Irina Shayk Profile

Irina Shayk

Irina Shayk (real name Shaykhlislamova), sometimes credited as Irina Sheik, was born on Jan 6 1986 (in Eastern Church it's the Christmas Eve) in a small town called Emanzhelisk, it's in Ural, 50 km from Chelyabinsk

As a schoolgirl, she liked literature, and most of all she liked making up stories and reading and at that time she wanted to become a teacher of literature when she grows up. At teen-age her appearance was very exotic for her small home town. Her classmates often made fun of her as she looked so different from all the other girls.

Irina's mother was a teacher of music in a kindergarten and she wanted her daughter to study music as well. When Irina was 9 years old she entered a music school and studied there for 7 years. She was singing in a choir and playing piano. Irina’s father was a coalminer and he died when Irina was a schoolgirl. Irina’s mother had to work at 2 jobs to provide for the family (Irina and her elder sister Tatiana) it was a very difficult time for the family but mother and daughters were always helping each other. When Irina finished school they moved to a bigger town.

Irina Shayk

Irina started studying marketing, but it was pretty boring and by pure chance (her mother saw an ad on a bus stop) she came to the local beauty school accompanying her elder sister. When the girls came to this school by another pure chance a person from a local model agency (situated next door to the beauty school) noticed Irina and was struck by her unusual beauty. Right away Irina was proposed to participate in a beauty contest "miss Chelyabinsk 2004". Irina never thought of a career of a model and it was a total surprise for her when she won the contest and became miss Chelyabinsk. She was noticed by a scout Guia Jikidze (he also found Natalia Vodianova, Eugenia Volodina, Polina Kouklina, Elena Melnik, Olga Sherer and many others), and he told Irina that she should become a model and start modeling in Europe, and in 2005 she came to Paris. She started her career relatively late for a model, at the age of 19. In the beginning it was very difficult for her, as she didn't speak English at all and everything was new but soon Irina was working in Europe and in USA and felt at ease during the most complicated shootings.

In 2007 Irina became the face of Intimissimi lingerie, taking over from Ana Beatriz Barros and she was making this campaign for 3 years in a row, being perfect for it with her body of a goddess and Mediterranean looks. She also starred in an Intimissimi commercial photographed by Greg Cadel in 2009.

The same year Irina got international recognition when she appeared in the prestigious Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition of 2007. The location for the photographs and video in this edition was the White Stallion Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Irina Shayk, her skimpy lingerie dwarfed by the cowboy hat, workers gloves and a bullwhip became a real sensation. Since 2007 she appears every year in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, working with such world wide known photographers as Pamela Hanson, Steve Erle, Riccardo Tinelli, Rennio Maifredi and Raphael Mazucco and shooting in the most beautiful places such as St Petersburg, Naples a, Grenada and Chile.

Since 2007 Irina’s work has been featured in major ad campaigns for La Perla (ph. Maifredi) [4], Lacoste [5], Paciotti 4US (ph Mariano Vivanco) [6], Guess (ph. Yu Tsai, Bryan Adams) [7], Germaine de Capuccini (ph Rafa Gallar) [8], Beach Bunny (ph. Yu Tsai) [9] and Armani Exchange (ph Matthew Scrivens)[10]. She has also worked as a model for the Victoria's Secret catalog.

She was a “Guess Girl” for 3 seasons, embodying its philosophy “Sophisticated. Feminine. Unapologetically sexy.” In 2010 Irina became a face of Armani Exchange spring-summer campaign photographed by Matthew Scrivens. She appeared in such fashion magazines as V magazine, Italian Spanish and Russian Elle, Italian Vanity Fair, Russian Jalouse, View of the times, Woman, French Marie Claire, GQ France, Spain, Paris Capitale, German Glamour.

The world’s best photographers were working with Irina and admired her beauty and talent: Mariano Vivanco, Peter Beard, Vincent Peters, Tesh, Yu Tsai, Bettina Rheims, Raphael Mazucco, Rafa Gallar, Pamela Hanson, Txema Yeste, Ranjit Grewal, Michael Schultz, Kenneth Willardt, Steve Earle, Riccardo Tinelli, Matt Jones, James Macari and many others.

In 2008 Irina appeared in a promotion for the Ryan Leslie single Diamond Girl, and she inspired Ryan for producing a song “I-R-I-N-A”. Irina’s sensual beauty was featured in in Bettina Rheims’ exhibition “Just like a woman”.

Irina Shayk

In 2009 when Irina became the face of Beach Bunny swimwear she made her own design of 2 swimsuts. "Because of my job I have had the opportunity to try on and model thousands of swimsuits. I think that I can design practical and beautiful swimsuits that can be worn by any woman who wants to feel sexy and confident."- says Irina. Her swimsuits have been shot for 2010 Sports Illustrated swimwear issue.

She was chosen by a famous make up artist Scott Barnes as a model for his book “About Face” which was out in 2010. Irina was photographed by Peter Beard for his latest book that will be out in 2010. Irina’s magnificent body and emerald-green eyes won her the place in many prestigious top rankings. She is the 18th in 20 sexiest models on models.com and the 57th in 100 hottest supermodels on zimbio.com. Irina is very attached to her family which lives in Russia and adores her little niece Irina who was named after her. Irina is travelling a lot but she resides in NY. She loves animals and has a pet dog Cesare.