ALEK WEK ...THE PIONEER OF BLACK MODELS!

Alek Wek is the face of successful black models, globally, period. With skin as ‘dark as night’ as once described by a certain woman she inspired, Lupita Nyong’o, not run-ofthe-mill features and a confidence bigger than her svelte, lithe body, she broke barriers, records and some stereotypes. On the textbook route the global fashion industry usually follows, Alek Wek probably should not have been such a resounding success. But she has and continues to be, a darling of high fashion juggernauts in her heyday. Today, she’s preoccupied with other matters beyond ruling the catwalk (studying design, designing a handbag collection and writing) and recently sat down with The Guardian newspaper for an interview and had these gems of nuance and wisdom….

- On being mistaken for Naomi Campbell, a starkly different-looking model

“A black woman is not ‘a type’. I never had any interest in those jobs that asked for only black girls. What the hell is that? Would you be comfortable saying you wanted only white girls, or Latin? Are you kidding me? It’s baffling.”

- What modelling meant to her and how she used it as a tool to do something important…

“It is work to make it glamorous and it is work to use it for good. There are mothers who sew for six months to make a fashion collection – someone’s grandmother, someone’s sister. We come in and get paid to walk for 10 minutes at the end. Whenever I think about that, I realise it’s not about me. I was just the one chosen to represent those women and sell the clothes” “I felt that girls growing up needed to see somebody different, who may have been criticised for their nose, or their hair, or anything – that they could be beautiful. It’s about telling girls from a young age that it’s OK to be quirky; it’s fine to be shy. You don’t have to go with the crowd.” “Oh yes, of course…confidence came from my mother. She told us it was about celebrating the beauty of being a woman – that’s what made you gorgeous. I never thought I was ugly – it never crossed my mind…” “…We travel constantly and see places people only dream of. We can eat wherever we want and always know there’s drinking water – my mother had to boil water to stop me getting sick. I never take that for granted.” Culled from