Former Miss China Du Juan has proved her appeal in her native Shanghai. But
how well does her charm translate to the catwalks of New York?
Not too badly, apparently.
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Du Juan: Top
model
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"I saw her once while out to lunch
walking down the street, and every head turned as she floated by," US website
Models.com's editorial director Wayne Sterling said in an e-mail message.
Since appearing with Australian model Gemma Ward on the cover of Vogue
China's premiere issue last September, Du has been in constant motion. She has
graced Paris and Italian Vogue, too. In Paris and Milan earlier this year, Du
sizzled on the catwalk at Marc Jacob's Louis Vuitton show, as well as for
Hermes, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and a few others. That led the
editors at Style.com Vogue and W Magazine's website to name her as one of
autumn's top 10 new faces.
But Du Juan is more than just the next big Asian model.
Her success, in many ways, reflects the changing attitude towards Asian
beauty in a globalizing world. Buoyed by interest in Asia and movie stars with a
growing international presence, China's potential as a land of buyers of luxury
goods has made Chinese beauty matter. The daughters of the East, therefore, have
an even more prominent role to play in the fashion industry, in which a
convergence of taste has been emerging. All this makes Du Juan hot property.
More proof of the 178-centimetre model's rising status was her appearance in
Models.com's top-50 female models' list in April.
And she's not alone.
While the concept of beauty in the fashion world doesn't usually heed
geopolitical currents, Asians have received more and more exposure in the West
in recent years .
Earlier, one Asian may have been enough for the blue-chip runways of the most
prestigious brands but their numbers have quadrupled now. The latest wave also
comprises Korean-American Hye Park and Japan's Anne Watanabe, among others.
So why the interest in Asian fashion?
Interest in the Asian region has grown. China's rise, Japanese economic
resurgence and the spreading popularity of Korean pop culture have had
attractions: More people want to read about, write about and watch Asia. In the
United States, the number of Asian women in the news, commercials and TV shows
has risen, even if only slightly.
Then there's the rise of Asian actresses. Lucy Liu is the most famous
Asian-American actress today, with several blockbusters on her resume.
