What Will Survive

DW
:

Aisha Lincoln, we're standing on the front lawn of your beautiful country home. How long have you lived here?

AL
:

We came here, it must be about fifteen years ago, when the boys were tiny. We were down here for the weekend and we happened to drive past and see a for-sale sign. I fell in love with it straight away.

DW
:

It's certainly a peaceful spot, and the coast is only a mile away.

AL
:

(Laughs) Its not peaceful in the winter! I love walking on the beach on a November afternoon, when all the visitors have gone. When the children were young, I used to take them down to watch the waves crashing on the shore. I didn't want them to grow up with a sentimental view of nature.

DW
:

You must miss all this when you're on your travels. It's a real English country garden, with trellises and climbing roses. When you announced your retirement from the catwalk, I think most people assumed you were tired of travelling so much – Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and all the other wonderful places you visited as a model. But your work for the poor and underprivileged seems to take you away almost as much. Don't you ever have an urge to stay at home with your husband and the boys?

AL
:

The boys are grown up now Max is about to start his gap year and Ricky is training to be a vet.

DW
:

Is that because of living in the country?

AL
:

Actually, we've never had pets, my husband is allergic. Anyway, the places I'm visiting now couldn't be more different from when I was modelling full time – I haven't given up completely, by the way. As you probably know, I'm involved in a project to educate women in East Africa about the dangers of FGM –

DW
:

Could you just explain to our readers? I mean, not in detail –

AL
:

Female genital mutilation. I first heard about it from Waris Dirie, when we were working together in New York and I couldn't believe what I was hearing — she's a UN ambassador now, of course. I've also been involved in a very simple scheme in Pakistan, where women have been going blind because of fumes emitted by the cooking stoves they use. I spent a week in a village where they were being taught to use a safer method, and just this one simple thing should be enough to save the sight of thousands of women. I really found it inspiring.

DW
:

You've obviously heard some tragic stories. When was the house built?

AL
:

What? Oh — we think it must have been 1870 or thereabouts, with later additions. I mean, architecturally it's a bit of a hotchpotch.

DW
:

I believe it was once used as a hotel?

AL
:

(Laughs) Yes, all the bedrooms are named after flowers. The boys were horrified at having to sleep in rooms called Bluebell and Foxglove — you can imagine! For ages after we bought it, we kept getting phone calls from people who'd stayed here and wanted to make another booking! It needed a bit of work to convert it back to a family house, but of course we kept a lot of the original features.

DW
:

Including the servants' bells, I believe?

AL
:

That's right, they're in the kitchen.

DW
:

Along with an Aga.

AL
:

Yes, but it's oil-fired! To be honest, when you see how hard women work in developing countries, it makes you appreciate all the things we take for granted.

DW
:

Is that why you've said some quite critical things recently? You're probably aware that some people in the fashion world feel let down.

AL
:

(Shakes her head) Let down? I'm sorry if they feel like that, but I never took the fashion world all that seriously. I like nice clothes, but it's hardly
Mastermind,
is it? I mean, I hate the way we've turned fashion and beauty into the only things that matter. When I travel to developing countries, the people I meet don't even know what it means to be a model. Why should they?

DW
:

You have controversial views on cosmetic surgery Is that because of your charitable work?

AL
:

Oh, I decided I would never have plastic surgery ages before I even thought of setting foot in Africa. It's one of the reasons I cut down on my modelling work, not wanting to be forced into messing around with my face. Ageing is a natural process —

DW
:

Some people would say it's all right for Aisha Lincoln to say that; she's got good genes.

AL
:

That may be true, my mother always looked very young for her age. But I also think it's a question of priorities. I haven't got the skin of a nineteen-year-old, obviously, but there are more important things in life. It's hard to get worked up about a few wrinkles when you're on your way back from places where people literally haven't got enough to eat.

DW
:

But you did do a rather unusual photo shoot last year for
Vogue,
and there was a lot of comment about the fact that the pictures were taken by a famous war photographer. Some former colleagues suggested you were raising two fingers to the fashion world, working with someone who doesn't usually do fashion and refusing to wear make-up. Wasn't that about showing you could still look fantastic at forty-three?

AL
:

Does forty-three seem old to you? (Laughs) My sons are always teasing me about my clothes. They'd be horrified if I suddenly started wearing, I don't know, pearls and a twinset. It's been a while since Fabio was a war photographer, by the way. In recent years he's been doing collages of landscapes and old buildings all over the world. A friend took me to his exhibition in Paris and I just loved them — you'll see one in the dining room, the pictures were taken in Rajasthan and the colours are ravishing. That's how we met, at his private view, and when he suggested photographing me for
Vogue,
I was thrilled. Then he explained what he wanted to do and the idea was so original; treating the face, my face, as a natural phenomenon — like a landscape. You know the prints were sold to raise money for the Sudan project, among other things?

DW
:

Do you think your foreign background has affected your views?

AL
:

I'm English! My mother was Egyptian, but she came to live here before I was born. Her brothers both went to the States, so it's not
even as if I've got close family in the Middle East. My father's family is Scottish, I have his family tree somewhere. It's probably in the loft, with all the other junk I've collected over the years.

DW
:

But you're not exactly an English rose! Your looks are often described as exotic. Does that bother you?

AL
:

It doesn't bother me, but I was surprised by it at first.

DW
:

You've been compared with Iman, David Bowie's stunning wife, who is also a model.

AL
:

I've worked with Iman a couple of times, but we're very different. She's from Somalia — like Waris, in fact. I'm Anglo-Egyptian, but much more English than Egyptian. I grew up here and I only know about three words of Arabic, though I'd like to learn more.

DW
:

So tell me about your next project, which involves the Middle East, is that right? I'm sure our readers would love to hear about it.

AL
:

That's right. After we finished the
Vogue
shoot, a publisher came up with the idea of a book — Fabio was in Lebanon during the civil war and he's always wanted to go back. He loves that part of the world and he's very keen to show it isn't just about death and disaster. Countries like Lebanon and Syria actually have thousands of years of culture, going back to Roman times, and that's what the book aims to show. You can imagine, with my background, that I jumped at the chance! I don't know those countries at all, which is why the publishers asked me to write a kind of diary — to see it through fresh eyes. Obviously the pictures are the important part, I can't claim to be a writer (laughs), and all the proceeds will go to charity.

DW
:

It sounds a bit diferent from your other charity work.

AL
:

It is. Some of the royalties will be used to help victims of war — rehabilitation, fitting artificial limbs, that sort of thing.

DW
:

When will we be able to see the book?

AL
:

That's up to our editor, but I hope some time next year.

DW
:

Does it have a title?

AL
:

We've had several ideas but none of them is quite right. The working tide is
Through Aisha's Eyes: A Middle Eastern Journey
(pulls a face) — something had to go in the contract! I hope we'll be able to come up with something more evocative while we're there.

DW
:

And you'll talk to us about your adventures when you get back?

AL
:

I'd be delighted.

DW
:

Aisha Lincoln, thank you for letting us see your lovely English house and garden. Good luck with your trip.