Interview with Pietro Boselli

Armani Model and Math Teacher 

Pietro Boselli is Too Much

 The Italian male model tells the story of how one student launched his career with a viral Facebook post. 

 

Imagine walking into your first economics class at the University College of London to discover that your professor was Italian male model Pietro Boselli. After saying a few Hail Mary's, you'd tell the entire world on Facebook, of course. This is exactly what student Arief Azli did in January 2014 with what became a viral post solidifying Boselli's position as "The World's Sexiest Math Teacher." It gets better: Boselli's course was called "Modeling and Analogies," which had nothing to do with the modeling we all know about - it was a class about mathematical models - but still. He also says "maths" instead of "math," which is just too much. 

 

But wait, there's more! He went on to get his doctoral degree in "computational fluid dynamics," studying the "wet steam flow" in large turbines. After being discovered by Armani Junior at the age of six, Boselli, who was born in the northern Italian town of Negrar - it's near Venice - has gone on to model for Abercrombie & Fitch, Equinox, and Charlie by MZ underwear. Most recently, the 28-year-old was cast by Armani once again to model the EA7 Emporio Armani collection, which will be worn by the Italian team at the Olumpics and Paralympics in Rio 2016. On the phone recently from Milan, he took time off from eating his mom's cooking and going to the gym - a typical day - to answer a few pressing queries from a long-distance admirer.

 

You started modeling for Armani at age six. Do you remember being on set? Yeah I remember meeting Giorgio Armani at a fitting. They walked me and my mother to this meeting room where we were introduced to him. I didn't even know who he was. For me, it was like a normal thing. I thought, "This is what everyone must do." It's so nice that he's still there. It's really impressive at his age. When we do a fashion show, he's still there backstage sending you out on the runway and making sure all the details are okay.

"My workouts are really intense. I like going in and smashing it out. The gym is not a place where I hang out." - Pietro Boselli

 

What's your fitness routine? Working out has always been an integral part of my life. I grew up near the Alps, so I was very much into outdoor activities like climbing and trail running. When I moved to London, I started going to the gym. And now that I travel I a lot, I still managed to do one or two workouts in a day wherever I go. It helps with everything. Even my Ph.D. studies. It gives you a clear mind. Keeps me structured and feeling good. My workouts are really intense. I like going in and smashing it out. The gym is not a place where I hang out.

 

What were you like as a kid? Were you always good at math? I had a lot of energy. I was a bit naughty. My dream was to travel and explore the world. As a kid, I thought there were places that were still undiscovered and I wanted to go find them. Later in high school, I discovered that I was good at school and had an interest in science, mathematics, and physics. For me, engineering was the obvious choice in terms of applying my studies and being creative. At 18 I was doing fashion shows and I had a career ahead of me, but I didn't even question continuing my studies.

 

How do you balance studying with modeling? Do you have a life equation? The best rule of time management is: if you have something to do, do it now. People spend so much time planning, but it's important to be flexible and spontaneous as well. This way, you get things done. During the years of my undergrad, of course I had deadlines and it was less flexible. But during my Ph.D., I could manage the hours myself. I would work in the office all night, slept there, and then I could take a day off and go for a shoot or something.

 

Can you tell the story of the viral Facebook post that deemed you the "World's Sexiest Maths Teacher," and how it launched your career? I've been teaching at university for five years, and each year I have around 100-120 new students. So, every year someone is bound to find out that I do modeling on the side. They've made some posts, and I've even seen Facebook fan pages. And then one day some magazine picked up my student's Facebook post and re-posted it. That blew up. I had just started my Instagram at the time and I went from 20,000 followers to half a million in a day. I couldn't even log in.

 

How did the sudden fame make you feel? I didn't give it much importance at the time. It wasn't something I was looking for and I didn't really know what to make of it. Now that it's been over a year, I appreciate it more. I now have a platform that I can use to covey a message and image. It's powerful!

