Azza Slimene On Gender Equality, Fighting Negativity And Being Proud To Be Arab
The Tunisian model-actress is taking on 2021 with a positive, assertive, and celebratory attitude. With TV shows, films, fashion campaigns, and a skincare range already in the pipeline, she tells Bazaar how this year is all about spreading her wings…
Azza Slimene can’t contain her excitement when it comes to 2021.
“This is my year, I’m so super happy at the moment and for everything that’s to come,” she beams. In fact, she’s equally positive about the past, telling her story of growing up in Tunisia with the enthusiasm of a young child, describing the wonders of living in the diverse landscape of “desert, beautiful beaches and the ancient Medina”. She’s the daughter of a perfume-worker father and a stay-at-home mother, and the youngest in a family of eight girls, the oldest of which is in her forties – and at first impression, Azza still seems to carry the innocence and charm that often stays with the last-born, citing her mum Chadleya, as her best friend and hero.
Azza appears young – the totally flawless skin helps with this, she’s thrilled about everything – two upcoming film releases, a new Ramadan TV series, launching her own skincare range and securing countless high-end modelling campaigns would do that to you, and she’s eager to help and please, writing down the names of the Tunisian designers of the simple white T-shirt and shorts she’s wearing, on yellow post-it notes and holding them up to the screen during our Zoom call (the T-shirt is Fierce Sportwear and the shorts are Secret Intime).
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But this is the same 24-year-old who totally nailed our cover shoot 24-hours earlier, showing no signs of struggle or immaturity as she wrestled with a heavy hot air balloon in Antonio Grimaldi gowns and stacks of Cartier jewellery, all in the desert heat of Dubai. “I really loved the shoot: the hot air balloon, the clothes are super fun and colourful, and it’s the cover of Harper’s!” she exclaims, before adding her rather sweet description of the experience. “It’s like I’m meeting my younger self, it’s a mix between childish and fierce, like warrior and Disney Princess at the same time.”
The happy-go-lucky demeanour does shift as the conversation turns to heartbreak, gender equality and spirituality, and the child-like charm gives way to a soul that is wise beyond her years.
Maybe it’s this hybrid of sweetness and professionalism that’s behind Azza’s meteoric rise, and the spark that the late fashion legend Azzedine Alaïa saw in a 20-year-old Azza when he invited her to stay at his Paris atelier and home, just months before his death in November 2017. The pair met while Azza was courting agency Next Models Europe about a possible contract. She’d been picking up jobs in Tunisia while studying a degree in Business, but was keen to make the move to international work.
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“I met him by chance in Tunisia and he put some pressure on Next,” she remembers. “He said ‘you need to do a contract for her. I need her in Paris’, so they did the contract in two days. I’d been waiting months before that.”
It was the big break that Azza had been waiting for. “I’d never taken a plane, never travelled abroad before and I was going directly to Azzedine Alaïa’s place because he wanted me to be his muse, to make his clothes on me,” she explains, still bewildered. “He wanted me to stay at his place. He only did this with Naomi Campbell before me. He did a room for me and said ‘you’re my prodigy’, called me a ‘belle plante’ (gorgeous specimen).”
And while Azza made the comparisons between her newfound situation and the fatherly figure that the Tunisian designer had been to Naomi Campbell for 30 years, she got to meet the supermodel in person. “I did three days with him, and while I was there he was shooting an interview with Naomi Campbell,” she explains happily. “I was watching them during the interview and shoot in his kitchen, my first time seeing something so big and professional.”
Tragically, it would be Azzedine’s final ever interview. “I went back to Tunis to get my clothes to get back to him,” recalls Azza. “While there, I got the bad news that he’d gone.” For a few seconds, Azza is silent – thinking about what could have been, maybe the lost opportunities mixed with heartbreak.
Dress, POA, Fendi
“I feel so lucky because I met him and I knew him before he was gone,” she continues with a glazed look. “He treated me like a daughter. At first, I was scared because I thought he might be a snob, because he’s a legend and I am a nobody, but no. We talked about a lot of personal things. We watched National Geographic together while he was doing the dress. He asked about my family, how I’d been raised. Even though it was only three days, it was super special and spiritual.”
And it paved the way for a modelling career Azza could only have dreamt of back in the school days when she would spend sports lessons with her beloved Arabic teacher – perfecting her walk instead of sweating it out. Just weeks after the stay in Paris, she had moved to the city, was walking in Yohji Yamamoto’s tribute to Azzedine, and then making her catwalk debut for Chanel. “It was a super emotional moment walking for Chanel, even on the runway, if you zoom into my eyes you can see them shining with tears: I was living the dream, and it was super fast.”
Fast? Yes. Easy? Not so much. Azza’s journey to success hasn’t been as smooth sailing as it may seem.
“My parents really didn’t want me to model. At the start I was doing it behind their backs,” she reveals. “They hated modelling, said it was dangerous, not good for the reputation for Arabs, and wanted me to finish my studies. They wanted to protect me. They were scared.”
Dress, Dhs31,500, Valentino
Determined, Azza pushed on, and slowly the family came round – the Chanel show sealing the deal. “They saw me doing really great, and that I was an independent, strong woman, so then they started to encourage me and support me.”
