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Indian girl with ‘international gait’

Desi girl Ford supermodel Sherin Sam was cheered as ‘the Indian girl’ in Montenegro

She was unsure in heart and in body, thin and long-legged at 5ft 9’. But to fashion director, Marc Robinson, it looked as if debutant model, Sherin Sam had walked the ramp a thousand times. He told her so on her maiden walk on the runway. Coming from an industry honcho, this was all she needed to hear at the Pantaloon Femina Miss South, earlier this year to gain confidence.

This was followed with more surprising comments about her being ‘international’ in gait and demeanour. Ford, the international model agency spotted her and she competed with 65 models in step wise elimination rounds to be crowned Grazia Ford Supermodel of India World, in Mumbai soon after. She became a prestigious Ford model following the likes of the sensuous Bipasha Basu. She went on to represent Ford at their fashion event at Montenegro where she was wildly cheered as, ‘the Indian girl’.

She had made it on her own, as her parents from Kuwait were unable to accompany her to the events. “My parents felt so proud,” she recalls but what Sherin badly wants is recognition from her home state, Kerala and her hometown, Kochi.

In the city for a fashion show the young, 21- year- old lissom model debunked some myths about the modelling industry, which she feels, keeps Malayali girls away. To her it is a field where young women can excel.

The dreaded wardrobe malfunction is part of the game but for her it has been luckily limited to the feet with loose shoes

Her entry into this glamorous world was “just for a lark,” after being persuaded by friends to join the Pantaloon contest. But it was the Ford experience that catapulted her onto the international scene.

“It has been overwhelming. It has changed my life and I have learnt a lot from it. After being chosen a Ford contestant we had seven days of training at Radisson, Mumbai. For the finals the director of Ford, New York, was one of the judges.”

She remembers the European designer at Montenegro asking her if she could carry off a heavy gown with a long trail on the ramp. “I did so with aplomb and he congratulated me saying he always knew I could do so. I had no family or friends to cheer me there and I was nervous about the outcome. But the crowd loved, ‘the Indian girl’. It was the happiest day for me,” she recalls. And with thrill and happiness came a sense of responsibility. Suddenly the fame and prize money, the adulations and the gifts had to be handled, which she did in her inimitable, mature style. “I received a diamond studded shoe as a prize, which I donated to an orphanage. I donate a lot of my prize money too to charity.”

Sherin believes that the success of Parvathy Omanakuttan and Deepthi Varughese (Miss India Worldwide, 2009, India) has paved the way for more Malayali girls to make their presence in this field. “In Kerala people are not aware of the possibilities in the fashion world.” Many still harbour fears and doubts about the goodness of this line of work but dismissing such talk Sherin urges girls to fulfil their dreams here but to take every step slowly and cautiously. Getting into the right hands is important and she feels that the girls venturing into modelling must choose the via media carefully. There are plenty of options and the choices purely personal, according to her, for at one stage she was all set to train as a pilot.

Her slim figure has been of advantage to her but she is against unhealthy dieting. If one’s thin figure is healthy then it is fine, she believes. The dreaded wardrobe malfunction is part of the game but for her it has been luckily limited to the feet with loose shoes, which she cramped up with paper to quickly sashay down the runway, while on the next turn the shoes were just too tight! But then she is in the game and taking the right steps to stardom, literally.

“Acting is the next step for me. It is the natural step after modelling,” she says wishing to do more fashion shows in Kerala. The recently concluded Assumption College fashion show brought her here and was her first fashion event in the State.

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