Eugenia Silva: "Seduction is a double-edged sword"

Educated in a school for nuns, the peaceful life of Eugenia Silva-Hernández Gil (Madrid, 45 years old) took a turn when at the age of 16 she won the Elite Look of the Year contest and went on to become one of the most international Spanish faces.

Model, businesswoman, producer ... and seductress.

But warn: beware of seduction.

Question.

So, in a philosophical way ... what is leaving? What are vacations?

Answer.

Liberation from the requirement.

That they leave me alone, that they don't claim me.

Q.

"Leave me alone!"

We already have the title of this interview.

A.

No, please!

[laughs].

"If you want me, go away", right?

That, La Faraona knew well!

It has been an extremely interesting, positive, but, at the same time, hard year for me.

During the pandemic I have been very strong on my head.

I have been in the field, and I would do it again, without the negative.

And it was to return to Madrid and to the routine and I broke down: extreme sensitivity, extreme fear of contagion ... The return from confinement was stronger than confinement.

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Q.

Hasn't the pandemic made you think more about death?

R.

Very like-minded people died every week.

And my brother was very ill in a hospital ... and then Pau [the musician Pau Donés, his ex-partner] died.

Q.

How did the death of Pau Donés affect you?

A.

Everything got mixed up and I didn't react.

It was war, what you must feel when loved ones go to war and you say: "Fuck, it can touch me!"

Death is a subject I don't like to think about.

There are people who can talk about it normally.

I do not.

“I was always 'carpe diem', I am 'carpe diem' taken to the extreme

P.

Yes, but it is something that inevitably goes through the head ...

A.

I have a very beastly attachment to life.

I live it 200%.

I am

carpe diem

taken to the extreme.

P.

Anyway, everything that happened can lead us to the temptation of

carpe diem

to an open grave, right?

R.

It is that I have always been

carpe diem.

I don't think anyone enjoys life more.

Q.

How do you see yourself, do you like yourself?

A.

I do not change.

I really like that.

And it brings me problems.

Q.

Why?

A.

Sometimes I don't have a filter, and people see me moody or unapproachable, but I'm not like that.

Q. It

may not be a good time not to have a filter.

R.

I go to mine, I am clear, there is no fold.

Or that's the photo booth photo I'd like to see.

“There are people addicted to being told all the time that they admire them

Q. You

started in the fashion world as a teenager.

Wasn't that the jungle?

A.

I wanted the jungle.

I had a peaceful life in Toledo: wonderful parents, school for nuns, weekends in Madrid ...

P.

Not exactly what we call an unstructured life.

A.

Backwards!

But I wanted to go live my life.

And I told my parents.

"I adore you, but I want to go, see the world, travel."

And with the contest God came to see me.

And from there, yes, the jungle, but I wanted that.

Q.

Did you have a hard time in the jungle?

R.

Never.

There were no mobiles, no internet, and that made me read, get my degree, have time for myself.

I love loneliness, although at the same time I hate it.

I didn't stop traveling, I didn't even know where I was, Mexico-Aspen-Maldives-Paris ... and I saw my friends in Madrid, who were going out for drinks, and I thought: "What a great plan!"

But he did what he wanted.

Maybe that's why I'm still in the world of fashion, now from the other side, dealing with people's peculiarities: egos, insecurities, distrust ...

P.

Vast mission.

R.

The most difficult.

Personal management and staff!

Q.

Is the fashion industry kind to women or aggressive?

R.

There is cruelty, envy ... of everything.

However, I have always said that we have been privileged because we have had better salaries than men.

Until the great male models appeared, the woman was the one who cut the cod.

I was talking about this with Andrés Velencoso and he told me: "You have to get annoyed, why do you have to charge more?"

"We have been privileged because we have had better salaries than men

P. He

has lived and lives by seduction, which is to like, to convince.

How not to fall short or go overboard?

R.

Seduction is a double-edged sword that you have to know how to handle so that it does not get out of hand.

You can go to dinner with an art director who you know loves you, and you are working to get him to give you the campaign… but you have to know how far to go.

And it's great that he falls in love with you, and that he gives you the campaign and pays you what you want… although you have to know where you collect your candles.

And then you go to the hotel, or home.

P.

Surely some art director did not understand it that way.

R.

If you do not understand it like that, I prefer not to work with him.

P.

How to stop the seduction in the networks, where there is no brake?

R.

Networks are continuous seduction, you want to please all the time, but there are barriers that I will not cross.

I am not a

reality show.

I have my modesty.

P.

Well, some have a need to tell everything, all the time.

R.

It is that networks create addiction.

There are those who have it for drugs, alcohol, shopping ... and there are people addicted to

likes

and being told all the time that they admire them.

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