Non the latest Fall Winter 2023/24 fashion shows in Milan we saw her on the catwalks of Act 1, GCDS, Onitsuka Tiger and Laura Biagiotti, in Paris at Mes Demoiselles. Long gray hair, like American actress Andie MacDowell, Luciana Borges, 48 years old, model of Brazilian origin, she returned to the catwalk after giving up her career fifteen years ago. Today he lives between Milan and Rio de Janeiro and makes timeless beauty his mission.
Luciana Borges, “Yoga teaches you to let go”
“Fashion has changed. Today age inclusiveness, the attention to consider women of all ages in the collections, is a value. It wasn’t like this in the 1990s,” he says from Rio de Janeiro. “I try to be honest and true to myself. I don’t dye my hair. We are all always judged because maybe we are old, we have wrinkles, a belly, white hair.
With my return to the catwalk, I rather understood my mission: I want to make men and women understand that maturity has its own beauty to be experienced and admired. And that to have a free life you must first of all let go.
Pills of wisdom. Because Luciana Borges began to “let go” with yoga. With the practice, which he “discovered” in Brazil, he transformed anxiety and tension.
«I started practicing it at the age of thirty-two in a moment of crisis. I no longer wanted to show, I was tired of fashion, thoughts with my husband were no longer the same and I lived in anguish for my daughter’s education. I thought: I have to do something to calm down.
Yoga was the perfect compromise to heal body and mind. Today I can say that the practice saved my life. Because it’s “magic”. You don’t realize it, but in the long run it changes you. Or rather, the perception with which we see things changes. Problems become relative. After all, these are teachings that date back five thousand years.”
Every morning a greeting to the sun
According to the model, the effects are already felt after a year. «If you do pranayama, i.e. breathing exercises, meditation, and asanas (postures), you gradually begin to see the world from a new angle. You come to understand that a problem is not a problem, but an opportunity to understand».
Luciana practices, in particular, Vinyasa yoga. It is a style that provides for a profound coordination between movement and pranayama, in which the maintenance of the asanas and the passage between one position and another are carried out with breathing.
During the lockdown he lived in India in an ashram (a community centered around spiritual exercises).
I am a Hatha yoga teacher. But I also practice Ashtanga which is more dynamic and complex. Vinyasa, on the other hand, has its own ritual that can be combined differently every day».
Luciana Borges: «I start with three minutes of meditation»
«For example, I start with three minutes of meditation, sitting with my eyes closed, then I pronounce the mantra “Om” which calms the mind, then I start a series of movements to loosen the joints for a few minutes and I begin sun salutations, and the positions of “warrior 1″ and “warrior 2″ to develop inner strength».
«The different positions are useful to give me balance, to stretch and to dissolve tensions. At the end of the practice, I allow myself ten minutes of “shavasana”, the so-called corpse position which symbolizes death before rebirth».
«It is the moment of relaxation and often, unfortunately, it is underestimated by the students». Luciana sets the alarm clock at half past five every day. “I like this moment. There is silence, a particular peace: the day is about to begin and the mind is calm».
One thing that still finds it difficult, however, is meditation. «Years ago my mind reminded me of having to do the shopping, the washing machines and dinner for my little girl. Now I can even be with myself for forty minutes, but of course it’s still an exercise in virtue.’
Street yoga in Rio for the “povo da rua”
When she is in Milan, Luciana teaches yoga to her model friends at the Montanelli Gardens (“They call me almost every day for lessons”).
When he is in Rio de Janiero, visiting his daughter who is now studying Psychology, instead, he teaches street yoga to the homeless (the so-called “povo de rua” with the project “Voar” (to fly), a humanitarian initiative that also offers food and clothing to those who live on the margins: yoga gives them dignity and awareness.
“I decided not to charge for yoga classes. When you understand who you are, true freedom is achieved. My mission today is to make this understood too».
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