For me it’s kind of weird, this question of ‘How do you feel about doing that at a certain age?’ I feel super good about my age and I feel young. Some kids I work with are 17 or 20 and they seem much older than some women in their 60s; it’s all about how you feel inside, what you value, and what you want to express. I don’t like to speak so much about my exact age, I like to keep a kind of mystery around it; I can tell you that I’m in my forties. I also do a lot of things—[equine therapy, maintaining residences in Costa Rica]—so that’s why I think age is so not essential, but for some reason people are still into this blockage of [age], weight, skin color skin—though it is still much better than when I began modeling. I love to be part of Marine Serre and Ester Manas’s shows because they push about inclusivity. It’s great to be part of this new era where people are more and more conscious about [representation]. I wish people could be more like Yves Saint Laurent or Balmain that really understood the importance of representing all women because they are the ones who actually buy the clothes.
A few years ago one of my first agents, Akim, contacted me and said “It’s now the time of the girls that were famous in 2000, 2001. Do you want to go back to modeling? And I was like, ‘No, I’m doing my horse thing and stuff.’ He contacted me several times after. He said, “There’s this amazing designer, Marine Serre, who is into inclusivity; taking old clothes and making something else with it.” That goes completely with my philosophy. Marine Serre is the reason why I came back.
I had a really good season in Paris this year. I did Vivienne Westwood for the first time since I stopped modeling. I think Andreas came back really strong alone. Vivienne was really, really in love with him. They were really connected; Vivienne was the image, but he was also always there.
Marine Serre and Ester Manas are really about family. I feel like in the early ’00s was more about individuality; it was all about me—let’s not speak too much with other girls because maybe they want to steal your spot or something like that. Now it’s more about inclusivity but also getting together and using this strong family power to create something so the models feel safe. They choose me because of me, it’s not only about the physical part, but also what you stand for, your ethics and that’s what I really like. I’m very proud that women can find themselves in me.
I am Belgian and Congolese and it was very difficult to be also a model, a colored woman in fashion [in the ’90s.] I was a first year fashion design student and one of my friends was selected to [present her graduate collection] and she asked me to be part of her show. Two agents, Jean and Akim, found me there and said, ‘Kina, we love you but you have to leave Belgium because only blond girls with blue eyes can work.’ I was really feeling all that in school and everywhere; the color thing is very heavy in Belgium still, but much better than before but still. [Eventually] I went to Paris where I got my chance with Elite. My first Big show [in 1997] was Vivienne Westwood and that was really what really opened my career.