Top model Irina Shayk is styled by Jenny Kennedy at the Hôtel Les Roches Rouges on the Côte d’Azur. Photographer Ellen Von Unwerth flashes Irina for ES Magazine July 2018./ Makeup by Georgi Sandev; hair by Peter Lux

In her interview Irina says she moved from Russia to Paris as a teenage model in order to support her family. Her father, a coal miner, died when she was 14 and her classical pianist mother worked as a school music teacher, providing a poor but cultured background for her family.

Living with other models on bowls of cheap rice, Irina says other models made fun of her curves, her darker skin and sexy looks. Still, it was a fun time in spite of the rejections when Shayk couldn't fit in the clothes.

Irina believes that the tide is turning against the highly commercialized objectification of model by some brands. "We live in the 21st century and women have to express their sexuality, and they should not be ashamed of their bodies."

Shayk, who is partner to actor Bradley Cooper and mother to their one-year-old daughter Lea, says she avoids doing topless and nude editorials unless the project has a truly artistic identity.