Adut and Bior Akech star on the first of three collectable covers for Vogue Australia’s April 2023 issue, wearing Loewe and Tiffany & Co., and Loewe, Zegna and Van Cleef and Arpels respectively. The white anthurium is Loewe. Image by Josh Olins.

Adut and Bior Akech Are 'Rising Up' in Josh Olins Vogue Australia April 2023 Cover Story AOC Fashion

Updated 4/10/23: Entire fashion story and commentary posted above.

Supermodel Adut Akech introduces fashion world to her brother Bior Akech, with three covers in the April 2023 issue of Vogue Australia. Christine Centenera styles the shoot with photography by Josh Olins [IG]./ Hair by Sophie Roberts; makeup by Kellie Stratton

Adut’s younger brother Bior, age 17, remains currently in Adelaide, Australia, where he is finishing school.

The word ‘supermodel’ is almost meaningless today, it is so bandied about with no clear understanding of what is means to be a supermodel.

Adut Akech is a supermodel with 1.8 M followers which is very high for a model — as opposed to a Kardashian or Bieber or Jenner. They are in their own league.

Adut and Bior Akech star on the second of three collectable covers for Vogue Australia’s April 2023 issue, wearing Prada, Tiffany & Co., and Paspaley bracelet, and Burberry and Paspaley, respectively. Image by Josh Olins.

Adut has worked hard to achieve her status as a supermodel, which took a major step forward in credentials when she became an ambassador for Estee Lauder in June 2021. Yes, the wind has been at her back with the industry really opening up and owning the racism models of color have faced as models.

Many people don’t understand that the competition has also been fierce among new models of color and especially among the refugee models having left South Sudan. When AOC cites ‘competition’, we only mean a very large number of models — so large that not everyone can be even moderately successful, let alone achieve Adut’s status.

Adut and Bior Akech star on the third of three collectable covers for Vogue Australia’s April 2023 issue, wearing Prada and Tiffany & Co., and Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co., respectively. Image by Josh Olins.

We’re not suggesting any negativity or jealousy among the models of color. Modeling is a business where not everyone succeeds. In fact, many do not succeed as models, and that reality has nothing to do with skin color.

While we process Adut and Bior’s interview with Vogue Australia and the fashion shoot, we direct readers to the story of her family’s journey out of Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp and onto Australia. It’s a journey that many of the models have taken — a life path that few of us can understand.

In her Vogue Australia December 2018 interview about her family, Adut made a statement that she continues to embrace, in spite of her great success: