From refugee camp to runway, African fashion models making big strides on the world’s catwalks

Sudanese former child refugees have emerged as a force in international modelling, led by teenage sensation Adut Akech Bior, as fashion has embraced diversity

They are following a path first laid by Somali-American model Iman, Sudanese-British Alek Wek, and Ajak Deng, the first Sudanese-Australian model to emerge

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Models Akiima, Shanelle Nyasiase, Ayak Veronica Bior and Nyarach Abouch Ayel, all of Sudanese origin, at the Valentino haute couture show in January 2019 in Paris.

Published: 4:00am, 3 Jul 2019Updated: 8:53am, 3 Jul 2019

From Gemma Ward to Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Miranda Kerr, 12 years ago Australia’s most successful modelling exports were either blue-eyed blondes or porcelain-skinned brunettes.

Today a new cadre of Australian supermodels has emerged on the international stage: jet black, impossibly long-limbed Africans – specifically, Sudanese, most of whom arrived in the country as child refugees fleeing civil war in South Sudan.

They belong to a community of some 20,000 South Sudanese who have resettled in Australia – part of a far larger group of four million the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates have been displaced because of the continuing crisis in the world’s newest country.

At least eight Sudanese-Australian models walked in the autumn 2019 show season: Adut Akech Bior, Achol Ajak Yong (aka “Akiima”), Ajak Deng, Sabah Koj, Duckie Thot, Aweng Chuol, Prince Del and Adau Mornyang. They represent the vanguard of a group of at least 35 African-Australian models listed on the books of Australian model agencies.

Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech Bior at a Chanel fitting in Paris. Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Positive news coverage of their success has been in dramatic contrast to the spate of negative headlines in the Australian media over the past 18 months about the rise of African street violence in Melbourne, said to have been perpetrated by “gangs” of Sudanese-Australian youths – a claim that has been disputed.

None has been more successful than the 19-year-old Bior who, in the three years since she first set foot on an international catwalk in September 2016, for Saint Laurent, has become one of fashion’s most in-demand models.