Elio Berenett, the model who challenges convention: ‘People didn’t know how to treat me. I told them: I don’t care, I’m up for anything’

Blonde hair, five feet 10 inches, and a size 41 shoe (a U.S. size 8.5). Model Elio Berenett’s profile was always a mystery to casting agents. It included all the necessary information, yet every time he met with them, he found himself in the same situation. “I remember an afterparty where everyone approached [the agents], worried because they didn’t know how to treat me. I just told them, ‘I don’t care, I’m up for anything.’ I understand why it was confusing for them; it was confusing for me at first too,” he says from his home in Sweden. At nine years old, he began working as a model, and 10 years later, made his big debut with Louis Vuitton in Paris. Now 22, he is not afraid to play with gender in his work: he approaches a fashion show in heels with the same determination as a menswear shoot like the one he did for EL PAÍS.

“In this industry, you grow up very quickly. You have to learn to respect yourself, but also not to hold yourself back. For me, it’s been hard to distinguish my limits from what are just preferences in my personal life. Like now.” As he says this, he points to his outfit: a basic white T-shirt and sweatpants. As he later clarifies, for years that limit was a very feminine esthetic, especially high heels. “By not wanting to wear them, I lost out on many jobs and many opportunities to have fun,” he says today. Deep down, it hurts Berenett because this rejection was a betrayal of his inner child: “As a kid, I loved dressing up and playing different characters for my family. However, I was bullied at school for years, and that took away my confidence to play and not take appearances so seriously.”

As a reminder of that time, he has a whole string of tattoos: “I got my first one when I was 16, but I’d remove them all. I got them because I wanted to appear tough.” He speaks as if centuries have passed, but it has only been five years. However, when one has a life like his, it is easy to excuse him.

From high school, and with just a couple of children’s commercials under his belt, he moved on to the Paris runways. Without a break. “It was a huge leap. I thought I was going to faint before stepping out, but fortunately I didn’t,” he jokes. He learned two things: first, that he had become addicted to that adrenaline rush. Second, that he wasn’t the only one who was hooked. His Instagram filled up with thousands of messages. “They were old friends, or not, people who had never said a single nice thing to me. Over time, I realized that even important people would take an interest in you when you did something big and then forget about you until the next project.”

They had no shortage of reasons to keep coming back. Shortly after that first show, he modelled again for Vuitton, and then came Balenciaga, Moschino, Ganni... “One day I woke up in Sweden, traveled to London just to get a haircut, and then flew to Marseille for a photoshoot with David Sims. On the way, I thought: ‘I’m in the car with the best in the industry, and who am I?’” Short answer: a charismatic, highly distinctive profile, coveted by industry leaders for the character and the groundbreaking quality he brings.

As he attracted more and more designers, Berenett regained that childlike confidence, and the ban on heels was finally lifted. “I love the extra pressure they put on my job. You only get one chance to do it right and not screw it up. In the future, I’d like to embrace this feminine look even more,” he confesses. A few months ago, he opened designer Alain Paul’s show in heels as if he’d been doing it all his life. The secret? “I listen to Kendrick Lamar or Lady Gaga beforehand. Especially Just Dance if the shoes are really high.”

With so much work, this year Berenett has also learned to deal with a classic of the profession: the void that exists between projects. “It takes a lot of strength not to go crazy every time you stop working. You question yourself a lot and think, ‘I have to find a real job.’ I think those doubts never completely go away, but you end up finding strategies to get around them.” His plan now is to continue broadening his horizons. He wants to try his hand at acting. Heir to a well-known family of Swedish actors, Berenett firmly believes that a passion for acting is written in his genes: “It’s the only thing I’m passionate about. And it’s the only thing I know how to do.” Brace yourselves, casting directors.

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