Christian Dior, and it went out that I signed for the exclusive model of their show. What I remember the most when I got to Europe was the cold, I wasn’t expecting a weather like that. I lived in the beach and in Europe was winter. Of course I wasn’t even wearing a jacket, I wanted to go back to Brazil.”
His first check was for 2000 Euros. His legs shook when he was in the bank taking out the money, but once he made the transaction his chin when up and he felt the richest guy in the world.
"It was an amazing feeling, I didn’t want it to end. The first thing I bought was an ipod, Dolce Gabanna glasses for my mom, and a perfume for my girlfriend. For me a 300 euros shades, they were insane. Those 2000 euros where rad, I tought I reached the top"
The days outside home:
Like in any story, there are the good things, the bad things, and regular things.. He remembers that being in Europe was great, but he cried a lot: He didn’t have money, there weren’t computers or cellphones, no internet, he couldn’t comunicate to anybody and his girlfriend broke up with him. But after that good things came he couldn’t imagine at that time. The best thing was working with Mariano Vivanco:
"He made me suffer a lot in my first photoshoot. He is a prankster and he would tell me in a very seductive tone.. Honey I love you! And I felt very awkward, but he kept joking. He is very exentric, but now we are very good friends and we talk very often I learned a lot about fashion with him.”
In Jail:
He spent a very chaotic chapter when he had to travel to London to make a photoshoot, but first he made a stop in Milan. A couple of agents in the airport stop him and he didn’t understand anything because of the language. His papers were in order, but they treated him very bad, he was worried because he had to be in London the next day to work.
"They put me handcufs and trowed me in a jail with a bed made of rocks, without a blanket or anything. They gave me a sandwich that tasted horrible and a bottle of water. Until an Italian woman that knew portuguese helped me. She said very sadly that she didn’t know why they did that to me, nowadays I still have no clue why they treated me so bad”
Communication Problems:
He only spoke portuguese, so the communication was very hard.
"I only knew how to say “love" and "please". People would tell me "nice to meet you" and I’d say “please”. I said yes to everything. Now I understand english, I can have small conversations, but I don’t speak very well, I don’t know how to conjugate verbs. “Hungry” was a word that I’ve never heard in my life, but I've learned it fast, it was important to now because if I didn't I was left without eating.”
The success:
In 2008 they hired him to make a campaign with Armani Jeans.
"I’ve moved to Los Angeles, I’ve met a girlfriend there, also older than me. She made events and even though I was underage (17) she took me to party at night. The thing that shocked me the most was that I could eat as much as I wanted. They thought I was Italian so they said.. you can eat “tutti”
In 2009 Karl Lagerfeld photographed him for a campaign of Dior Homme. The French brand always uses very skinny models. In that sense, he thinks"I just was in Fashion Week and it starts to feel a change in the beauty of the models. Big designers like Versace wants bigger models, with more body and not so skinny. I remember that not so long in Paris you have to be all bones to fit in the clothes”
The world of the fragrances:
In 2011 he signed with diesel to be the face of the product.
"The campaign I made with them was so cool. In that time I didn’t imagine the impact it would have. Until I’ve got to Europe and the people went crazy with me. They reached me to ask autographs and take pictures. After that, they told me the campaign was in television. It was so crazy, I wasn’t prepared for that”
"The Fragrance world is amazing. Perfumes have a really huge advertising budget that is all wasted in only one production, that’s why they make only one in a year. No matter where you are if they want you in their campaign they take you in first class wherever they shoot. They receive you and serve you very well, like a celebrity. In most brands you sign to be their image for two or three years”
I just want to surf:
Marlon’s innocense won’t let him realize he went very far. He is known in the whole world, but he doesn’t like fame, and doesn’t understand why people want to take pictures with him, he is just a model.
"When I go home nobody recognizes me and I love that. My family and friends close to me likes me to visit them around Brazil because nobody asks me for pictures. When I got out of my country there weren’t a lot of magazines of fashion, but Brazil has grown a lot, I love to participate in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo Fashion weeks”
He says that in his city when he goes out everybody recognizes him and turn around to watch"Where they recognize me the most is here, in New York, here is where people know the most about fashion. In the sub people ask me for autographs”
The interview in Spanish: http://gaceta.soytotalmentepalacio.com.mx/2013/08/15/entrevista-a-marlon-teixeira/