How was it in class? Was it awkward or just funny? It was fine. It was an academic environment and people were serious about their studies. Sometimes there would be a funny comment or someone would ask for a picture. But after the post went viral, things started to feel different. More people were in my class than they were in the major.

How do you explain to other models what you do? I get all sorts of random questions. I never know what to answer when people ask, "So, what do you do?" I'm like, "Where do I begin?" When I tell people I'm a math teacher, the response I get most often is, "Oh, I'm awful at mathematics." And I'm like, "Okay, what do you want me to do?"

 

Do people ask you to multiply and divide on the spot? All the time. They're like, "What's 1 + 1?" and I'm like, "Really?"

Can you explain to someone who doesn't know anything about math what your Ph.D. was about? I was doing designs of big turbines for power plants. The class I taught was called "Modeling and Analogies."

Wait, did you say modeling? Like modeling as in mathematical modeling of physical phenomenon. Everything in nature can be explained through mathematical equations. Like the motion of fluid; I used equations to predict how this would happen with a turbine. And knowing this, I was able to redesign it.

Do you have a favorite equation or something that sparked your interest recently? How does it transfer over to your daily life? The theory of inequality: if something is greater than something else, than they are not equal. It's an equation that states that entropy is always increasing. Entropy, for me, represents the unpredictably of life. We always have to try new things and not accept the state of our current environment.

 

Pietro Boselli: Italian Professor

Man dubbed the 'world’s hottest teacher’ repeatedly removes his shirt in a mesmerising 60-second video - despite previously complaining about being 'objectified'

 Footage of Pietro Boselli taking his shirt off has had nearly 27,000 views:

• The Italian 27-year-old won a search for the world's sexiest teacher
•  Advanced maths tutor has complained about being objectified in the past 
• Takes his t-shirt on and off repeatedly against the clock in YouTube video
• Boselli has said he is 'too good looking' to be taken seriously  
•  

Have you ever wondered how many times a muscle-bound model can take his t-shirt on and off in 60 seconds?

Italian maths tutor and model Pietro Boselli, who was once named the world's sexiest teacher, has taken it upon himself to find out in a video clip that's now racking up thousands of views online. 

The 27-year-old, who has complained of being objectified by women in the past, manages to remove his shirt - and expose the abs that landed him an Armani campaign - a grand total of six times against the clock. 

Wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, the model can be seen tugging his shirt over his head time and again as a timer ticks away in the corner of the screen in the YouTube clip that's been viewed almost 30,000 times.  

Boselli, who lectured in maths while obtaining his PhD in engineering at University College London, originally tried to keep his modelling career a secret because he feared people in academia would look down on him. 

But his other career came to light after student admirers discovered his shoots online. 

Boselli, who was scouted as a child in Negrar, Italy, shot to fame when he was entered into a search for the world's sexiest teacher by his students and won. 

Growing up in Italy, the young Pietro was scouted by Armani Junior which started off a double life of studying hard for his exams as well as posing in front of the lens for fashion shoots.

 

He calls himself a 'nerd' and says that his studies were his priority growing up, forcing him to turn down lucrative jobs that would take him away from his books.

His students at UCL, where he taught while studying for his PHD, did eventually discover the fitness fanatic's secret, after Googling him.

Pietro says he knew his students had cottoned on when they started to take 'sneaky' images of him while he was at the front of the lecture hall.

However, the teacher-come-model says he tries not to let the attention go to his head, saying that people 'think he is too beautiful to ever take seriously'.

The buff academic now has 1.5million followers on Instagram, but the fame and fortune has come at a price. 

Pietro has voiced frustration in the past over his modelling achievements dwarfing his academic capabilities. 

And he's also taken issue with the many women who struggle to keep their hands to themselves around him. 

He told Grazia magazine that women had grabbed his bottom when he became famous, and has said to be put on a pedestal as 'a hunk' was 'demeaning'.

Charles Devoe for Mangano

Charles DeVoe: Death of A Male SuperModel

 

5 years ago this Month....Remembering Charles DeVoe
A top male model who spent a month in a coma after a surfing accident has died.

