Adventures with Karina Leps

Antakly Projects Conversations Series

Wilhelmina Dubai Harper's Bazaar · Elle NY Fashion Week David Bellemere, Paris Estonia Now: Agent · Creative Producer

Antakly Projects · Conversations

Karina
Leps

Model · Agent · Adventurer · Estonia

She started as a basketball player. She ended up on Harper's Bazaar covers, New York Fashion Week runways, and once had to relieve herself in front of a hundred people at a Chinese event. Karina Leps is exactly as free as she sounds.

Wilhelmina Dubai Harpers · Elle David Bellemere NY Fashion Week Mexico China

01

Tell us a little about yourself

Modeling took me by surprise. I started pretty late — at seventeen — and I was originally a basketball player. I decided modeling would take me to more exotic places than just Paris and New York, so I made the switch.

Career highlights: magazine covers, working with Harper's and Elle, runways at New York Fashion Week, test shoots with David Bellemere in Paris, appearing in commercials in Mexico. But I'm not defined by any of it.

Currently I work as an agent across different fields — not just fashion. Film, production, anything creative and fun. I have some tomboy hobbies and I'm even considering going for my childhood dream: to be a professional stunt double. (Hahaha. Seriously though.)

"I decided modeling would take me to more exotic places — not just Paris and New York. So I made the switch."

02

Greatest inspirations and influences

What inspires me are simple things — the ones that really are the greatest and most important of all.

🌿 NatureSpending time in the countryside, wild animals, different smells. The forest. The real world.

🎞 Old CinemaOld movies, different eras — the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Other times had a different texture.

🎵 MusicClassical music, jazz, hip-hop. Beethoven and 2Pac in the same afternoon. Alicia Keys. Amy Winehouse.

🖼 Art & LiteratureDalí. Bukowski. Donald Glover. People who made their weirdness into something permanent.

✨ Being DifferentThings that are not ordinary. Weird stuff. Embracing it — fully, without apology. (Clearly this is why we are good friends, Karina.)

💛 HumanityLaughter. People who forgive. Acts of kindness paid forward. Being alive. Life, love, compassion.

And above everything: being real and true to yourself.

Adventures · Travelling the World as a Model

"My favourite place was China. There's a lot to dislike — the chaos — but it is adventurous as hell."

Going to the toilet anywhere in China was a challenge. I once had to pee in front of a hundred people at an event because there was no other option. The craziness, getting lost, the taxis, the trains, the noise, the language barrier — it all made me feel alive.

And I also love Mexico. Different energy, different chaos. But chaos, when you lean into it, is just life being very honest with you.

03

Challenges in the model industry

You have to be tough and very clever to make it. You need to see right through — to sense what is right and what is wrong. And never, ever let anyone make you doubt your own confidence, your beauty, your esteem, your personality.

The industry will try. That's just what it does. Your job is to already know who you are before it gets the chance.

04

Favourite websites & social media

I don't really follow anyone specific — we all know social media is mostly fake. But I love watching funny animal videos. I follow one Finnish wildlife photographer. Sometimes I check Pinterest.

Mostly I like to go to museums in person. I like to experience art, people, and streets — but in person, not on my screen. There's a texture to the real thing that no feed can replicate.

05

Three things you can't live without

i.

The dreamy/poetic side of me would say late nights, early mornings, and the afternoon. All three. Simultaneously, if possible.

ii.

Nature. Not as a concept — the actual thing. Soil. Trees. Animals. Wind.

iii.

Music and Feelings. The two are barely separable anyway.

On the industry · Karina's advice

Never let them doubt you. The people who make it are not necessarily the tallest, the most symmetrical, or the most connected. They are the ones who walk in already knowing who they are — and leave the same way.

Karina's Final Thought

It is both a blessing and a curse to feel everything so very deeply.

— Karina Leps

Antakly Projects

A creative documentary series — interviews, portraits, and conversations with the artists, models, musicians, photographers, and thinkers worth knowing. Curated and produced independently from Dubai and beyond.

ninunina.com Leila & Coco on Substack All Conversations

so very deeply.

