Meet the Olgas

“P is actually for Plotnikova.” A 22-year-old Russian model,wearing a little black Miss Sixty Dress,explains the “P”,standing like a puffed-out policeman at the edge of her name on the WIFW list. She is one of the Olga triad at the Week that began on Saturday. Their surnames,Slavic tonguetwisters for Delhi,have been summarily abbreviated,but they are essential — Olgas P,R and M.

P especially. The blue-eyed 5’10’ Plotnikova has traipsed down the Paris runway in the glamourous garbs of YSL,and walked down Milan for the babyfaced genius Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. “It is important for a model to go to Milan and Paris. They are the fashion capitals. But Europe is crowded,” she says wistfully,“For now,I want to work in Asia. And in the past couple of years,the Indian fashion industry has grown.” She’s found her stilettoed feet in Delhi. She can negotiate her way through the twisted lanes of Khirkee Extension and stacks her immaculately curated wardrobe with Indian labels. She has also emerged as a favourite of designer Amit Aggarwal.

R,or rather Rymarenko,flew down to India last year,right after her Milan gig. “Everything was different. The food,weather,culture,even the men. But I like the lifestyle here,it’s the way people look at you that makes you feel so cool. I feel this is my market,” she says. The 23-year-old from Kiev,Ukraine,who has featured in Da Milano’s campaign,says there is one more reason: money. “That is the primary reason one chooses India over Italy. Here there aren’t enough models and the money is good. Milan,on the other hand,is competitive.” She doesn’t mind being Olga R in return for some runway space. At the WIFW,she will walk for designers Ashish Soni,Kallol Datta and Ritu Beri.

Alina Galushka,an Ukrainian model who moved to Delhi three years ago and is now a promoter of Orange Models Management,says the ramps of Europe can at best be a brief excitement: “If you fail to acquire celebrity status like Kate Moss,then your modelling career is over in Europe. It’s only in India that models work into their 30s.”

M — Olga Machedonscaia — is aware of the expiry dates in fashion. “I started modelling only when I was 18. In my country and elsewhere the girls start at 14,” she says. The brunette from Odessa is ready for her first experience of a Delhi Week,its fashionably late shows and hedonistic after-show parties,of which she has heard enough from the older Olgas. “I have walked in Moscow and Beirut and I was treated like a princess there. This time my agency sent me here,” she says.

The Olgas are among the handful of foreigners,out of 40-odd models,at the Week. Some call it the white skin syndrome. Photographer-entrepreneur Atul Kasbekar,however,says the reasons are professional: “Foreign models are in better shape than most of their Indian counterparts and give less grief about what they wear.”

They don’t dream of being the next Sasha Pivovarova,the blonde Russian,better known as the Prada darling,but Olga P,R and M would love rupees good enough to be converted into hryvnia and roubles.