VIVA GOANS A regular column featuring eminent Goans living outside Goa
Role Model Waluscha – Making Dreams Come True By DIELLE D’SOUZA
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Finding her feet in the fast-paced fashion world, Waluscha Robinson opens up with VIVA GOA,
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aking flight as a fledgling model, Waluscha Robinson left for the “big city” to pursue her dreams when just 17 years old. Leaving family and friends in Goa, she found success in Mumbai as a popular model and carved a niche for herself in the country’s glamorous fashion industry. This former student of Our Lady of the Rosary High School in Dona Paula and Mapusa’s St Xavier’s College set her sights on the neon lights during a lecture on career opportunities. Friends and classmates set about choosing professions such as law and medicine, but Waluscha realised she was “never one to study”. She explains, “I wanted something that could fetch me a lot of money.” A friend suggested she try out for an audition for Wendell Rodricks, who Waluscha said she had no idea about at the time. She adds, “My friend helped me find a make-up artist and told me to be sure to go in late. I had to make an impact and be remembered. So I walked in late, and it worked!” The celebrated fashion designer was to
become Waluscha’s mentor and close friend over the years as she journeyed to heights in advertising campaigns and at fashion shows across the country. But she needn’t have tried her trick, as Wendell believes she was a cut above the rest right from the start. “I have no idea if she walked in late. But there was no need for that. She was head and shoulders above the rest and would have made an impression anyway.” The ace designer adds, “What was so obvious from the moment she walked in the door was the fact that she was 100 per cent model material. She was very young and came to the audition from school or college. One look at her and we ticked her in. “She had the height, the grace and a confidence beyond her years. I gave the finale gown to her despite having a roster of models that included Ujwalla Raut, Madhu Sapre, Nina Manuel and Jessie Randhawa. I had faith in her from day one and she never let me down.” Despite being selected to walk the ramp for
Wendell, the young model from Calangute found her father Adv Francisco de Sousa somewhat put-off by her career choice. “But he was very sweet about it,” she says. “He sat me down and told me: ‘It’s like drinking beer. The more you have, the more you want. It’s addictive’. “But I couldn’t turn down the opportunity with Wendell. In fact, it turned into some sort of an ego issue. If I didn’t take it up, the other girls would think I wasn’t selected, probably because I walked in late. My father finally put all his trust in me and as they say, where there’s a will there’s a way.” Still, Mumbai is seething with hordes of people looking for work and many find it difficult to make a life for themselves, sometimes taking up whatever comes there way. For Waluscha, this was not a problem. “I didn’t come to Mumbai looking for work,” she says. “I already had work when I got there. I was always called to Mumbai for work, so would keep shuttling between Goa and Mumbai whenever I had assignments.”