But other struggles within the industry remained. “In Tunisia, I had a lot of negativity, they were always telling me ‘you can’t be an international model, they love super skinny models with blonde hair and blue eyes’ which hurt me,” she remembers. “And in Paris, when I was new, to be honest I think they sometimes didn’t pick me maybe because I’m Arab. When I did castings they liked me, then I would say I’m Arab, and later I would find out I didn’t get booked, and wondered if it’s because they didn’t like me or because I’m Arab.”
But Azza knows that things in the industry are changing. “Now they book me because I’m Arab, they want diversity,” she explains. “I think it’s the Black Lives Matter movement, we’re seeing a lot more black models, and more plus-size models. I think for some brands it’s a trend, they are faking it – trying to clean up their image, which isn’t great but even from them, at least we are getting some work as a result.” It’s been a lot for a young model to navigate, and all the while, Azza was also dealing with the small matter of heartbreak, which did have one positive outcome: a new statement hairstyle.
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“It was super long and then I cut it in one go. I know it’s a cliché that if a woman feels sad, she cuts her hair, but it’s true,” she explains. “I had just come out of this super toxic relationship in Tunisia when I moved to Paris and I was broken, alone, I felt like a stranger. But I worked on myself to be stronger, and I wanted a new life. When I looked in the mirror, I remembered that really bad time. So when I cut my hair, I felt myself, actually… no, I found myself.” And with that came a newfound respect for spirituality. “YouTube was my only friend in Paris. I put on meditation songs and encouragement speeches – that kept me going,” she recalls. “And it made me feel alive, fixed me. So from there, my journey started in spirituality and I felt that healed me.”
Azza has evolved into a master of self-care: she’s vegan, loves walking and meditating and has a fitness coach to stay in shape: “I’m not obsessed with working out, if I don’t feel like it, I don’t do it. I’m easy on myself.”
And finding herself means she has also found love. She is engaged to French-Tunisian businessman Nadim, who she met 15 months ago, their relationship blossoming when she got stuck in Tunisia this time last year due to COVID-19. Azza, who has moved to New York, was visiting last March and has been at the family home ever since, Nadim becoming part of her lockdown bubble with the couple seeing each other every day.
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Being in Tunisia also means that she’s had more time to concentrate on her acting, and as well as two cinema releases, she’s currently filming TV show Les Millionaires – a Ramadan series that airs in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya.
“It’s a dark comedy, like Friends, but there is also drama and action in it,” she explains. “It’s the first time I’ve done this kind of work, I’ve only done dramas before, so this is challenging. It’s a really, really big show, there is Biyouna, the legendary Algerian actress in it – I’m so happy and grateful to work with her, as well as so many other big names.”
Once filming is complete, Azza will finally head back to New York to pick up on modelling, study courses she’d started in sustainable fashion and film, and work on her new, natural skincare range. “It’s actually being produced in Luxembourg, they really respect natural products and ‘no plastic’ reusable packaging there, which is very important to me,” explains Azza, who is an ambassador for the No More Plastic initiative and has partnered with them on an eco-friendly sneaker range. “There will be creams, masks, eye masks, but not make-up. I believe if you invest in your skin you will not need to invest in lots of make-up. Treat the skin well and then you can just play with the make-up. Also, I’m going to choose an organisation to share the benefits with, so my skincare line is not only for business, I’m doing it to help and raise awareness.”
So is Azza trying to make a name for herself as an activist?
“I don’t know, but for sustainability, feminism and gender equality, I’m just doing my best to help,” she says. “I have followers, If I wear a good dress they want to buy it so maybe they’ll follow me in good things to change the world, change something in our reality. So yeah, I’m trying to do my best.”
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It leads on to a conversation about gender parity. “There’s no equality between men and women, even in Europe or America. They try to show us there is, but when you’re there you can feel there isn’t,” she tells us. “Feminism is not about women being superior than men, it’s that everyone needs to be equal, in their professional and personal life. As we enter this year, men are still getting paid more than women for the same jobs – this is crazy.”
As the interview comes to a close, we talk about the long, drawn-out pandemic, and Azza is feeling hopeful about the year ahead. “I really feel happy about this year, I have so many big projects. Yeah, I think this is my year, a good year,” she laughs. And she has words of encouragement for those wanting to follow in her footsteps. “To any new model, I say ‘don’t give up’. Don’t say ‘I’m Arab, they will not accept me’, work hard and you will show them that you’re strong,” she explains. “I’m so proud that I’m Arab, we have our traditions but we are open-minded. We work hard. We can be models, we can be dancers and actresses. Now, it’s not about being Arab or not, it’s about being human and we can do whatever we want.”
The words of a wise woman indeed.
Editor in Chief: Olivia Phillips. Art Director: Oscar Yanez. Fashion Director: Anna Castan. Model: Azza Slimene at The Lions. Hair: Adam Garland. Make-Up: Manuel Losada. Styling Assistants: Anusha Hittalmakki and Shahira Hossameldin. Producers: Elle Hutchinson and Johana Dana. With thanks to Sindbad Balloons, UAE.
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s March 2021 Issue
