Models Of Colour: Asian Models

Following the recent post about African Models, let's focus today on Asian Models and their situation in modelling industry.

Fashion industry realizes the importance of diversity and choice.
We start noticing exciting things happening; over the last few years there is a whole generation of Asian Super Models showing up in Western and European Fashion Capitals.

In the past, model agencies in New York, Paris, London and Milan preferred to represent only one or two Asian girls, but now their presence is becoming more and more obvious. Today, Asian models are starting to change the world’s definition of beauty. If in the past they used to be featured only as representative of their community in Gap and Benetton ad campaigns. These days they are featured as super models in the Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue US ,Vogue Paris, Numero, Elle and many others. 

Asian women are climbing the rank of the modeling world as names like Liu Wen, Tao Okamoto and Shu Pei win high-profile runway spots and ad campaigns.

Twenty-three year-old Wen, born in China's Hunan province, is the first of East Asian descent to walk a Victoria's Secret fashion show. In 2010 she became the first Asian face of cosmetics giant Estee Lauder.

One of the leading Asian faces is Du Juan (see pic below) , an ex ballerina from Shanghai. Du became the first Asian to grace the cover of French Vogue. She also has appeared in advertising campaigns for Armani, Gap, Anna Sui, Uniqlo, H&M.

People do pay attention to those changes and try to embrace the asian models in modelling industries:

http://xxgirls-asianmodels.blogspot.com/

http://asianmodelsblog.blogspot.com/

Asian Beauty and Fashion Magazines

Asiana-Top asian fashion mag

Asian Woman

Agencies for Asian Models

http://www.asianrunway.com/

http://www.caramelmodels.co.uk/

http://www.mahoganymodelmanagement.com/

However to apply to some of the agencies you will need professional photos to submit while creating your application. If you need help with prepapring your pressional modelling portfolio click here. 

Enter A Competition Miss Asian Model 2012


Some observers see the embrace of Asian models as a strategy toward tapping into the booming Chinese retail markets. According to ABC, the Asian cosmetics sector is poised to become the world's largest.

Have a look at the graph showing diversity of models in 2010 in fashion shows