Now that Anne has gotten over seeing supermodel Adut Akech wearing Jarrod Reid, reminding her of famed ballet dancer Judith Jamison on stage in ‘Cry’, she can think straight.
If only AOC could commission photographer Campbell Addy [IG], creator of these stunning images for the November 2025 issue of Vogue Australia [IG], to capture that famous, powerful and transformational American ballet with his creative eye.
Artist Addy asks Adut what advice she would give to daughter Kiki when she grows up.
“I would give her the same advice I was given, and that is, no matter what you do in this life or where you go, or where your journey takes you, do your absolute best to try and remain true to your authentic self.”
Edward Enninful [IG] embarks on a big week in his latest — and greatest — fashion industry, personal metamorphosis with his inaugural Moncler Genius collection, titled Moncler x EE72. Edward has worked with Moncler in the past, but not in his official capacity as designer.
Moncler and Enninful bring this Moncler x EE72 vision to life with a window display at Saks Fifth Avenue’s New York Flagship, timed with the start of New York Fashion Week. The presentation spans seven windows at 5th Avenue and 50th Street.
Tonight September 12 Edward will officially launch his new quarterly 72 Magazine.
Tabitha Simmons styles a model squad comprising Adut Akech, Alex Cosani; Ella Beatty, Jessica Miller, Karolina Spakowski, Liu Wen, Paloma Elsesser, Sarah Catherine Hook, Scarlett White, Stella Hanan and Whitney Peak in ‘Women at Work’.
The eclectic assortment of images and the title ‘Women at Work’ refers to the cast of women designers who created the editorial. Photographer Amy Troost [IG] captures the fashion story in VogueUS [.com] August 2025 issue.
Vogue US [IG] August 2024 hypes the coming season with ‘Texture! Volume! Color!’ styled by Camilla Nickerson. Models Adut Akech, Angelina Kendall, Anok Yai, Carolyn Murphy, Devyn Garcia, Jill Kortleve, Liisa Winkler, Liu Wen, Loli Bahia & Vittoria Ceretti are lensed by Mikael Jansson [IG]. / Hair by Shay Ashual; makeup by Hannah Murray
Returning to the March 2023 issue of British Vogue [IG] after posting ‘Above’ with Doutzen and Liya, AOC learned about an old romance — the previously-announced in late summer 2022 engagement of supermodel Adut Akech to her “high school sweetheart” Samuel Elkhier.
The Adelaide, Australia couple has known each other now for about a decade, and Elkier appears with Adut in this fashion story ‘The Evening News’, lensed by Campbell Addy [IG].
The new VS campaign is excellent and has some real VS icons featured. Bringing back past VS models is a terrific idea for a brand trying to find safe ground to stand on. Shop the new collection at the VS website.
If I read the VS copy carefully, I’m sure we are all icons somewhere in it, so let’s just cut the AOC analysis short here and say “good job, VS.”
The Icon by Victoria’s Secret Collection models includes VS greats Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell, Adriana Lima, and Candice Swanepoel.
The Icon cast campaigns expands to include Adut Akech, Emily Ratajkowski, Hailey Bieber, Paloma Elsesser and Sui He. I’m pleased to say that every woman listed here has archives on AOC.
Oyadeas!
Oh dear goddess Oya. I tried . . . I tried . . . I tried so hard to step carefully, but I just fell down the “we’re all icons” rabbit hole, and I did not see it coming.
Top models Adut Akech, Devyn Garcia, Grace Elizabeth and Sora Choi take the fashion spotlight, wearing bold shoulders, sharp suiting and modern-architecture silhouettes styled by Kate Phelan. Photographer Anthony Seklaoui [IG] is in the studio, flashing ‘Opening Lines’ for the August 2023 issue of British Vogue [IG]./ Hair by Mustafa Yanaz; makeup by Sam Visser
American Vogue’s May 2023 issue pays tribute to Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, one of fashion’s greatest talents. Lagerfeld is the focus of the upcoming retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and annual fundraiser hosted by Anna Wintour and referred to as The Met Gala 2023, scheduled for Monday May 1, 2023.
Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s brilliant curator has titled the new exhibition “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” a reference to the painter William Hogarth. The artist believed that an ever-turning, ever-changing line captures more energy and life than a straight one. This idea was conceptually embedded in nature by Hogarth and other artists and intellectuals discuss this concept. More than one of them referenced the serpeant as an ideal symbol.
Lagerfeld’s career spanned appointments at Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, and his eponymous brand.
For the cover, Vogue photographer Annie Leibovitz [IG] photographed 10 muses, women who are part of a larger group of models adored by Karl Lagerfeld.
Models include Adut Akech, Amber Valletta, Anok Yai, Devon Aoki, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Liu Wen, Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova and Shalom Harlow, pose in the creations of other designers paying tribute to Karl Lagerfeld with the fashion itself and also words.
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.
Supermodel Adut Akech graces the pages of POP Magazine #48, styled by Tamara Rothstein. Photographer Arnaud Lajeuneie [IG] is behind the lens, capturing a modern style approach to sexy, frothy femininity./ Hair by Kim Rance; makeup by Vassilis Theotokis
Adut Akech, Imaan Hammam, Candice Huffine, Devyn Garcia, Jill Kortleve, Paloma Elsesser, and Taylor Hill pose against the eternally sensual landscape of Italy in one half of the Victoria’s Secret Bras, That’s Our Thing 2023 campaign.