 

Charles DeVoe, 28, was pulled from the ocean in Rockaway, New York, after his ankle strap became snagged on a wooden pole.
He had been under the water for several minutes before rescuers managed to cut him free on November 12.

 

DeVoe had worked for fashion houses such as Dolce & Gabbana and Abercrombie & Fitch. He had featured in magazines including Vogue.
After the accident he was taken to the New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center, where his family remained with him for the past month. He died last Friday.
Mr DeVoe was from Philadelphia but moved to New York in 2004 to pursue a career in modelling after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

He signed to Major Model Management and posed for fashion photography heavyweights like Bruce Weber, Steven Klein and Mario Testino.
Aside from his work with D&G and Abercrombie & Fitch, Mr DeVoe had featured in campaigns for Anne Klein, Buffalo Jeans, and alongside Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen for Stefanel.
His face graced the pages of magazines such as Details, GQ, Vogue Nippon, V Magazine, and Arena Hommes Plus.

 

Family members said Mr DeVoe was athletic from a young age and was very interested in adrenaline sports such as snowboarding, BMX biking and – most recently – surfing.
Initially it had seemed that Mr DeVoe’s condition was improving after the accident, according to policeman Eddie Roth.
‘[The signs] were encouraging,’ Mr Roth said. ‘His brain swelling had gone down, his lungs and kidneys were responding and he was responding to [the treatment].

 

'It's a shame – everyone loved him around here.’
His parents, David and Laura Lane DeVoe, who had been keeping a vigil by their son’s bedside, said: ‘He will greatly missed. This is very hard for us.’

 

'We are all devastated at this loss,' said Jason Kanner, a spokesman for Major Model Management, the agency who signed Mr DeVoe.
'This was a tragic and senseless loss, a horrific accident that has deeply affected all that knew and loved and cared for him.
‘[He was] a lovely kid who was respected and loved by many.’
Mr DeVoe's body was cremated on Sunday in New York.

America’s couturier: James Galanos dead at 92!

 

James Galanos, whose gowns were worn by Nancy Reagan, Judy Garland and Heidi Klum, was ‘America’s couturier’......
 James Galanos, a designer to the stars who kept a profile as low as his clients’ were high, died Oct. 30 at his home in West Hollywood. He was 92.
 
“He died of natural causes Sunday morning — peacefully and surrounded by his sister and family,” nephew Vincent Polisano, president of the James G. Galanos Foundation, told The Times.
Billed by some as “
James Galanos, a designer to the stars who kept a profile as low as his clients’ were high, died Oct. 30 at his home in West Hollywood. He was 92.
“He died of natural causes Sunday morning — peacefully and surrounded by his sister and family,” nephew Vincent Polisano, president of the James G. Galanos Foundation, told The Times.

 

Billed by some as “America’s couturier,” Galanos’ work was beautiful from afar but dizzyingly delightful up close: silks knife-pleated by hand, precisely positioned crystal beads, enthusiastic sequin play and interior seams so precisely hand-finished that fans of his work often opined that his creations would be equally beautiful worn inside out.
In a departure from today’s designer-as-rock-star, media-saturation model, Galanos was private and somewhat press shy, preferring to let his handiwork speak for itself, which it did loudly thanks to the well-heeled, high-profile clientele that picked his pieces for state dinners, red carpets, television appearances and society events on both coasts.

 

James Gregory Galanos was born Sept. 20, 1924, in Philadelphia, one of four children of Greek immigrants Gregory Galanos and Helen Gorgoliatos, who ran a restaurant. He was raised in Bridgeton, N.J., and, after graduating from high school in 1942 briefly attended the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City. After a stint as an assistant at Hattie Carnegie, he turned to selling sketches to Seventh Avenue clothing manufacturers. But Galanos’ real fashion education would come in Paris — as an assistant to couturier Robert Piguet — where he spent several years before returning to the U.S. in 1948.

