This week Fashion Reverie looks back at the career of supermodel Alek Wek. This month Alek Wek returns to South Sudan for the first time since 2005. During her teen years, Alek Wek and her family fled Wau, Sudan when civil war broke out and sought asylum in London. Wek was later discovered in London by a modeling scout and has gone on to become one of the first African supermodels.
Alek Wek was the first African model to appear on the cover of Elle in 1997, and was named model of the year by MTV that same year. Alek Wek has walked the runways for John Galliano, Chado Ralph Rucci, Diane Von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Emmano Scervino, and a host of others. She has also appeared in advertising campaigns for Clinique, Victoria’s Secret, Moschino, and Issey Miyake.
Alek Wek is a member of the U.S. Committee for Refugees’ Advisiory, an ambassador for Doctors Without Borders in Sudan, and a missionary for World Vision, an organization that combats the worldwide AIDS pandemic. And in 2007 Wek released her autobiography, Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel, which details her life from poverty in the Sudan to the catwalks of the world.
On her return to Sudan, Alek Wek will partner with the UNHCR and plans on taking part in festivities that celebrate Sudan’s one-year independence. She will also visit her hometown of Wau, capital of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal state.
—Staff
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