I've been fascinated with fashion for a long time and that fascination is very much evident on my blog for the past months. Fashion has been captivating my imagination since I was 11 and the now-defunct CNN program of Elsa Klensch is the one that introduced me to this much-celebrated and criticized industry. We are know in the second decade of the new millenium and fashion has been a tour-de-force for so many people - designers, models, journalists, photographers, editors, and common people alike have lives that are entwined with this industry.
I noticed that for the past years, fashion is in the process of diversifying itself since
there are a number of fashion houses in New York, Paris, Milan, and London that are employing Asian models in their runway. There are also instances that Asian models have been a face of a certain major campaign like Chinese Supermodel Du Juan. The statuesque beauty from China has been in the ad campaigns for Louis Vuitton (with Raquel Zimmerman), Yves Saint Laurent (with Daria Werbowy), Anna Sui, and Giorgio Armani. Not only that, she also became the first Asian model to be featured on the cover of Vogue Paris alongside Gemma Ward. Du Juan opened the doors for many Asian models to go international. Aside from her, Korean model Hye Park became the face of Dolce and Gabbane, D&G, Max Mara and Roberto Cavalli. Hye Park has also walked for Prada which is known for its evasion of colored models. Lakshi Menon from India became the face of Givenchy, Hermes, and MaxMara. She was also featured in an American Vogue editorial wherein she showed the world her hometown of Goa, India. In the recently concluded Ford Supermodel of the World competition, a Filipina stunner named Charlene Almarvez became the First Runner-Up.
Last season, I'm so happy to learn that among the models who have walked the most number of runway shows, two of them are Asians! Rising Star Tao Okamoto of Japan walked for 58 shows (a triple tie with Eniko Mihalik and Imogen Morris-Clarke). Tao also opened the 3.1 Phillip Lim show wherein all the models' hair were styled like her signature bowl-cut mane! Chinese beauty Liu Wen with 70 shows had walked for Marc Jacobs, Hermes, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and became the first East Asian to walk for Victoria's Secret! In fact, Liu Wen has the second most number of runway shows behind first-placer Constance Jablonski of France! Both Tao and Liu also broke barriers by being in a number of campaigns last season. Tao became the first Asian to be the face of the iconic Ralph Lauren and graced a landmark cover of Vogue Nippon while Liu can be seen as the face of ckOne, DKNY, United Colors of Benetton, and Gap. This season, Liu can be seen as one of the models featured in Alexander Wang's lookbook and in the ck Calvin Klein S/S 10 with Constance Jablonski!!! Her campaign for ck Calvin Klein is totally groundbreaking and models.com predict that Liu would even do greater things this year. As they've said on models. com, we must expect a Liu Wen supernova this 2010!!!
Aside from these models, other Asian models who are slowly entrenching themselves in the world of high fashion are Shu Pei, Hyoni Kang, Kiki Kang, Anna Wang and Selena Khan. On the men's side, there is Phillip Huang, Allen Tsai, and the man in the new Prada Men S/S 10 campaign (I don't know who he is!).
Yet, Asian models still have many barriers to break. There are still some designers who are nonchalant to include Asian models on their campaign fearing that they will not sell. But two countries in Asia are emerging as the new economic superpower - China and India. These two countries are already playing a major part in the world of consumerism and Western Fashion Houses know exactly that to please their Asian clients, they must feature faces that a local consumer can relate to. I would only totally believe that the fashion world has finally diversified if I see an Asian being in the covers of Italian and American Vogue (the creme de la cremes of all Vogue editions) and to have a solo ad campaigns for high fashion brands like Prada, Chanel, Dior, etc. I'm not a legitimate fashion observer and it would take eons of years for me to buy a certain LV bag that I've been coveting for months but as of this moment, I am very happy to see my fellow Asians breaking barriers and being at par with their Western counterpants.
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