 

The designer’s six-decade-long relationship with Southern California began when he came West in 1951 to work as an apprentice to costume designer Jean Louis at Columbia Pictures. That same year, he sold his first collection to Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. It was quickly picked up by other stores, including Neiman Marcus, and he incorporated his business under the Galanos Originals name the next year at age 28.
” Galanos’ work was beautiful from afar but dizzyingly delightful up close: silks knife-pleated by hand, precisely positioned crystal beads, enthusiastic sequin play and interior seams so precisely hand-finished that fans of his work often opined that his creations would be equally beautiful worn inside out.

In a departure from today’s designer-as-rock-star, media-saturation model, Galanos was private and somewhat press shy, preferring to let his handiwork speak for itself, which it did loudly thanks to the well-heeled, high-profile clientele that picked his pieces for state dinners, red carpets, television appearances and society events on both coasts.

James Gregory Galanos was born Sept. 20, 1924, in Philadelphia, one of four children of Greek immigrants Gregory Galanos and Helen Gorgoliatos, who ran a restaurant. He was raised in Bridgeton, N.J., and, after graduating from high school in 1942 briefly attended the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City. After a stint as an assistant at Hattie Carnegie, he turned to selling sketches to Seventh Avenue clothing manufacturers. But Galanos’ real fashion education would come in Paris — as an assistant to couturier Robert Piguet — where he spent several years before returning to the U.S. in 1948.

 

The designer’s six-decade-long relationship with Southern California began when he came West in 1951 to work as an apprentice to costume designer Jean Louis at Columbia Pictures. That same year, he sold his first collection to Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. It was quickly picked up by other stores, including Neiman Marcus, and he incorporated his business under the Galanos Originals name the next year at age 28.

 

Among his early clients was an MGM starlet by the name of Nancy Davis, who would end up shaping his career as much as, if not more than, his couture-level confections shaped her Size 4 frame as future First Lady Nancy Reagan. Reagan wore Galanos gowns on countless occasions but most memorably to her husband’s four inaugurations (Ronald Reagan’s two California gubernatorial inaugurations as well as his two presidential ones).
For most of his career, Galanos was the go-to for special occasions. Judy Garland, for example, wore a black leotard and chiffon skirt of his for a 1956 TV special. Diana Ross was clad in a purple-beaded Galanos number at the 1985 Academy Awards. And Grace Kelly, in the run-up to her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, had the designer make her a couple of different dresses, including a white silk organdy ball gown embroidered with huge floral bouquets and a more understated blue dress that she was photographed wearing the day before the ceremony.
Stars who counted on him included Edie Adams (whose Galanos collection reportedly numbered in the hundreds of pieces), Loretta Young, Dorothy Lamour and Rosalind Russell.

 

Another thing that set Galanos apart was his approach to business. He not only designed the clothes that bore his name, but also picked out the fabrics, arranged sales and called on clients, often with enormous wheeled steamer trunks full of dresses in tow. Likewise, he never leveraged Galanos Originals into a Galanos lifestyle brand with the kind of diffusion lines and product extensions that have been part of fashion brand synergy for the last several decades.

 

 He reportedly entered into just two licensing deals in his entire career, one for fragrances and the other for furs.
Polisano described his uncle as someone who spent his whole life focused on his career. “From the time he was a teenage boy, he would sit in his parents’ restaurant and draw fashion [sketches] on the back of the customers’ checks,” Polisano said. “He always knew that he was going to be a designer, and he knew he wanted to be a designer of beautiful things for special people. And ever since he was a little boy, he tried to stay on course and never deviate from that.”

 

That focus earned him not just A-list clientele but just about every plaque, trophy and recognition the fashion industry could throw his way, including Coty American Fashion Critics awards in 1954 and 1956, sidewalk plaques on Seventh Avenue’s Fashion Walk of Fame in 2001 and on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style in 2007, and a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1985. 

