Inspirational model Akech Bior vows to fashion a less-divisive industry

Supermodel Adut Akech Bior has slammed a magazine’s error in which she was confused with another model of African descent ‘as ‘unacceptable’.

Adut Akech Bior takes the cover of Vogue’s August issue which is out on Monday. Picture: Christine Centenera

Supermodel Adut Akech Bior has slammed as “unacceptable” a magazine’s error in which she was confused with another model of African descent, as she vowed to use her global fame to bring about change in the fashion industry.

Speaking about the mistake by Who magazine for the first time since the Black Lives Matter

Adut Akech Bior takes the cover in Vogue’s August issue out on Monday.

protests swept the globe this year, the internationally renowned Sudanese-born and Adelaide-raised model declares the disrespect of black people in fashion “needs to stop”.

Akech Bior, who was named Model of the Year at the prestigious British Fashion Awards late last year, graces the cover of Vogue Australia’s August edition. She says she feels “blessed” to have had her high-flying career. “If you’d told me when I started modelling that I’d go on to achieve all that I have and be given all the amazing opportunities I’ve been blessed with, I wouldn’t have believed half of it,” Akech Bior tells Vogue.

“It’s important then that I use my position and my platform to speak about things that need to be discussed in the fashion industry and address what needs to be changed.”

Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann said it was especially important to feature Akech Bior in the magazine given the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Adut has been quite outspoken in the past on issues of racism and diversity, and I think she was an appropriate Australian to feature on the cover. The fact that she is also a refugee … and a very eloquent woman who stands up for what she believes in are all significant factors,” she said.

“She encapsulates a lot of what our readership is really following at the moment.”

Since making her international debut in 2016, the girl who fled a refugee camp in Kenya with her family has become one of the most successful models of her generation.

Last year, she became the centre of a storm over a case of mistaken identity when Who magazine ran a feature story on Akech Bior but printed an image of model Flavia Lazarus who is of Ugandan descent.

Akech Bior tells Vogue the mistake as “defeating the entire purpose of what I was standing for and speaking out about.”

“This was an unacceptable error and it made me upset and angry. It hurt because not only did I feel personally insulted, but I felt like my entire race had been disrespected, too,” she said.

“It showed an underlying issue remains if people think every Black girl or all African people look the same.

“I don’t feel this ever would have happened to a white model.”

Akech Bior said that moment was the motivation behind starting a wider conversation.

“I’m sure I’m not the first person this has happened to - or will be the last - but it needs to stop,” she said.

Akech Bior appears in the issue alongside such names as Aretha Brown, an Australian Indigenous youth activist and artist, and Sianna Catullo, the chief creative officer at Clothing the Gap, an Indigenous owned and run clothing label supporting Aboriginal health programs.

 Vogue Australia August 2020 is on sale Monday, August 3