It’s been over five years since Stefania Ferrario – one of the most famous models from the national capital since Lara Cox – graced the cover of Canberra Daily. Now that she’s ‘made it,’ the 29-year-old is using her platform to speak up about animal rights, with millions watching.
When we last caught up with Stefania (27 July 2017), she had just been named one of the four faces of Melbourne Fashion Week, after being put on the map as the face of internationally renowned burlesque star, Dita Von Teese’s Australian lingerie line.
Soon after, she starred alongside body-positivity icons Lizzo and Ashley Graham in Swimsuits for All’s 2018 campaign, posing to Good as Hell in the Bahamas.
“Lizzo and I had a nude shower together and talked about boys,” she laughs, chatting with CW at her childhood home in Deakin.
Today, Stefania combines the vintage sex-positivity of Von Teese, the unapologetic body-love of Lizzo, and a striking poise all her own. Although, the very first models she took inspiration from were more … anatomical.
“My dad’s an artist. He did scientific illustrations [and] had so many books of art and anatomy references, and a lot of the poses in them looked very fifties.
“That’s where my love for pin-ups and posing came from, those old art reference books from Dad.”
Her epiphany of wanting to be a model also came to her while surrounded by books, in the school library at just 16 years old.
“I love modelling. I love being in front of the camera. I go into this sort of trance-like state where nothing else exists. It’s almost meditative. Nothing else brings me that,” she smiles.
“When I was 19, I jumped on a one-way Greyhound from Jolimont station to Southern Cross and just decided I was going to make it as a model from then on.”
“I didn’t have any idea how to get into the industry, though.
“I didn’t have contacts; I hadn’t been signed yet … But I just had that urge, that feeling to follow it. Narcissism maybe?” she smiles.
“It only took four years of hard work. Years of organising photo shoots with photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists here in Canberra … so much of my base happened here before I moved to Melbourne.”
Since then, Stefania has become a body-positivity icon in her own right, spearheading the #DropThePlus movement, which rallied against the industry labelling anyone larger than a size 8 as a ‘plus-size’ model.
Then came 2020, a turning point for many, and Stefania was no exception.
“I had a couple million followers across platforms, and it all felt a bit vacuous,” she says.
“I thought, ‘What’s the point of having all these massive platforms all about myself?’ I’ve spoken a lot about body positivity, but I still felt it was very ‘me, me, me’.
“On 1 January 2020, I went vegan after deliberating for years. I knew it was the right thing to do [but] when you’re participating in an act … it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.
“[Using my platform to speak about animal rights] just felt right. I didn’t have that fear of losing followers because I knew that would come with it, and I’d already gotten to where I wanted to be.”
While brainstorming with controversial animal rights activist Tash Peterson, Stefania thought of a new idea, and a nudie idea – lingerie protests for animal rights.
“My first lingerie job in 2013 was with Dita Von Teese. I was standing next to her, in my underwear, on Bourke Street [Melbourne].
“Eight years later, I’m on Bourke Street, in my underwear, holding an animal rights sign,” she laughs.
“It had such a fabulous response, especially in comparison to a lot of animal rights activism, because people don’t want to hear it. But we had cheeky signs that were a bit comical too, and it was just much more palatable for the average passer-by.
“Women were shouting ‘You go, girls!’ On the second one we ever did, a woman came up to us saying, ‘Oh my god, I’ve been vegan two weeks since I saw you guys out here in the city.’
“And then the next minute we were seeing lingerie protests for animal rights in New York, and then one in Sweden, and then another in Germany … we had started a bit of a global movement.”
Not many could have guessed that the model/activist, in her nearly-naked glory, would have anything but confidence while posing on the busy streets of Melbourne.
“I was terrified!” says Stefania. “I was so scared. Even now, I’ve done four or five lingerie protests, and I still get nervous before them.
“Then, once I’m in my underwear, holding the sign, all of that just goes away. It just feels right. I could go for a couple of hours, in heels, in the street, in the middle of winter.”
She hopes to see a vegan world one day, but for now seeks to remind people that it’s all about gradually shifting supply and demand.
“Everyone that has the ability to [go vegan] should definitely be moving in that direction, and that’ll help pave the way for those that might be in a more difficult position.”
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