The campaign crosses the entire range of VS bras including the Very Sexy Bombshell Push-Up, Dream Angels Demi Bra, VS Bare Sexy Illusions Uplift Strapless Bra, and VS Bare Infinity Flex Full Coverage Bra.
Photographer Angelo Pennetta captures the true beauty of VS lingerie [IG] styled by Alex White.
Max Mara’s Spring-Summer 2023 campaign has sophisticated swagger. Models trio Adut Akech, Annemary Aderibigbe and Dara Allen step it up to remind us that they are far more than muses or mannequins. Fashion editor Tonne Goodman styles the shoot — a collection of sophisticated essentials with discreet details that she herself would wear — in images photographed by Ethan James Green.
Looking at the images immediately took me back to December 2018, when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi exited a tough meeting with then president Donald Trump.
The shot of Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leaving a hard-as-nails meeting with Trump went viral, generating such digital heat that Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths responded that the coat would be reissued.
AOC has always liked Ian Griffiths because he’s a male designer willing to explore his own contradictions. He does just that in speaking about the 2023 campaign inspired by the French Riviera. Griffiths has not been caught up in trying to make women ‘its’ or ‘theys’, degendering us in such a way that the very concept of women’s rights is no longer necessary. We’re all humans, no need to discuss the failure of mostly — but not exclusively — men to acknowledge women’s inequality.
Supermodel Adut Akech is styled by Tabitha Simmons in ‘Just One Thing’, nature-inspired, soft tailoring lensed by Sean Thomas [IG] for Vogue US March 2023./ Hair by Johnnie Sapong; makeup by Holly Silius
Top models Adut Akech, Bella Hadid, Candice Huffine, Devyn Garcia, Imaan Hammam, Jill Kortleve, Mayowa Nicholas, Paloma Elsesser, Taylor Hill, Valentina Sampaio star in Victoria’s Secret Valentine’s Day 2023 campaign.
Gabriella Karefa Johnson styles the shoot, with Camille Summers-Valli [IG] directing the 30-second 2023 V-Day Shop spot.
Adut’s five-year rise from a South Sudan, Australian Refugee to REAL supermodel status is well known by now. Being a Global Ambassador for Estee Lauder, announced in June 2021, goes a long way in wearing the real-deal supernodel crown.
Adut’s career was launched when she closed the Saint Laurent spring/summer 2018 show in Paris. Many young people in fashion — or outsiders with lots to say — think the industry only turned towards models of color post-George Floyd and the rise of BLM.
This is not true. Demands for change and the topic of racism in the fashion industry was much discussed and acted upon before the brutal murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
Adut Akech, Amanda Murphy, Andreea Diaconu, Lina Zhang and Nora Attal power their way through the streets of Manhattan with positive spirits and strong backbones in the Tory Burch Fall 2022 campaign..
Not only does Tory Burch design for the total woman, but she is one with a strong sense of civic responsibility and community involvement. In all honesty, the world doesn’t need another uber-successful young woman looking for her own truth, while having a weep-fest on Instagram.
“Oh, Anne,” you say. “Our young women are just looking for their own authenticity.”
I ask you: Do you know that right-wingers just narrowly won the Swedish election on September 14?
Michael Kors Collection will launch its fall 2022 campaign on Saturday August 27, 2022. Top models AdutAkech and Rianne Van Rompaey are styled by George Cortina in images by Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin [IG].
“For fall, I wanted the collection to echo the energy and big-city glamour of New York, when you’re out on the town,” Michael Kors messaged the fashion press. “The clothes and accessories are really everything you need for stepping up, stepping out and making an entrance.”
Smart Sensuality glamour girls Adut Akech, Bella Hadid, Jill Kortleve and Paloma Elsesser channel the ‘70s classic ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ in name and message but not music in the video. Artist Maria Muldaur sang about an empowered sensual woman in the 1973 more likely on the road in Marrakech than Mexico in the classic tune.
Aware or not, VS is also channeling the sensual, political activist feminist Frida Kahlo in this deeply political and threatening moment for American feminism. As Republicans wage a full-throttle assault on women’s rights in America, perhaps Frida Kahlo is guiding them subliminally.
Supermodel Adut Akech returns ‘home’ to Vogue Australia’s June 2022 issue. The South Sudan to Adelaide to Vogue Australia and then rocketing into global domination Black beauty takes us to Memphis, USA in ‘On Beale Street’. Photographer Charles Dennington [IG] captures the fashion story, styled by Catherine Martin.
Aussie Baz Luhrmann, the director of ‘Elvis’ — a movie that topped $100 million at the domestic USA box office Friday without superheroes or dinosaurs running wild — guest edits both Vogue Australia June and also Vogue Living July/August to promote the new film and its Black-beauty-infused glamour.
The singer’s new single “Break My Soul” made music chart history Sunday July 10, moving the superstar into an elite category, one shared only with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.
Beyoncé has become the first woman — and the third musician ever — to achieve 20 Top 10 hits as a solo performer and 10 or more Top 10’s as a member of a group. On July 9, ‘Break My Soul’ moved to No. 7 on the Billboard chart.