Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1529602
COLIN COWIE: So I hear you're a quasi-interior designer. KAROLINA KURKOVA: I love beautiful things. I like to curate. I like to find things, whether it's fashion, beauty, home, and bring my own spin to it. It's easy to go and buy everything top-of-the -line, of course; it's incredible, and I appreciate it. But I have three children, do I really want to spend $250,000 on a sofa? And constantly think, Oh my god, oh my god, there's chocolate chips over there! I'm also about functionality and practicality. I don't want to live in a museum where nobody can touch anything, nobody can enjoy anything. CC: I have that same approach. You've been in my home. I love putting a $10 placemat next to a $300 plate next to a $400 goblet next to a $10 water glass. I think that's where true style comes from. KK: I love the atmosphere in here, the yellow and the flowers. CC: It's very bold, right? It's very happy. It's amazing to see how the energy is being lifted in the design of restaurants today. It's at a whole different level. KK: I could see you having your own little restaurant. CC: Every time I walk into one I start to redesign it in my head. [chuckles] KK: You love to host. It could be a place where your friends would always go. I think it would do really well. Waiter brings Makoto house salads. CC: This is not spinach, right? KK: No, that's watercress; I love watercress. I'm so hungry, always! CC: To eat is my favorite thing in the world. KK: People laugh at me and say, but you're so skinny. I say, you're kidding, if I don't eat, I'm hangry! CC: I'm the same way. KK: I mean I eat well, I eat fresh, but I'm also constantly moving. I'm walking, I'm biking. My kids are 15, 9, and 2 years old, so I'm constantly going from one to the other. I'm never really sitting down. I do burn a lot of calories. That's just my personality. CC: To be active. KK: Be active and, you know, be productive and useful, rather than just sitting in one place for too long. I also like to work out. I was a professional gymnast from age 7 to 13, so I'm used to the discipline of doing it. If I don't work out, I get a little sluggish. CC: Your energy goes down. You don't feel great about yourself. KK: It's good to keep those endorphins moving, and you're releasing stress. I also feel like it's time for me, it's my meditation. CC: It's the most important way to start our day. I charge the phone in a different room. In the morning, I get up, have hot water and lemon and then do 10 minutes of Calm, that meditation app. Just those two things adjust my day. I think if you don't do that, and the first thing is looking at your phone, before you even have a chance to appreciate your day or have gratitude for anything in your life, your mind has been hijacked, literally. KK: I mean, I wish I had that. My morning with three kids is get up, start making breakfast, make lunches and snacks. It starts at full speed. Get everybody dressed, get out the door on time, drop off at school. My goal is to start waking up earlier so I can have more time for me. I'm not there yet! CC: So you're very active as a model, right? Three children, a new home, and a charity, it's very busy. How do you balance it all? KK: Staying focused. Being disciplined. I know what I need to do then I prioritize. But also I've learned that as much as I'd like to be organized, I know that sometimes it might not work out and that's okay. I'm letting go of that instead of beating myself up for it. KK: Mmm, I love the salmon roll. CC: Isn't that good? So you were discovered when you were 15, and your first cover was at the age of 16. How did you handle success like that at such an early age? KK: Not knowing what it really is, not understanding it. CC: You're just in the moment. KK: I've always been about, I'm here to do my work. Of course, I want to have fun while I do it. I want everybody to have a great time and I want to be my best. I'm very involved, I'm not like, oh, just tell me what to do. CC: That's probably why you've been on more than 50 Vogue covers! KK: But I think that's my secret. I never look at it like, Oh my god, I'm so big, I'm so important. CC: That's why you're so charming, because you've got your feet on the ground. KK: I'm able to look at it differently now, because I'm a parent. I think, wow, how did my parents do it? How did they feel? It's connecting me to my parents in a more meaningful way. It's helping me understand that it probably was very hard for them. I can't imagine my 15-year-old son traveling now on his own and moving to a different state. CC: You can only wish that you've created all the right values and done all the right things, which clearly your parents did for you. KK: Yes, but also if you want to be the best, there are going to be sacrifices. I had none of the experiences you have at that young age, like going to Homecoming and just hanging out with friends. A lot of times I was with older, super-professional people who ILLUSTRATION BY CARLY KUHN COLIN COWIE & KAROLINA KURKOVA LUNCH AT MAKOTO It's 12 p.m. on a Friday in October and the lunch crowd at Makoto is beginning to trickle in. Within an hour, the sound of voices has tripled and there isn't an empty seat in the place. Sitting in a corner banquette are longtime friends event-planner extraordinaire Colin Cowie and supermodel-entrepreneur Karolina Kurkova. We eavesdropped on their conversation. TABLE FOR TWO BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M