The Life and Times of Noella Coursaris
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In the ever so competitive world of modeling, Africa’s very own Noella Coursaris speaks to “Afriville The Blog” on Africa, web apps and philanthropy.
To introduce her no one does it better than Frederic N’sienie
Noella Coursaris began her journey on the soil of the Congo where a Congolese mother and Cyprus father brought her into this world.This example of Feminine pulchritude embodies the zest, the vim and spontaneity of women that know they are inherently beautiful. As you would come to see,Noella burst with radiant energy and ardent love for life and humanity, in person and spurring out of her pictures, This Vigor extends to her professional as well as personal life.
Noella is perceived by many as a vessel of the enrichment darting from transculturalism. The Congolese born, swiss educated , got her modeling career started off after she did the Agent Provocateur campaign , the well known lingerie campaign.
Cheeky,hard working,focused such is Noella as a model. Her works include projects with entities such as IPOD,Virgin Mobile,Barclays,CDS covers… Various covers and magazines such as Cosmopolitan,Essence,GQ,New Women,Vixen, Mens Health,Arena,Pride… She also participated to a few video projects,the latest being the video of renowned UK artist Craig David.
Resolute,levelheaded and ambitious such is Noella as a business person.
Noella desires to utilize being one of the rare Congolese model successful internationally and exercise social leadership in the Congo. She hopes to start a residential institution for the care and education of orphans.
They say that a book is a story for the mind and a song a story for the soul,Noella is a story for the eyes.
The Interview
Why do you have an interest in reaching out to the Afriville community?
Africa is my roots, it is where I was born, I come from the Democratic Republic of Congo and even if I did not spend most of my life on its soil, I have a deep sense of attachment towards it. My latest trip to Africa that took me to Cote d’Ivoire and the Congo has been very emotional. I feel like we need to embrace each other more and that is what I am trying to do with the public as well as in my professional life. I work with Africans from different nationalities, some Ivorians, Nigerians, Senegalese, Congolese, Mauritanians, and Ghanaians etc. It is only right that I come on Afriville and engage a dialogue with the community.
What is your feeling on the usage of Web application such as Afriville, Facebook and the likes to communicate with the public at large?
You know, humanity has definitely made the big jump into technology, I did not realize it myself until I came into the states, technology is everywhere and it affects our lifestyle in so many ways, from instant messaging, text messaging to social networks such as yours, email services and websites, the worldwide web and web applications really change the rules of communication and interaction. I can by the means of your platform communicate with Africans in all parts of the world, I do not have to be on TV, the radio or in a magazine for them to know me. What is even greater is that they can answer back to me on my profile page; it is a real discussion instead of the one-way communication traditional media made us used to.
What would you want to communicate to the public?
The discussion that I would like to have is a discussion about the real Noella, my objectives, and my goals. The public should always go beyond what they see of public figures, get to know our flaws, get to understand what makes us strong or appear great. The pictures of me you will see in magazine should not be enough. I feel that all public figures from Athletes, singers to politicians owe it to the public. Show who you are, show what you stand on that allowed you to make it to that point. Someone is watching and can get inspired by your drive, abnegation, resolve and success.
Being a young woman in my type of industry, it is very important to me to show that it will take much more than symmetric features to make it to the top of the fashion world. It will take strength of character, vision and the right networks to do it. I just want to be a reminder of that to young women out here, I want to remind them what numerous people probably told them: be what you want to be, be the best at what you want to be.
What is happening at this stage of your professional life
I am working between London and New York but I have been based in New York in the past year or so. I mostly do a lot of print work and magazines spread. I have signed up for some acting classes so do not be surprised to see me on the box-office, as a matter of fact I appeared in the new Chris Rock movie” I think I love my wife”.
On another note, I am in the process of setting up a charity institution, the Georges Malaika Foundation, My partners and I would like to be involved in social entrepreneurship, this foundation would give us the muscle to be more effective at that. I will share more details as we pass the first stage of getting all our paperwork right.
Do you see an emergence of African designers, models and fashion shows in the near future (2-3 years)?
Yes I do, being far from the scene does not help to have a clear and concise picture of what is happening but I must say that here in New York the African touch is very en Vogue. You can see urban lines as well as more classic brand embrace the African inspired collection. Should and will African designers, models and fashion shows benefit from it, I sure think so. They will need to develop a real dialogue among themselves and have a strategy to make it happen correctly.
How much of a collaborative effort do you see between the African visual arts community (designers, painters, sculptors, and cinema) and fashion models?
To tell you the truth, it is probably increasing but we have not reached the point where it is common place and normal for breakthrough African designers, models, designers, fashion magazines, sculptors, painters, movie directors to work together. On the part of models I also feel like we need to one increase and diversify our skills, learn to dance, take acting classes, learn to sing. Doing so will make it easy for to collaborate with individuals outside the fashion industry.
What is next for Noella?
A lot of work, creating the bridge to a acting career, trip to the continent for the launch of the Malaika Foundation and socializing with the Afriville community( for real)
For more on Noella take a look at
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- Published:
- 13.08.07 / 2pm
- Category:
- Fashion
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