 

He was also the subject of a career retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art  in 1997, just one year before he officially retired from the fashion business at age 74. (A short film created for the LACMA exhibition called “Galanos on Galanos” can be viewed online.)
A testament to the timelessness of his work, Galanos’ vintage gowns would continue to grace the forms of supermodels and superstars including Heidi Klum, Amber Valletta, Nicole Kidman, Celine Dion and Renée Zellweger. 

 

From his retirement in 1998 until his death, Galanos split his time between homes in the Hollywood Hills and Palm Springs, traveling and dabbling in art photography. He is survived by a sister, Dorothy Chrambanis of Langhorne, Pa., who, along with Polisano and his wife, sits on the board of the Philadelphia-based James G. Galanos Foundation, which is working to preserve the designer’s legacy.
“One of the things the foundation did — and it was one of Mr. Galanos’ wishes — was donate his atelier collection to Drexel University,” Polisano told The Times. “And they’re going to take the lead in preserving what was left in his archives.”

 

Over the last year, the foundation has donated more than 700 garments to the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel, and future plans include a designated study room for Galanos’ archives, a book and something that, just maybe, will help the next, rare, Galanos-in-the-making turn a sketch scribbled on the back of a restaurant check into a career-creating wearable art. 

“We’re going to give scholarship funds to people who are deserving — to help them get careers in the fashion world,” Polisano said. 
Galanos' other survivors include numerous nieces and nephews.
 

Lady Gaga Is Donatella!

After two stellar seasons on American Horror Story, Lady Gaga is teaming up with executive producer Ryan Murphy yet again, this time for the third season of American Crime Story.

While Gaga was a standout in AHS: Hotel (she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Limited Series for the role) and she's wowing us again in this season's Roanoke, we're maybe more excited about her American Crime Story role than about any other part she's ever played. Gaga will portray fashion designer Donatella Versace in the show's third season, Versace/Cunanan: American Crime Story 

.

Not only will Gaga make a perfect Donatella, physically, but she and the designer are close friends in real life, too. They've walked carpets together, and Donatella chose Gaga to star in Versace's Spring 2014 ad campaign. Oh, and there was also that time Lady Gaga penned and recorded a tribute track for the designer ("Donatella" from Artpop). So yeah, it probably goes without saying that the role is going to be very personal for Gaga.

The third season of American Crime Story will center on the 1997 murder of Donatella's brother, Gianni Versace. Gianni was gunned down by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide just over a week later. It's still unclear why Cunanan targeted Gianni as part of his three-month killing spree though, which is likely what the season will explore.

More Gaga on our TVs is never a bad thing, but we are beyond excited to see what she brings to this role.

 

Lady Gaga to Portray Donatella Versace!!

Lady Gaga to Portray Donatella Versace in 'American Crime Story'

 Lady Gaga will portray fashion designer Donatella Versace in the upcoming third season of the anthology series American Crime Story, which resolve around the murder of Donatella's brother Gianni Versace in 1997.  

Versace/Cunanan: American Crime Story reunites Gaga with executive producer Ryan Murphy, who cast the singer in American Horror Story: Hotel, a role which earned Gaga a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Limited Series; Gaga also currently appears in American Horror Story: Roanoke.

                        
The third season of American Crime Story is expected to go into production in early 2017, around the same time the anthology series' second season – focusing on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – begins filming. The first season of American Crime Story – The People Vs. O.J. Simpson – won nine Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series.

 

Gianni Versace was shot and killed outside his Miami Beach mansion in July 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide eight days later with the same gun. It's still unclear why Cunanan, who murdered at least five people over the span of a three-month-long killing spree, targeted Versace.
Gaga and Donatella Versace, who took over as head of design for the fashion empire following her brother's death, are close friends, with Gaga recording a "love letter" track titled "Donatella" for her 2013 album Artpop. Gaga also starred in Donatella Versace's Spring 2014 ad campaign. Gaga and Versace also walked the red carpet together at the Met Gala in May 2016.