Alek Wek

[gbam]

closeup at Balenciaga


vogue.com

 

[jj36]

When is the last time she has walked this many shows? Ugh I wished she did this every fashion week.

 

[rubydon]

When is the last time she has walked this many shows? Ugh I wished she did this every fashion week.

Completely agree.

 

[AlbertNoir]

When is the last time she has walked this many shows? Ugh I wished she did this every fashion week.

More than ten years ago I guess!
She frequently does some appearance at few selected shows, but not so many like this season!
So happy to see this gorgeous creature!

 

[gbam]

Dazed Spring/Summer 2017 Limited Edition cover

Alek Wek & Grace Bol

Photography by Viviane Sassen
Styling: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben using Chanel



Close ups

Photographer Viviane Sassen brings two fearless fashion icons together for Dazed - here, they speak out on anti-war activism and multiculturalism in modelling.
“If we are talking about celebrating women, we have to celebrate (diversity) as well’’ - says model Alek Wek, who fled her native South Sudan to spread messages of peace, positivity and progress to the rest of the world.

In a special fashion collaboration shot by Viviane Sassen, she's joined by fellow South Sudanese Grace Bol who speaks of the injustices she witnessed there as a child. “The country is going in (the right) direction, we just have to be patient” she says. “We'll get there.”

Alek Wek has the kind of smile you can hear on the phone. She’s raving about the brilliantly diverse cast at Marc Jacobs AW17, the magical moment that was Dries Van Noten’s age-inclusive 100th show (“We were looking at each other like it was a high-school reunion!”) and the fact that so many models from her generation are back. We have a long way to go in terms of diversity, she says, “but the dots are finally starting to connect”.

Wek is as electrifying as the day she arrived in fashion. The embodiment of haute couture and all that is beautiful, she was scouted at 18 in 1995 while studying at the London College of Fashion, and found herself shooting with Steven Meisel before opening and closing Ralph Lauren SS97 as a newcomer. Boom. There were other successful black models at the time, but none who looked like Wek, the first African model to land an Elle cover.

Her images with Irving Penn and Herb Ritts (that oiled-up Pirelli shoot with baby radishes for a mohawk) along with Wek ripping off her blonde wig on the runway at Betsey Johnson are the stuff of trailblazing fashion legend.

But Wek’s most important work has perhaps been as an activist and ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, which she praises for drumming up ways for people to get involved and help raise funds to feed and shelter refugees. “It has not calmed down at all there,” she says of her home country of South Sudan, its famine and the way women and young girls are being violated by men. She’s also worked with the H&M Foundation, a project that has raised millions for refugees.

Above all, she is incredulous that we’re even discussing whether or not we should help refugees. “There’s nothing political about being a refugee,” she says. Wek was five when civil war broke out and South Sudan life became strictly about survival. Forced to leave their home when local police ran out of ammunition to ward off the militia, her family escaped into the bush with what little they could carry, foraging for foods that were safe to eat and selling salt to buy passports. All this with a father too ill to walk, who died before they could make it out of the country.

“It’s difficult for me when I hear certain individuals in the media describing refugees as criminals or thugs. And we’re talking about children, women, old people – the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. They don’t want handouts. I have cleaned BBC Radio toilets to put myself through school, waking up early every morning before I could go to class,” she recalls of coming to the UK as a teen via her sister who was already there.

Text by Susanne Madsen

instagram.com/dazed & dazeddigital.com

 

[gbam]

* from the text

“So it’s not about trying to get out of a situation where you feel it’s not comfortable enough. Your life is on the line.” When she first arrived in London, she’d run home before it got dark. “Because darkness for us (meant that) you might get shot and nobody would be held responsible.”

Now, she giggles at her mum being horrified when she bought a brownstone in Brooklyn in 1999, because she thought the area was dangerous. There, she writes poetry, paints large canvases – of her dad, desert landscapes and abstract forms exaggerating the lifelines in her palms – and plays the violin. She credits her mum with her strong sense of self-worth, and is grateful for the belief she instilled in her that as a woman you are strong and beautiful, not just on the outside. “I think that is very important to educate the younger ones on. We can have fun with the clothes and the make-up, but underneath – that’s the beauty of a woman.” What’s kept her interested in fashion all this time? “I love that I have a voice and I don’t just have to talk about the clothes. (I love) seeing fellow South Sudanese people now in the fashion business. If we are talking about celebrating women, we have to celebrate (diversity) as well.”

dazeddigital.com

 

[gbam]

Dazed Spring/Summer 2017 Limited Edition cover

Alek Wek & Grace Bol

Photography by Viviane Sassen
Styling: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben

instagram.com/dazed & wefolk.com

 

[gbam]

Dazed Spring/Summer 2017 Limited Edition cover
Photography by Viviane Sassen
Styling: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben using Chanel

instagram.com/robbiespencer

L'Officiel Indonesia - The Music & Cinema issue, Nº 41, April 2017
Photographed by Onin Lorente
Styling: Connie Berg
Hair: Ayumi Yamamoto
Make-up: Stoj
Manicurist: Naoko Saita




oninlorente.com, instagram.com/oninlorente&lofficielindonesia

 

[magsaddict]

love the L'officiel Indonesia shoot, and congrats to Alek for her first cover in that region! She's having a killer year so far - new covers and great shows.

 

[gbam]

L'Officiel Indonesia - The Music & Cinema issue, Nº 41, April 2017
Photographed by Onin Lorente
Styling: Connie Berg
Hair: Ayumi Yamamoto
Make-up: Stoj
Manicurist: Naoko Saita

oninlorente.com

 

[rubydon]

Photography – Txema Yeste
Stylist – Bernat Buscato
Hair – Lacy Redway (The Wall Group) for Jane Carter Solution
Makeup – Tyron Machhausen (The Wall Group) for MAC
Nails – Natalie Pavloski (BRIDGE Artists) for Dior Vernis
Set Design – Chad Dziewior
Photo assistants – Sergi Hernan and Robyn Schmidt
Special Thanks to Outpost Studios



models

 

[jexxica]

Model Alek Wek attends the Whitney Museum's annual Spring Gala and Studio Party 2017 on May 23, 2017 in New York City.

zimbio

 

[CTSunshine]

such an amazing model, an absolute icon

 

[Prymasquous]

GAP 'Bridging the Gap' Summer 2017
Project by Edward Enninful
Ph: Douglas Segars



elle.com; prnewswire.com

"I feel that the GAP have a platform to tell people's stories. It's about not just celebrating culturally, but also universally.”

- Alek​

​

 

[AlbertNoir]

Gorgeous Alek!!!!

 

[sllevine88]

harpersbazaar

 

[sllevine88]

zimbio

 

[jexxica]

Those boots

 

[sllevine88]

HQ

flipboard

 

[jexxica]

Alek Wek attends the 2017 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 11, 2017 in New York City.

zimbio