"All physique must be represented": Odile Gautreau, the model who breaks fashion clichés

A hand resting casually under the chin.

She plants her big black eyes in the lens.

A little cheeky.

Then with a half-smile, under the golden ring which underlines her nose, the model lets go: "I hope I don't have chocolate around my mouth!"

"

Just 11 o'clock.

In the roommate of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) where her boyfriend lives, pancakes and spread are still lying around on the breakfast table.

This is where Odile Gautreau made an appointment to have the portrait taken by us.

Barely enough time to put on a pair of sneakers and a white shirt over her black croc top which reveals her navel.

And she's ready for the impromptu photoshoot.

Odile is a posing pro.

Since August 2019, this free-lance artistic director has even made modeling her main activity.

His phone rings for Fashion Week or for photo shoots in Hong Kong, Copenhagen or Dubai.

Fashion, advertising and the media are now courting her curves, her freckles and her frizzy hair.

L'Oréal, Nike and Galeries Lafayette display them in four by four.

And Marie-Claire recently made her cover.

"Modeling has helped me to accept myself"

The undivided reign of slender silhouettes, smooth hair and white skin has had its day.

The interested party confirms: “For two or three years, the fashion landscape has changed in France.

"Inclusiveness -" the fact of allowing everyone to access representation "- and the body positive - this movement which" advocates self-acceptance and benevolence with regard to one's body and that of others »- have been there.

Almost unwittingly, Odile Gautreau has become one of the faces of these two trends.

She has fun and assumes.

“Modeling is not the thing that stimulates me the most.

We are a little dispossessed of our image.

But it allows me to speak on subjects that have directly affected me in my career, which are linked to racism or discrimination.

"

Outside, the almost summery sun bounces off the colorful graffiti of this narrow street.

Odile follows the directives of the photographer of the Parisian.

Applied and relaxed.

Between two shots, she talks about the weather, confinement and launches an "attention" to the arrival of each car.

At ease in his 28 years as in his jeans, which exceed size 34, in which often slip the slender anatomies of the catwalks.

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Odile took a little time to make peace with her forms.

And their relationship is still strained sometimes.

She talks about it as it is.

Nature and spontaneous.

“I have a complicated relationship with my body.

Modeling helped me to accept myself.

"

One could say - very awkwardly - that Odile is a "plus size" model, with an atypical physique.

“I don't really like this term,” she corrects us immediately.

This would already mean that there is a standard.

And her own beauty does not allow itself to be captured by diktats set up as cannons.

She is the result of a crossbreeding, of a meeting between her Ivorian mother and her Vendée father.

Her oval face, full lips, grains of sand that dot her fair skin and afro-red haircut tell this story.

"I still have trouble seeing myself as I am"

Shoots and parades have not healed all the injuries.

Odile's enthusiastic voice grows a little deeper.

“I still have a hard time seeing myself as I am.

I suffer from dysmorphia.

»The echo of« t'es moche »and« t'es gros »from his childhood and adolescence in Limours still echo in the distance.

Odile was 6 years old when she left Bagneux to settle in this small town of Essonne with her parents - one a housewife, the other an engineer - and her four sisters.

For the first time, she understands that she is "different".

“I really felt the change of environment.

At the time, we were one of the only African families.

It was there that I realized that I was mixed race and white.

"

At 6 years old, Odile Gautreau and her family left Bagneux (Hauts-de-Seine) for Limours, in Essonne.

“I really felt the change of environment.

At the time, we were one of the only African families, ”she recalls.

Delphine Goldsztejn

She does not recognize herself on TV or in magazines.

“When we are shown a single type of physics, it limits our range of possibilities.

We have the impression that some things are not made for us.

Social networks have made it possible to change that.

"" We would have liked more models, abounds Noémie, one of her sisters, a 24-year-old architect.

It is not because we are not in the standards, that we are an extraterrestrial.

"

At school, Odile integrates.

But with the arrival of adolescence, the remarks are more and more hurtful.

"Being five girls, we all had reflections on our weight or our interbreeding," resumes Noémie.

With her very voluminous afro and her white skin, Odile must have had even more.

Her humor and very lively personality helped her to take a step back.

"

Revenge of the frizzy hair

Odile is chomping at the bit.

She spent her high school years dreaming of somewhere else.

“I suffered from not being able to be myself.

The release will first be capillary.

This morning, her hair is wisely slicked back.

"Shall we let them go?"

», Asks the photographer.

Negative.

“I was too lazy to style them today.

"An" afro "is work!

But also quite a symbol.

For years, Odile went through the straightening box to fit the mold.

She experienced "the burning head" and "the plaques on the skull".

“In the family, we all did it.

There was this idea that beautiful hair was smooth hair.

The revenge of the frizzy hair arrives at the same time as the ferry.

“I fully assumed my afro and left for Paris.

It was a new start.

There, I felt legitimate to do that.

"

Featured on the cover of the feminist magazine Paulette

Odile wants to do a creative job.

She embarks on studies of graphic design.

Then “image of fashion and communication”.

Modeling is far, very far from his aspirations.

Until Paulette, a feminist and independent magazine, slipped into her mailbox.

“Friends had subscribed to me,” recalls Odile.

The team does not appeal to the pros but to its readers to pose.

The student takes a chance for the challenge.

Banco!

In the summer of 2013, she found herself on the cover of the tenth issue, molded into short, sparkling shorts.

“For us, it is very important to represent the diversity of physique and origins, underlines Irène Olczak, the founder and director of Paulette.

When I do my castings, I look for faces and bodies that tell a story.

Odile had this hyper-powerful profile and this strength of character.

"

In the summer of 2013, Odile Gautreau made the cover of the tenth issue of Paulette magazine.

DR

At the time, the magazine was the only one to do that in France.

“Brands were still cautious about doing positive bodywork or inclusivity.

It was not fashionable to put somebody fat or black on the cover.

Odile's journey shows that things have changed.

"

"I made a strength of my physique"

The very young woman comes out of this first experience inflated.

“I was happy, I had done violence to expose myself and I had only benevolent feedback.

"In his entourage, we whisper a" Why not try to find an agency?

»She digs up one in stride and does not let herself be taken down.

“But with my profile, I was only summoned occasionally.

The fact that my physique is a drag, it motivated me to continue and move the lines.

"

The advent of Instagram brings him his first big projects.

Nike's artistic director spotted her like that in 2017. Then Odile found an agency in London, another in New York and a new one in Paris.

The campaigns follow one another.

She left her CDI as artistic director at Sarenza to devote herself to this life as a model.

Always with strong ideas behind the clichés on glossy paper.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Odile Gautreau (@ogqueen)

The shock of photos, the weight of words.

Odile weighs each of them in an interview.

It bears a responsibility.

“It's important to show that everyone can succeed even in a world that is not predestined for them.

This physique that some consider as atypical, I made it a strength.

»Odile« probably »will not do that all her life.

But she wants to seize this space of speech.

“He's a reserved person, but she didn't cheat when she was given the opportunity to tell her story, greet Jean-Benoît, her boyfriend.

She is very inspiring to others.

"

When she looks at Limours in her rearview mirror, Odile measures how far she has come by seeing that of her 15-year-old little sister, who dreams of being a model like her.

“She doesn't straighten her hair.

It is a generation that is more in the natural self-acceptance.

Under the bob she put on to finish the photo shoot, Odile's face freezes for a short moment.

“Well, she also told me about some racist remarks she had… There is still a long way to go!

"

What is the body positive movement?

The movement was officially born in the United States in 1996. The activists Connie Sobczak and Elizabeth Scott created the association “The Body Positive”.

They are primarily intended for overweight or obese women, who are subject to societal injunctions and are not represented in the media and advertising space.

Little by little, the body positive extends to all types of profiles.

“The idea is to say that whatever your morphology, your skin color or your religion, you have the right to love yourself, insists Georgia Stein, plus size model and ambassador of the current in France.

It is a message of benevolence towards his body and that of others.

“For four years, this former flight attendant has been organizing body positive fashion shows in Paris, in which anyone can participate.

With a well-known idea: “Come as you are!

The next one should take place in June.