Branded as one of Manila's newest “It Girls,“ Solenn has got her hands in almost everything in any stylista's to-do list. After studying design in France for three years and spending another two learning about make up artistry and prosthetics, this half-Filipina, half-French beauty came back home to land an internship with noted designer Lulu Tan Gan. Two weeks later, she was hired.
Aside from designing and doing make-up on the side, she has also dabbled into modeling -- something she considers a hobby despite doing it on and off since the age of 14, ever since an agent came up to her at a mall.
It's been written before, that there's more to her than her pretty face. But this 24-year-old does not live her life as to how others define it.
“I'm really nonchalant, I really don't know what's going on around me,“ she says self-effacingly with nary a trace of arrogance. But perhaps it is true, Solenn seems more driven to self-expression than paying attention to what people say about her.
“Yeah, it could be the French side,“ she laughs when asked.
Even her newfound “It Girl“ image is something she takes in stride. “I'm okay with that,“ she says readily, but quickly adds, “I hate when they call me a socialite... because I'm really far from being that.“
An “It Girl“ is traditionally defined as “a charming sexy woman who receives intense media coverage unrelated or disproportional to personal achievements.“ But it is immediately clear that while Solenn is ripe for some sort of a media tag, she busts that theory wide open. For one, the Philipppine Tatler bestowed that title upon her, along with Georgina Wilson and Stephanie Kienle, in its March 2010 fashion issue not as an elitist tag but as a celebration of the young women's accomplishments.
Also, in this power trio of twentysomething achievers, Solenn is in good company considering British-Filipina Georgina is a popular model and VJ and Swiss-Filipina Stephanie is a businesswoman and artist.
“It depends on how you understand `It Girl,' Solenn. For me, I'm happy when someone tells me you're an `It Girl' because you're young and you're doing so many things for yourself, you're successful. In that way I'm ok. But I don't know how some people understand it. But it seems really boring; I'd rather be an inspiration or something. I don't know about the `it' thing...“
But even in privileged circles, a title like that comes with its own brand of misconception.
“I know some people insult me, but I don't care,“ she says. Although admitting no one really has insulted her to her face, she shares that she's gotten that kind of response on Twitter. It's hardly the bone-crushing, scandal-stirring experiences that have befallen her ilk, but this just proves that prejudice spares no one.
“All my girlfriends are all really beautiful--I mean, inside and out-so people tend to think we're fake to each other or superficial... But we're all the `It Girls' in our group, apparently,“ she shares matter-offactly. But even when talking about beautiful friends and this kind of circle that immediately sends warning signals to those who do not belong, there's nothing about Solenn that merits antagonistic behavior.
“The thing is, a lot of people have come up to me thinking I'm very snobby,“ she admits. “But I'm very shy... and so I just don't smile `cause I get nervous or whatever. But I'm very, very, approachable. I'm actually the most approachable of all my friends.“
“I just look like a snob,“ she smiles, saying that there have been people who have approached her and were almost surprised that she's actually “nice.“
The good and the bad of it Solenn's celebrity status has not really been of the ubiquitous variety.
She doesn't put herself out there just for attention. Like some celebrities, sure she tweets, but tries to stay away from self-obsessed shout-outs.
No one is sick of seeing her, not even when, at one point, Rogue's own style editor, L.A. Consing Lopez, has been lightly accused of “starting a religion“ due to his praised-filled blog entries about the girl their editorial staff reportedly calls their “muse.“ The accusation, of course, was mild teasing given that the magazine's readers obviously like Solenn just as much.
Solenn's recent incarnation, aside from still being one of Penshoppe's celebrity endorsers, is as a semiregular fixture, or a “party jock“ if you will, on GMA's Party Pilipinas.
This new try is her “experimenting,“ she says. “I wouldn't say no to anyone,“ nor to opportunities, that is.
But not everything comes easy for this charmed one. “When I did Party Pilipinas, I was so nervous. It was live. And I'm not a good host, first of all, and I'm amongst all those people that are used to doing it.“
With most people, such opportunities don't come that often, but Solenn is just lucky that way.
Even then, she still insists on keeping to her own limits. “The thing is, like for acting, I've been offered... I know for a fact that I'm a very bad actress.
I would not want to do something I'm not good at. And I know, because I just laugh at myself when I see myself. Even in commercials, they always give me roles where I don’t have to talk… And when I went to Party Pilipinas I had to host and I kind of messed up,” she says point blank.
But if being an extrovert on camera is a little hard for her, Solenn’s other form of self-expression is perhaps more powerful than any of her self-confessed “messed up” appearances on television.
Perhaps only known to people in her circle, Solenn is a great visual artist.
“I love everything to do with the arts… I paint,” she shares. Coming from a family of architects, painters and artists (her mom was a Bayanihan dancer), Solenn has great affinity for the medium and her work is both impressive and stirring—if a little surprising. And while her involvement with “art” is something that might be easy to dismiss or criticize for others, her work reveals a depth to Solenn that hints at darker leanings underneath that polished, stylish exterior.
“If I paint on my own, it will end up being very morbid,” she says in an untitled video for pelicola.tv. There, Solenn shares she started painting at the age of three, when she got turned on to it by her Spanish kindergarten teacher, who’s also a painter. Although she says she never stopped taking classes ‘til she’s 21, she also insists that she does it to relax—noting that she’s not in it professionally. At least not yet.
When not creating her own imagery, “I copy painters that I like, like Gauguin, Dali…” she says in the clip, which shows some of her striking work. And perhaps it is something people might want to look up online, especially since a lot of her paintings are no longer with her.
“I’m very artistic, but business minded, not at all,” she laughs. “I tend to create and give away… so I would never be able to have my own business unless I have someone above me (to pull the reins). It’s like, ‘Oh you like it… okay here.’ It makes me happy to know that someone likes what I do so I end up giving them away."
By ANNIE S. ALEJO
July 12, 2010, 11:26am
(Style Weekend)
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