For each page you turn on your fashion magazine, it’s yet another familiar face. Madonna for LV, Marion Cotillard for Dior, Emma Watson for Burberry. Even if they are not celebs, the models seem to be moulds of one another. The Jessica Stam and Lily Donaldson mould. The Vlada Roslyakova and Sasah Pivoravova mould. How incredibly fresh indeed to see an oriental face which defies the blue and wide eye rule.
Tao Okamoto, who seems to have become an unmissable book of all the fashion big names, conquered the runways from Italy to the States, from France to Spain and to London. She has graced the AW09 of Dolce and Gabanna, Pollini, Louis Vuitton, Akris, Dries Van Noten, Giles, Luella and Loewe… any big names you can point your finger to.
She has indeed taken the fashion world by storm. She has become the face of Ralph Lauren Collection, H&M and Benetton. Appeared on Vogue Paris and Vogue Russia.
How many memorable ethnic model faces are there? I remember Naomi Campbell and hopefully Jordan Dunn can become as big as Naomi was. Tao, hopefully, would be the orient’s representative, together with Liu Wen and Du Juan.
Benetton AW09 Campaign
H&M Website homepage
3.1 Phillip Lim AW09 RTW
LV AW09 RTW
Kawai Wong 
Good article, I agree with your points but up until recently these big companies weren’t doing a huge amount of business in Far Eastern markets, so I guess that’s one reason why there weren’t so many Asian models.
I don’t get the whole celebrity ad campaign for these big brands. By advertising the Madonna look, they must be isolating some customers.