The Model Revitalizing the Runway: Anok Kai

Anok Yai talks and laughs like an early twenty-something-year-old girl, and you wouldn’t believe her overnight-success story. She embraces other major names in the industry like Adut Aketch on the street and recounts how she became an industry starlet overnight in a video diary from the back of a cab taking her to her third runway show of the day during New York Fashion Week. She dances and talks to the camera in a ‘Go to Bed with Me’ segment for Harper's BAZAAR, and it’s easy to feel like she is ordinary and reminiscent of your closest friends. But that's far from the truth.

Anok Yai for Dazed 2018 // Photo Credit: Brianna Capozzi

Yai is originally from South Sudan, but she grew up in Rhode Island, and while studying biochemistry at Plymouth State University, she attended Howard University’s homecoming celebrations. There she had her photo taken by Steven Hall. She thought nothing of it until she received over 30k Instagram followers overnight. Shortly after, she was flown to New York City, meeting agency after agency until she signed with Next Models Worldwide. 2017 was the year that changed her life. The story of  Yai has moved the fashion industry and changed more lives than just her own, and she knows and celebrates that with everything she does now.

Anok Yai at Howard University // Photo by Steve Hall

Yai recounts envisioning the life she has now as a kid when she and her sister would obsess over “America’s Next Top Model” and became fashion obsessed, daydreaming about themselves as contestants and walking runways across the globe. However, she quickly realized the women she idolized on glossy magazine covers were white or light-skinned— something that she was not—and the crowded and complicated politics of modeling and fashion were not something she entered because of anxieties that she could become an easily-discarded fad. She instead redirected her ambitions toward becoming a doctor.

After 2017, Yai became the first Sudanese model and the second black model, the first since 1997 & Naomi Campbell, to open a Prada runway show. She shortly rose to the top from there, sealing collaborations with Prada and Nike’s campaign with Riccardo Tisci. She has dominated editorials with appearances and covers for British Vogue, Vogue Italia, Dazed, V Magazine, AnOther Magazine, CR Fashion Book, and W Magazine.

Anok Yai for W Magazine 2022 // Photo by Rafael Pavarotti

Her Instagram success has inadvertently created a space for Yai to become the model she always dreamed of looking up to. Not only is she a  refugee, immigrant and advocate on a renowned platform, but her success has also allowed her to make deep ripples in the fashion industry and on social media as a dark-skinned model, inspiring others that look just like her.

Anok Yai in ‘Spell it Out’ for British Vogue 2022 // Photo by Oliver Hadlee Pearch

Yai has enjoyed having more creative control since her rise to the top. She’s been able to creatively direct shoots and take hold of her artistic freedom through her work. Yai has worked on improving diversity in the fashion industry too, by advocating, supporting and relying on black creatives to be part of her team. Yai’s focus as a model extends beyond art and fashion to change perceptions pertaining to beauty. She’s spoken out about the negative effects of colorism in the fashion industry, the importance of representation and its effect on self-confidence, especially for young humans who are watching.

Anok Yai featured on the cover of Vogue 2021 // Photo by Ethan James Greene

Written by Trinity Gates

Copyedited by Avni Trivedi

Graphics by Lawton Harris

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