If Karolina Spakowski’s parents had had their way, she would never have set foot on a runway. After she was scouted as a teenager, her parents were hesitant and wanted her to focus on school. (They eventually relented.) In the fall of 2022, she made her runway debut in Valentino’s spring/summer 2023 show. Within six months, she’d walked for McQueen, Schiaparelli, Chanel, and Bottega Veneta, and opened shows for Max Mara, Hermès, and Stella McCartney. Magazine editorials and ad campaigns aplenty soon followed.
All, Tom Ford.
Jacket, blouse, skirt, Chanel. Hat, Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood. Earrings, Paumé Los Angeles Archive. Ring, Cartier.
Though she had had little experience with fashion—beyond an internship in the costume department of a theater when she was a teenager—she was used to the discipline a demanding career requires. Beginning at age 3, Spakowski, who was born in Kazakhstan and raised in Germany, trained as a rhythmic gymnast. Her mother had been a gymnast herself, and her father a boxer, so sports were taken very seriously in her home. “I think the most important skill that I learned is to be disciplined and do the stuff that that you have to do, even if you don’t really want to do it,” she says. “That’s the biggest thing that my parents and this sport taught me.”
Jacket, Gucci. Ring, Cartier.
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All, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.
Dress, jabot, Ralph Lauren. Earring (left), Lizzie Fortunato. Earring (right), Paumé Los Angeles Archive.
By the time she was 5, Spakowski, who has four younger siblings, had already been practicing gymnastics for two years and had started to tire of it. “I just wanted to hang out and play in the kindergarten with all my friends. My friends never had to do sports,” she recalls. Her parents were open to her stopping, but made it clear to her that they expected her to take her responsibilities seriously, even at a young age.
Coat, Balenciaga. Headpiece, Versace. Hood, Valentino. Belt, Ralph Lauren.
“My parents were like, ‘Okay, well, if you don’t want to go, you will not go. But then you won’t do it ever again. So you decide now.’ I was like, ‘I want to do it, I just don’t want to do it now.’ And then [they said], ‘There’s times where you don’t want to do stuff, and either you do it or you don’t do it at all. If you do it right, do it right. But if you don’t want to do it right, then don’t start it.’”
It’s a lesson that she has carried into her career. While the skills needed for modeling often come naturally, the hard work and energy it requires can be the biggest challenges. “Sometimes I just don’t want to wake up and I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to model anymore. It’s too much, whatever.’ It’s five different time zones in a week, and you don’t feel like a human being anymore, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I will stop.’ And then I’m like, ‘No, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right.’ The biggest transition between gymnastics and modeling? “For me, it was hard to learn to be more cool, because I was always very strict and I couldn’t let loose. But I learned to,” she says.
Dress, Celine. Bracelet, Paumé Los Angeles Archive. Pumps, Christian Louboutin.
Jacket, hat, Louis Vuitton. Panthère bracelet, Cartier. Bangles, Paumé Los Angeles Archive.
When Spakowski isn’t working, her life in Berlin, which is about two hours away from her family home, is relatively quiet. She’s comfortable being by herself. She visits flea markets, paints, and practices her calligraphy. But she’s not easy to pigeonhole, and has some surprising habits. One of her favorite activities is betting on horse races, and that’s where her discipline can soften. “I’m unfortunately not allowed to go to bet on horses too much, because I tend to lose all my money,” she admits. Turns out, it’s good to loosen up sometimes.
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Lead image credit: Dress, collar, Erdem.
Hair by Louis Ghewy at MA+ Talent; makeup by Chiao Li Hsu at Art + Commerce; manicure by Vaitteil Lazzouni; casting by Julia Lange at Art Partner; models: Karolina Spakowski at Elite, Ella Dalton at The Society Management, and Gaëtan Bianchi at Success Models; produced by One Thirty-Eight Productions.
This shoot appears in the September 2025 issue of ELLE.
