Earlier this month, Anne Vyalitsyna was anticipating her 28th birthday — it’s March 19th. Curled up on a black leather chair in a corner of a W Hotel suite that overlooks Ground Zero, the Russian-born model, who is in an oversize black sweater, black leggings and blue floral Nike high-tops, admits she’s feeling the imminent crawl to 30.
“I’m hitting that 30 mark . . . I mean, I have a few more years,” she says in barely accented English, a language she learned after moving to the United States to pursue modeling when she was only 15.
Since she launched her career as a mannequin, Vyalitsyna has walked in shows for nearly every top European fashion house, including Prada, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana; earned her Victoria’s Secret wings; and this year, she marked her 10th year appearing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
The catwalker has been a music video vixen and, most recently, is starring alongside Lydia Hearst and Naomi Campbell in “The Face,” a model-search reality show that is “The Voice” meets “America’s Next Top Model.”
She has dated some of the hottest boldface men on the planet. She’s so successful in both the world of high fashion and lad mags, the name Vyalitsyna need not even apply. Anne V is sufficient, thank you.
“I just did Alexander Wang, where we bleached our eyebrows and were walking in heat-activated clothing, and then I went to do Sports Illustrated press for their 50th anniversary. I am so thankful that people look at me like a chameleon. With most girls you either do commercial or [high] fashion stuff. I can do everything that I’ve always wanted to and people don’t limit me because of other things I do.”
It’s an impressive and lengthy résumé for anyone, but for all of the style and pop culture accolades there is one thing that has eluded Vyalitsyna thus far.
“I would like to have a family. I’d like to have kids and that’s pretty much my goal. I’ve been very fortunate, otherwise,” she says.
There is the business of finding that special someone with whom to settle down. With sexy full lips, enviable curves and a dusting of freckles over her button nose, she’s the perfect combination of sex bomb and girl next door that beguiles the male species. The smiley blonde famously dated Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine for two years and last year landed hunky Mets ace Matt Harvey, along with a lot of accompanying ink in Page Six. The golden couple split last month. And though she’s had her brushes with famous men, Vyalitsyna wouldn’t mind the type of pedestrian introduction that makes for good romantic comedy scripts.
“I don’t have anything against meeting someone in a supermarket. That would actually be awesome,” she says, her green eyes twinkling. Before she finishes describing the meet-cute over Fuji apples in the produce aisle of Fairway, she tempers the fantasy with the reality of globe-trotting while trying to maintain a relationship with, say, a mild-mannered accountant.
“It would be a lot easier to date someone who isn’t in the public eye, because I don’t think people would really care about your relationship as much. But also, when you meet someone who is successful and has been in the public eye, they understand what you’re going through. You don’t really get someone who is a teacher — they’re going to be like, ‘Oh girl, you travel half a year and you’re with male models, you’re definitely doing something with them,’ when obviously you’re not.
“Sometimes you wear very sexy things and sometimes you shoot with men. And sometimes you have to pretend you are making out with them. I’ve never dated anyone in fashion. This is my job. I am always very committed to my boyfriends.”
But she’s seen the downside of a public relationship.
“I’m not the most famous person in the world. I don’t understand why people care about my dating life, but people are interested. At the end of the day, I want to have normal relationships like everyone else. When you have the public involved, it becomes so much harder. You have to be with someone who is really secure — and not let the bulls–t take over your relationship.”
One relationship that’s blossoming is with reality television. Vyalitsyna replaced Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha as a mentor and judge on Oxygen’s “The Face.” She stars alongside Campbell, her one-time modeling hero.
“I was intimidated, because she was my idol. I was really scared,” Vyalitsyna says, noting that she was hired to compete against Campbell. (The models coach opposing teams of wannabes.) “This isn’t about Naomi. The show is about the team that I mentored. I had to do a job . . . but at the same time I really wanted Naomi to like me,” she says, pausing before breaking out in a laugh.
Being a mentor to young models is a role Vyalitsyna relishes, as she says she didn’t have one to guide her when she began putting on weight early in her career, at age 18.
“My agents were like, ‘Go to the gym.’ I was like, ‘I’ve done sports my whole life, I don’t know what the gym is. I don’t know how to eat salads.’ It would have been nice to have another woman to talk to,” says Vyalitsyna, who now keeps her body toned with everything from Zumba to Pilates at Chaise23 and SoulCycle. “My body is really strong, but I still look very lean.”
Vyalitsyna, who lives in downtown Manhattan not too far from the Statue of Liberty, is still celebrating becoming a US citizen in November.
“Russia is still where I came from and where my family is, but America kind of built me into the person I am. It’s such a wonderful country, it’s given me so much, and I really wanted to be a part of it,” she says, beaming with pride.
With all of those accomplishments finally comes approval from her parents, who are both doctors in Russia and hoped she would give up modeling to follow more erudite pursuits.
“They were like, ‘Go to school, go to school, go to school. What are you doing with modeling?’ I am sure it was hard for them, too, because they’re such intellectual people. They’re doctors, and I am a model. Most people say that models are not that smart. And I’ve always loved school and I’ve always wanted to go to college and I still do,” she says, adding another goal to her list. “They are proud . . . And now they are very supportive.”