Here is a translation of the
letter from the editor (scan courtesy of bluedolphin) written by Deng Li in
Marie Claire.
Liu Wen is Here!
Turn open the latest issue of four, five fashion magazines, and Liu Wen is in the editorials of almost all of them. I look until my eyes swim. This girl, who is only nineteen, is like a gust of wind that swept the fashion circle off its feet, rising to the top rapidly. It took her only two short years to achieve what other models slowly obtained after three, five years of struggling and persevering.
After being in the magazine business for a long time, I often like to discover the true nature of things through the superficies. It is the same when it comes to people, especially the successful ones. I always feel there has to be some exceptional reasons, otherwise, why is she the only standout?
Therefore, during the interview, our editor had hoped to repeatedly verify her inner journey in these two years, but could not get any expected response. Just like a transparent object, Liu Wen does not have any slightest complicated motivations. She still does not even know what kind of appeal she possesses.
But the Liu Wen in the five, six magazines at hand, with her ability to change into various looks, has a presence like a top model's. And at shooting locations, one minute she is a giggling girl, but once she is in front of the lens, she immediately becomes the protagonist you want.
This reminds one of that famous description by Kevin Tsai: Even though some stars are very good looking, but once a star is aware that he is good-looking, harbors a desire to make use of his looks, then his looks degrade. It will not be lost, damaged, only degraded. From pure gold to gold-plated--that kind of degradation.
Not Liu Wen. She is like a piece of unpolished jade radiating a unique magnetism; she can be imperious but never flashy.
It is a little deflating to say this but the probability of a good model distinguishing herself from the others is broken down into one-third natural gifts, one-third hard work and one-third luck. And without natural gifts, hard work seems to lose its place. As Karl Lagerfeld puts it in his assessment of the highly popular
American's Next Top Model, "Those girls will
never be the next Gemma Ward. There is no justice in the fashion business." The implication is that real supermodels have plenty of natural allure, and if this raw gift is not there in the first place, there is nothing to work with. That is why in this "anything is possible" world, girls who can really become supermodels are rare.
Thinking back to more than a year ago, when a verdant Liu Wen first came to Marie Claire's Editorial Department for an audition, she has not yet being cast by anyone from the media for a decent fashion shoot. Shortly after more than a year, through
Marie Claire, she has let fashion people see her brilliance, and for the first time
Marie Claire has invited a model from the new generation to be the cover girl.
We are very excited to be able to bring the fashion world an extraordinarily gifted girl.
and she and zhulin make a hot couple as V&R 
