Vogue: The ideal role (super)model for little brother’s new career
Adut Akech introduces her little brother Bior as the pair unite for Vogue Australia’s April issue.
She’s a global supermodel, based in LA and regularly travelling away from her family; he’s a teenager in Adelaide with a bright path ahead, but Adut Akech and 17-year-old younger brother Bior’s deep bond transcends distance.
Following in his famous sister’s footsteps, Bior is every bit the professional considering his age and the fact the cover of Australian Vogue’s April issue marks his second-ever fashion shoot. His first was in 2018 when Adut’s entire family, six siblings, her mum Mary, uncle and aunty plus then baby Akoul, invited Vogue Australia into their Adelaide home.
“It was amazing,” Bior says, reflecting on his latest turn in front of the camera, starring alongside Adut on her sixth cover for her home Vogue. “It was a good experience … and to do it with my sister was good.”
“It was just good? That’s it?!” interjects Adut with mock incredulity. “I said, amazing!” Bior shoots back. She softens and laughs.
Adut is one of Australia’s most successful models, her career beginning with a Saint Laurent exclusive in 2016. She’s since fronted campaigns for Chanel, Bottega Veneta and Valentino (becoming the first black woman to be the face of the house’s fragrance). She’s forged lifelong connections with Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful and mentor Naomi Campbell.
Bior is her only brother and Adut’s anchoring force. Part of a big family, Adut’s aunty first moved to Adelaide with Adut’s older sister before Adut, speaking no English, followed from South Sudan with her mum at age eight. She grew up in Kaukuma refugee camp in Kenya as the family fled violence in South Sudan and spent here early years seeing fellow refugees band together in the face of uncertainty and fear. “We’re all that we had – each other,” she says of days at the camp, or on the move waiting for their visa approvals.
She stays in constant touch with her family – calling Mary without fail every day. Traversing family chats, Instagram messaging and FaceTime, she makes it work. “Akoul, I spoke to her at 6am yesterday morning,” she says of her sister, now 6.
Bior had the right examples to follow. Adut, a long-time champion of diversity who has called out discrimination, regularly has young women of colour reaching out to acknowledge her contribution in establishing a more inclusive definition of beauty.
“She always broke her back at work trying to provide for us when we were younger,” Bior says. Adut, who bought her mum a house thanks to her modelling success and shares payment for her siblings’ school fees, looks down with a smile and hugs her arms around herself as he’s paying her these compliments.
Adut has no doubt her brother could have a modelling career if he wants it. “I definitely wasn’t that confident when I did my first shoot. He did pretty good.”
Featuring three collectable covers, the April issue of Vogue Australia is on sale on Monday