Meet Model River Viiperi, The Beefcake Who Loves Cheesecake

River Viiperi in the new Versace Fall 2015 men’s campaign. Photography by Mert & Marcus

Model River Viiperi appears in Versace’s new fall campaign, fresh off a two-year hiatus in L.A. Working with photographers Mert and Marcus, and Donatella Versace and her staff, was a sort of homecoming for the 23-year-old Spaniard, as he’d previously worked with the entire team in the Versace for H&M campaign a few years prior. “I don’t know what made them pick me, but I am definitely very excited that they did,” Viiperi says. “It was like back into the family.” The former Paris Hilton paramour also walked exclusively for Versace on Saturday during the Milan men’s collections. Yahoo Style chatted with him a few days ago about practicing Blue Steel looks in the mirror, posing in the nude, his ball-crushing motorcycle road trip, and where to find the world’s best cheesecake.

Yahoo Style: Do you have a favorite piece that you wore in this shoot?

River Viiperi: I’m going to pick the shoes as my top priority right now; they’re leather, cool, high tops that I would wear.

YS: What is a really crazy shoot you’ve done?

RV: Well, I’ve been in shoots where I’ve had to wear, like, some straps on my butt, where you’re naked. Being naked in front of a crew is always a little shocking, when they put a strap on your butt it’s also a little shocking, but I was working with Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca, who is also a good friend, so it was pretty comfortable.

YS: In the Jeffrey Fashion Cares runway show, you had your shirt off. Are you comfortable parading around like that in front of an audience, or are you self-conscious?

RV: Imagine how comfortable it is! But I took my shirt off just because I wanted to. I improvised on that runway - I told them right before walking out that I was going to kind of strip off, and they were like, please don’t, but then they were like, just do whatever you want. So I wanted to keep it a little more entertaining, the crowd has to have fun. They’re all here supporting a great cause, Jeffrey Fashion Cares, so why not put a little show on, make people laugh a little bit?

Model River Viiperi, center, in the Jeffrey Cares Fashion Show. Photography by Kevin Tachman

YS: What’s some ridiculous advice you’ve received?

RV: When I first started modeling, when I first moved to London, my mom [a former model] used to tell me to look at myself in the mirror after the shower and practice facial expressions, which at the moment seemed a little too much. But throughout the years I started doing it, and it actually helped me a lot. You learn how you move, so when you use that on camera, it’s easier for you to know how you’re looking when you lift an eyebrow, or you put on a grumpy face, or you put on a smiley face. You know what’s going on, and how you are going to more or less look in the picture.

YS: On your models.com profile, it says you’re a cheesecake critic.

RV: Yes. I love cheesecake. It’s my guilty pleasure. Every time I go to a restaurant, if they have cheesecake, I have to try it. Everywhere in the world. So far, the best cheesecake I’ve ever tried was in Thailand, in a Spanish restaurant. Out of all the places, you would never imagine it would be in Thailand, but it happened.

YS: Can you make a cheesecake? Do you know how to cook?

RV: Oh hell yeah. I love spending time in the kitchen. Now that I’m, like, healthyish I cook at home a lot, make sure that all the food I eat is clean, because I know what ingredients I’m using. And every once in a while I’ll go crazy and do a cheesecake, and act like I’m going to eat it throughout the week, but I’ll finish it the first day. But whatever. Cheesecake is my passion. [Laughs]

YS: Do you have a special cheesecake recipe?

RV: I try new ones. I do the regular cheesecake, I’ll do caramel cheesecake. I’ve been trying to do the one I tried in Thailand for the past four years, and I’ve never been able to.

YS: Is there anything else you make that’s really great?

RV: Bolognese sauce. One of my favorite dishes is spaghetti Bolognese, so I take my sweet-ass time preparing my Bolognese sauce. Usually takes, like, over a day to do it. Got to let it sit, to make sure you get all that flavor.

River Viiperi walks in the Spring 2016 fashion show. Photo: Getty Images

YS: On Instagram, there’s a photo shoot where you’re on a motorcycle. Do you actually have a motorcycle?

RV: Yeah. That was not my motorcycle, but I do. I have a BMW S1000RR, which is a sport bike. I’ve always had bikes when I was a kid, in Spain. It’s a passion of mine. I’d rather have two wheels than four.

YS: Did you ride the bike across the country when you moved from L.A.?

RV: I didn’t ride across country, because prior to moving back to New York I did a road trip from L.A. to Seattle, and that’s when I figured out that my bike was definitely not meant to be used for road trips, because as you can imagine, 1,500 miles up and 1,500 miles down on a sport bike can kind of, how do we put it… put your balls a little to shaking. I’m definitely going to rent a Harley Davidson or something a little more comfortable for my next bike road trip. They call the sport bikes “crotch rockets.” You can kind of picture why, because you’re, like, leaning forward against the gas tank and it’s not very comfortable.

YS: Do you get funny propositions from people, and marriage proposals, and that kind of thing?

RV: This is a very long list. I’ve been asked so many different weird things through e-mails, and through Twitter, and through Instagram direct messages. I’ve been asked to do all kinds of things, from posing nude for, like, an art school to traveling to Monaco to go party with people. Crazy, crazy, crazy, stuff that I don’t know how people have the guts to ask.

YS: It does seem odd.

RV: I’m sure some people say yes, that’s why they keep doing it, but not me. I like to earn my stuff in a very normal way.

YS: You grew up in Spain, your father is Spanish, your mother is Finnish. How many languages do you speak?

RV: Three, fluently: Spanish, English, and Finnish. It’s like in the Devil Wears Prada, when on the resume they put “Finnish,” because nobody really speaks Finnish, it’s a good excuse to just put it on a resume to add one more language. [Laughs]

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