Antakly Projects Conversations Series

Wilhelmina Dubai Harper's Bazaar · Elle NY Fashion Week David Bellemere, Paris Estonia Now: Agent · Creative Producer

Antakly Projects · Conversations

Karina
Leps

Model · Agent · Adventurer · Estonia

She started as a basketball player. She ended up on Harper's Bazaar covers, New York Fashion Week runways, and once had to relieve herself in front of a hundred people at a Chinese event. Karina Leps is exactly as free as she sounds.

Wilhelmina Dubai Harpers · Elle David Bellemere NY Fashion Week Mexico China

01

Tell us a little about yourself

Modeling took me by surprise. I started pretty late — at seventeen — and I was originally a basketball player. I decided modeling would take me to more exotic places than just Paris and New York, so I made the switch.

Career highlights: magazine covers, working with Harper's and Elle, runways at New York Fashion Week, test shoots with David Bellemere in Paris, appearing in commercials in Mexico. But I'm not defined by any of it.

Currently I work as an agent across different fields — not just fashion. Film, production, anything creative and fun. I have some tomboy hobbies and I'm even considering going for my childhood dream: to be a professional stunt double. (Hahaha. Seriously though.)

"I decided modeling would take me to more exotic places — not just Paris and New York. So I made the switch."

02

Greatest inspirations and influences

What inspires me are simple things — the ones that really are the greatest and most important of all.

🌿 NatureSpending time in the countryside, wild animals, different smells. The forest. The real world.

🎞 Old CinemaOld movies, different eras — the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Other times had a different texture.

🎵 MusicClassical music, jazz, hip-hop. Beethoven and 2Pac in the same afternoon. Alicia Keys. Amy Winehouse.

🖼 Art & LiteratureDalí. Bukowski. Donald Glover. People who made their weirdness into something permanent.

✨ Being DifferentThings that are not ordinary. Weird stuff. Embracing it — fully, without apology. (Clearly this is why we are good friends, Karina.)

💛 HumanityLaughter. People who forgive. Acts of kindness paid forward. Being alive. Life, love, compassion.

And above everything: being real and true to yourself.

Adventures · Travelling the World as a Model

"My favourite place was China. There's a lot to dislike — the chaos — but it is adventurous as hell."

Going to the toilet anywhere in China was a challenge. I once had to pee in front of a hundred people at an event because there was no other option. The craziness, getting lost, the taxis, the trains, the noise, the language barrier — it all made me feel alive.

And I also love Mexico. Different energy, different chaos. But chaos, when you lean into it, is just life being very honest with you.

03

Challenges in the model industry

You have to be tough and very clever to make it. You need to see right through — to sense what is right and what is wrong. And never, ever let anyone make you doubt your own confidence, your beauty, your esteem, your personality.

The industry will try. That's just what it does. Your job is to already know who you are before it gets the chance.

04

Favourite websites & social media

I don't really follow anyone specific — we all know social media is mostly fake. But I love watching funny animal videos. I follow one Finnish wildlife photographer. Sometimes I check Pinterest.

Mostly I like to go to museums in person. I like to experience art, people, and streets — but in person, not on my screen. There's a texture to the real thing that no feed can replicate.

05

Three things you can't live without

i.

The dreamy/poetic side of me would say late nights, early mornings, and the afternoon. All three. Simultaneously, if possible.

ii.

Nature. Not as a concept — the actual thing. Soil. Trees. Animals. Wind.

iii.

Music and Feelings. The two are barely separable anyway.

On the industry · Karina's advice

Never let them doubt you. The people who make it are not necessarily the tallest, the most symmetrical, or the most connected. They are the ones who walk in already knowing who they are — and leave the same way.

Karina's Final Thought

It is both a blessing and a curse to feel everything so very deeply.

— Karina Leps

Antakly Projects

A creative documentary series — interviews, portraits, and conversations with the artists, models, musicians, photographers, and thinkers worth knowing. Curated and produced independently from Dubai and beyond.

ninunina.com Leila & Coco on Substack All Conversations