Modelling has always been a gamble of a career choice, notorious for its near-certain fleetingness, and this has never rung more true than it does now. With the lines between bloggers, socialites, and models becoming evermore blurred, new models are scrambling to craft their own personal brands that are both unique and versatile in order to even compete for success.
But what might be even more interesting is watching how smoothly someone like Magdalena Frackowiak -- one of the last models to establish icon status before the ‘Gram was even a thing -- has tapped into a public persona that was already recognized and largely cultivated by her followers. If the name does not ring a bell, you’re sure to recognize her striking face and sharp features either from virtually every high fashion runway, campaign, and editorial circa ~2008-2014, or her countless videos currently circulating Instagram greeting 430K+ viewers with a distinctively cheeky and Polish-accented “Hello, bitches!”.
The height of her modelling career coincided with the heyday of online fashion communities. A sort of fanbase for her as well, as other high-fashion models of the time, began to emerge on sites like Tumblr and The Fashion Spot. Something about her confidence and regal attitude in particular stood out to users -- many of whom made blogs entirely dedicated to GIFs of her most memorable moments on the catwalk, backstage or in post-runway interviews when she would (intentionally or not) express any sort of discontentment or conceit such as a side-eye or purse of her lips. The odd couple of backstage clips where she says with a smirk and a shrug “I love, love, love myself and...just myself”, or announces her being cast for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show signing off with “Me! Magdalena, the queen. Bye.” went viral among such forums, and hinted at her acute sense of self-awareness early on.
Having launched her namesake jewelry line in 2015, she has since been using Instagram to promote it alongside mostly chic and sensual photos that complement the brand’s style...well, at first that is. Now, she seems to be having some more fun adding plenty of spontaneous videos of herself either dancing and sashaying, or delivering vlog-style skincare advice into the mix. Such posts tend to include the word “bitch” (sometimes written more tamely as “B****”) peppered in the captions, and dare critics to unfollow if they have “any problem”.
It’s clear though the fans far outweigh the haters, and so it only makes perfect sense that Magdalena is now using the long-beloved schtick to sell a line of catchphrase T-shirts: “Quotes by the Queen”.
An all-out entrepreneur, Magdalena has also hinted at the possibility of making a youtube channel in the near future so there is without a doubt much more of the queen we have yet to see.
Banner pic via Purple-Diary