Asian models from fashion week
When Devon Aoki made her big debut into the fashion world, I questioned why? how? and again WHY? Sure, I was excited to finally see an Asian face in the fashion spreads but why, why in the world HER? I had non-model FRIENDS who were far prettier and taller than Devon all around me. Why did the fashion world choose and embrace Devon with her freckly round face, perma-frown and short stature (5’7” is nearly midget sized in the modeling world and only Kate Moss was able to get away with it still to this day). And here Devon was suddenly gracing the covers, walking the catwalks and gaining international fame all the while inadvertently representing Asian beauty for us all.
photo from listal.com
I likened Devon to Alek Wek another quizzical ethnic newbie on the fashion front. Both were loved for their untraditional beauty and extreme racial features. “Exotic” (I hate that word) is the euphemistic term I’d use to describe their quote unquote beauty. That’s why I get so excited whenever I see “real” Asian beauties grace the runways.
This year we had several noteworthy examples.Liu Wen, the first Asian to walk the famed Victoria’s Secret Runway is both tall (5’10”) and stunning.
photo by Jeffrey R. Staab
photo from imaxtree
photo: Tank
And who can forget Daul Kim,(photographed above) Karl Lagerfield’s muse and featured model in his Chanel videos.
Project Runway’s alum, Daniel Vosovic’s presentation during NY fashion week fall 2010 surprisingly showcased ONLY Asian models. With the exception of his runway show though, Asian models were scarce (not surprising).
At every fashion week that I attend, I always play a solitary, secret game of “Where’s Waldo” except instead of Waldo, I’m looking for the elusive Asian model. Though challenging, this game is usually short on fun ‘cuz usually after finding 1 girl, it is game over. Here are some of the girls I spotted throughout the week.
me with Hyoni (winner of Ford's Supermodel of the year)
photo from style.com
photo from style.com
photo from Susan S. Choi
photo from Susan S. Choi
photo from Susan S. Choi
photo from style.com
photo from style.com
photo from Susan S. Choi
photo from Susan S. Choi
photo from style.com
photo from style.com
Apparently other people were playing this game and spotted other Asian faces on the NY runways too. Here’s a quantitative summary showing total number of shows each of the top Asian models walked this past Feb 2010:
- Bibi S: 1
- Bonnie Chen: 7
- Carolyn Gao: 4
- Charlene Almarvez: 11 [open: 1]
- Daisuke Ueda: 1
- Danni Li: 9
- Daniel Liu: 1
- Dinara Chetyrova: 6
- Emma Pei: 8
- Eugenia Mandzhieva: 9 [opened: 1, closed: 1]
- Gwen Lu: 1
- Hyoni Kang: 11 [opened: 1, closed: 1]
- Irene Kim: 1
- Jasmine Yan: 6
- Jenny Shimizu: 1 [closed: 1]
- Kiki Kang: 2
- Lakshmi Menon: 6
- Lela: 6
- Liu Wen: 22
- Liu Dan: 3
- Noma Han: 2
- Paula Kawanishi: 1
- Philip Huang: 5
- Ping Hue Cheung: 5
- Selina Khan: 5
- Shi-Han Hsiao: 3
- Shu Pei: 23
- Tao Okamoto: 23 [closed: 1]
- Wang Xiao: 1
Who’s your favorite and why?
