Top 7 African Models Who Rule Modern Fashion Industry – Nyadak Thot, Fatima Siad, Halima Aden
Nexter.org has prepared a list of some of the leading African models in today’s fashion industry.
Nyadak Thot
Source: Instagram
Nyadak Thot, who often goes by the name “Duckie” for pronunciation reasons, is an African model who grew up in Australia as a South Sudanese refugee.
She took part in Australia’s Next Top Model and finished third. She has since done campaigns for Fenty x Puma, Fenty Beauty, Moschino, and Oscar de la Renta.
Adesuwa Aighewi
Source: Instagram
Adesuwa Aighewi was born in Minnesota, but spent half her childhood in Nigeria with her parents, who are environmental scientists. Before she began her career as an African model, she studied chemistry at the University of Maryland at the young age of 15.
Fatima Siad
Source: Instagram
Before Fatima Siad became an African model, she lived through plenty of hardships in her home country of Somalia. After her two sisters were killed by the Somali army during the civil war, her mother took her, then 13, and fled to the United States.
She garnered international fame after she competed in cycle 10 of America’s Next Top Model, where she placed third.
Alek Wek
In 1995, several years after fleeing the conflict in South Sudan for England, 16-year-old Alek Wek was discovered by a talent agent in a marketplace in Crystal Palace, London.
Alek has been credited as one of the first darker skinned models to achieve mainstream success in the fashion industry, and was considered the first black model that didn’t conform to the Caucasian aesthetic.
Maria Borges
Maria Borges was discovered in 2010 after she placed second in the Angolian edition of the Elite Model Look competition. Two years later she debuted in her first fashion week, walking 17 runways total, and was named Forbes Africa’s Magazine‘s Top Model of 2013.
Flaviana Matata
Source: Instagram
Before Flaviana Matata was an African model, she was an electrical engineering student, though her whole life changed course after she won the first edition of the Miss Universe Tanzania pageant in 2007.
Agbani Darego
Source: Instagram
Agbani Darego has seen more success in her 35 years that some have seen in their entire lifetime. In 2001, she was crowned the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, and a few months later she competed as a contestant at Miss Universe, becoming the first Nigerian contestant to place among the 10 semi-finalists and eventually placing seventh overall.
Halima Aden
Source: Instagram
Halima Aden is a Somali-American model who’s best known for being the first woman to wear a hijab and a burkini at the Miss Minnesota USA competition in 2016, garnering a lot of media attention and earning her a spot as a semi-finalist.
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