The Body On The Bodies

From: Godfrey Deeny

1. Auch an einem Supermodel geht das Alter nicht spurlos vorbei, Elle etwas transsexuell. Fotografie: Godfrey Deeny

2. Elle Macpherson, the Australian beauty whom Time magazine dubbed The Body two decades ago, was in Paris this week to open her first lingerie boutique in France, and we at Achtung took the chance to ask The Body which other Bodies she rates as, well, Great Bodies.
   
   After an initial hesitation, the ever-leggy Elle decided on a triumvirate of Top Bods; and they are Gisele Bundchen, Hugh Jackman and Jessica Biel. Tough competition, you’ll agree.
   
   “I like broad shoulders and long legs, because that’s my demographic. Hugh Jackman, and you know why? Because his body looks like he is just a guy who really does sports and doesn’t spend hours in the gym,” she insists in a chat in the VIP department of Paris department store Printemps, where later that Monday she will officially unveil her 400-square-foot boutique.
   
   “Gisele has a beautiful body. It’s reasonably natural looking. And I think that she dresses really easily. She’s not a victim of the fashion industry, in the sense that she has to keep changing her style. She is what she is. She just looks great in a pair of jeans.”
   
   At 46, and boasting of two men her life – sons Cy and Flynn – this Australian model still can claim a figure so lithe her famous nickname still seems apt.
   
   “Someone like Jessica Biel always looks great as well. Simple, beautiful and elegant in a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt, which is my thing too,” she smiles, smirking when I inspect her outfit, devoid of both jeans and T-Shirt.
   
   “These are my business clothes today!” she demurs, explaining her look consists of a classic black Herve Leger bandage mini, Alice Temperley leather biker jacket and Christian Louboutin heels, pronounced with her still Sydney accent as Loobooton. And, bien sur, her own undies from collections produced in China, using Italian lace, with a design office based in New Zealand, though under the creative direction of Macpherson, who lives in suitably hip Notting Hill.
   
   Her take on French women’s reputation for having the best underwear of any nation? “French women are unbashful (sic) about using their sensuality and sexuality. It’s part of the culture that they use their bodies in order to charm and it does not demean them in any way. Lingerie plays a big part in that.”
   
   And, how one wonders, did the still alluring Macpherson keep herself in shape?
   
   “My routine in the morning is I wake up and have some time of reflection, para-meditation. Collect my thoughts, center myself. Then I would have lemon juice, two or three with hot water cause I think it cleans out the system.
   
   “I eat organic food, protein and vegetables. I used to be a vegan but now I eat fish. And I love espresso, but I don’t drink it, cause it fires up my kidneys and gets me all nervous.”
   
   Her other explanation? -Exercise, waterskiing at 6AM when in Miami, skiing in Aspen and surfing in Costa Rica, preferring with “a left-hand point break.”
   
   En plus, she does not smoke, or drink! So hard to see her dating an Irishman. Tch…