The world of modeling is based on the beauty of an instant, youth and success. An industry as attractive as it is cruel that brings fame and money as quickly as it takes it away and forgets you. The story of Nastasia Urbano is an example of these two faces of the industry. A broken fashion doll who, despite being a legend on the New York catwalks in the 80s, ended up living on the streets.
Nasasia Urbano was born in Switzerland, but made her career in Barcelona, ??where she met the photographer Fabrizio Ferri. Together with him, she would embark on a path to stardom that would lead her to be part of the elite of New York models, conquering Milan and London beforehand.
In just a few years in the Big Apple, the Spanish model went from being unknown to the cover of magazines like Vogue, the muse of legends like Yves Saint Laurent and having million-dollar contracts. According to articles of the time, Urbano’s cache for a month of work was around a million dollars.
In an interview in 2019 in this medium, the model remembered those successful years in New York with nostalgia: “I remember that time very fondly. I worked, but I also had fun. One day she was having dinner with Jack Nicholson and the next with Andy Warhol. Shared the dance floor at Studio 54 with Melanie Griffith or Simon
But her dream ended abruptly when her husband appeared on the scene. The 62-year-old model went through a difficult and very expensive divorce five years ago that left her practically alone and broke. So much so that in order to survive she had to choose between eating or paying the rent.
After three evictions and the fact that low-paying jobs were gradually reduced, Nastasia – whose real name is Consuelo – ended up sleeping for several months at a bank teller in Barcelona.
His alarming situation reached the ears of the press but also friends and acquaintances of the model and one of them decided to take action on the matter. Daniel Mirabal Gallego-Díaz, a professional in the same industry that Urbano met in Paris, set up a solidarity campaign to raise money and get Urbano out of life on the streets and homelessness.
The project managed to raise 6,000 euros for the Spanish model, who, thanks to the publicity of that campaign and the contacts of her friend Mirabal, re-entered the fashion industry in a modest way.
