Brand Ambassador
Have you ever had a moment, that very specific instant, when you meet someone for the very first time and you immediately go “yep, that’s it! This person is real”? It’s that immediate sensation that transcends every other signal, the very first impression. If the answer is yes, let me tell you: I’ve rarely felt that as strongly as I did when I met the guest of this interview at our Milan Campus last June. Enter Priscila Prado: a stunning woman, impeccably dressed in Violet and Lime green almost reminiscing of a modern day Daphne Blake, walzing into the office, on high heels, with the effotless confidence of a mother lioness.
Stay True to Yourself
Interview with Priscila Prado
“I wish I could say I had an easy childhood but that would be a lie” she starts telling me, in a near perfect Italian “I had to grow up fast, so between my parents passing away soon and the reality of Brazil in those years you either sink or swim.” And swim she did!
“ I started my modeling career when I was very young, and I can’t say I regret any of it but sometimes I stop and think of what could have happened if I didn’t have to become an adult so fast”. As she keeps talking about her younger years in Brazil and the deciding to move to Italy, I’m marveling at her relaxed disposition, keeping the conversation going with basically no filters. “And then you arrive in Italy, thinking that the world is yours to conquer and that everyone is going to be so much more willing to give you a chance, just to discover that you’re the exotic one and you have to live with it”.
As we moved the conversation towards the topic of authenticity she suddendly became very firm in her statements: “I can’t stand fake people! And you’d think that would be peculiar coming from a Model turned Fashion Entrepreneur with Atelier Botondi in Milan, but that’s the reality. You can survive in any surrounding if you keep your values and heart on your sleeve.”
She proceeded to enlighten me on a few fact about authenticity in Brazil, being on average the second country after South Korea for Plastic Surgery “If you grow up in Brazil there’s no lying about who you are and it has nothing to do with how you look. We obviously care a lot about that and at a first glance you could think that it’s shallow, but the truth is that when you don’t have to compromise who you are the world is yours to shape”.
“Being Authentic to me is a matter of showing your true colors, not being afraid of ruffling some feathers if necessary, because at the end of the day you are who you are and nobody can take that away from you”.
Fashion & Luxury Culture Department - Creative Marketing Director