Kat Kalashnikov, Charlotte, North Carolina’s answer to the Alternative Fetish Model Question

Kat Kalashnikov is an alternative fetish model who also styles wardrobes through her Crash Trash Designs persona.

The looks Kat portrays are blends of captivatingly edgy with creatively unique.

A number of the ensembles she is sporting here are in fact her creations and are so credited.

All in all, the package Kat delivers, we are not likely to see quite the likes of elsewhere.

“Being a model is wonderful.

It goes beyond being an artist, I am art.

I have been modeling for five years total.   And, the last two years were as a full-time gig.

It is hard to book as an alt model, especially in certain areas where there is not much alt model work.

I do not think of being an alt model as a negative thou.   I feel it is a challenge.

How far can I express? … Not being a completely blank sheet, how can I prove that I can model just as well as if I was?

I want the world to see how interchangeable a look can really be … That expression may override wardrobe … Lets be honest.   Tattoos are like layers …  an extra accessory on a model.

Every second of my life I would photograph, if I could.  I feel like I have always felt this way, just could not express it.

Even the subjects that interested me in school (mythology, religion, cultural studies, fashion, taxidermy) now become what I use almost always for modeling.

When I became willing to let anything be released to the public, I realized I had become a different level of model.   That a model was something I did not have to work on being.

I already was that uninhibited and ready to use everything I know to create something new to photograph.

Even if my creations tend to lean towards fetish fashion and cultural history slammed together into a wardrobe.

When I first got into modeling, the first thing I did was tons of practice.

I shot with everyone.

 Just to work on form and pose and prop modeling, I shot myself with a timer.

Once I practiced with this intensity, I have plenty of examples to send others to prove they should hire me and my face was everywhere.

Nowadays, to get work, I promote in various ways.

One way, which most people do not endeavor, is to be somewhat of a renaissance woman.

I model and am also am a performer, clothing designer, and musician.

In this way, I am always meeting someone in the artistic fields, and am afforded plenty of opportunities to network.

Of course, I completely utilize the internet and all social networks, and accept any offers to be in publications whether web-zine or print.

A lot of my ideas and inspirations come from music.

I will sit in my room or on the bus etc. with headphones in;  and, the imagery that comes in during a song becomes a photo shoot.

Or I pass a location, and what I see myself doing at that location becomes a shoot.  I never let my mind stay grounded.  I allow myself to imagine what I would think would be the most beautiful image to accompany it.

Then I let my brain come back down to earth to figure out the expenses for the set and how to make it happen.

My creativity is my favorite asset about myself, not my looks.

Whether it be Slavic mythological Baba Yaga or mixing modern fashion with a pony play fetish, etc., I absorb thousands and thousands of pictures in my head and come up with a way to make them mine.

To get ready for a shoot,  I like to try on the outfits or accessories associated with the shoot.   If I can, I do some brief posing in front of a mirror with them, to get an idea for how I want to feel and how I want the photo to feel for this shoot.

Must have beauty and makeup products?

I must have Got2b Hairspray.  If I have hair at the time, it holds perfectly.

And I love my black eyeliner and my dark crimson lipstick combo.   It matches my skin tone so well.   While I can shoot any kind of look, dark makeup brings out something predatory in me.

While shooting, I take myself and put it at the other end of my camera, like a weird modeling kind of astral projection.

I want the pose or what I am doing to look right in the eyes of the camera, not awkward.

At first it was hard to do this.   And now, it comes naturally.

So I get to just have fun with the clothing or props or location I am with.

Before I started modeling, I was a performer for a fetish company in my region.

Performing, I thought of my shows as I do my modeling:  accompaniment to a feeling invoked by music or actions.  Like a movie right in front of you.

I got involved in shooting the flyers for my shows.

After a few flyers and some photographers watching my shows, I was being offered more and more to shoot, until it just blew up.

I will still do some TF, at my discretion.

My priority is talent and creativity.

An interesting idea and overall excitement shown towards my ideas gets TF basis far quicker than any other method.

For more of Kat, click here.

Images © Photographers et al.
 

 
For a listing of Models Profiled on GlamourPhotography.co, click here.