Returning to W Magazine’s Volume #4 2023, Mert Alas turns his lens to very top model Anok Yai. Marie Chaix styles Anok in Fendi for her cover, Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Courrèges, Dior, Ferragamo, JW Anderson, Miu Miu and more./ Hair by Benjamin Muller; makeup by Thomas de Kluyver

Maxine Wally interviews Anok Yai, who has been firing on all cylinders since 2017, when the New Hampshire student at Plymouth State University went to a homecoming weekend at Howard University in DC. A photographer posted her image on Instagram, and a few months later, she was the first Black women since Naomi Campbell in 1997 to open a Prada show.

We note that Anok that had a major presence in the recent Ferrari Spring 2024 fashion show, and was driven around town in a red one. It suits her.

The South Sudan native is a perfectionist in all she does, and is also frank about a steep learning curve starting out in the fashion industry.

Her words confirm Anok’s formidable personality — a truism that comes through in her modeling.

“I taught myself by researching all day about the industry, about finances and marketing. I took business and economics courses online. I was a new face, but I wanted to be able to go into the rooms and know what the fuck I was talking about.”

Anok describes herself as a prolific artist, working mostly in oils but now experimenting with fire. Yes . . . fire. She has also taken up knife fighting lessons as a way of coping with restlessness. I believe she is now at a level of expertise in knife fighting, that she can land movie roles in major scenes.

“When I’m fighting, it feels like a dance that goes so fast, you have to meditate,” she says. “Because the second you lose focus, you’re hit with a knife.”

Anok references her return to Africa early this year. Checking out her IG, we wrote about her local-shopping philanthropy binge in South Sudan.

The Ferrari lover ends her W Interview on a high note — a spiritual one.

Once I went home, I felt whole for the first time. There’s this grounding, spiritual energy when you enter Africa, like you’ve found god, even before you land. I recommend visiting Africa for everybody. They’ve got to go back home.