Adut Akech
The South Sudanese beauty was born in a refugee camp in Kenya before emigrating to Australia at the age of six, where she began catwalking at the age of 12 after her boutique-owning aunt asked her to model in a small-scale runway show for her collection.
After being signed by Chadwick Models at age 16, her first gig was a local show for Melbourne Fashion Week—and the digitals she took backstage were passed onto Saint Laurent who booked her immediately under an exclusive contract for the spring summer ’17 show in Paris, reports Harpers Bazaar.
After her splendid performance at that show, the 18-year-old became a fashion sensation, grabbing the attention of industry men such as Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino and Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel.
She has since been booked by many major brands, walking almost every major autumn/winter catwalk this year. In New York, she modelled for Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta and Calvin Klein. She did same for Simone Rocha, JW Anderson and Burberry in London. In Milan, she was all for Versace, Fendi and Prada, while Paris was for her Saint Laurent boots, according to Vogue.