Adut Akech

About Adut Akech

Adut Akech Bior (born December 25, 1999) is a South Sudanese-Australian supermodel who rose from a childhood spent as a refugee to become one of the most recognizable faces in contemporary high fashion. Born in South Sudan, Akech and her family fled the country's civil conflict and spent much of her early childhood in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya. In 2008, her family was resettled in Australia, where they settled in Adelaide, South Australia. It was there that Akech discovered her interest in fashion and eventually began pursuing modeling.

Akech's professional breakthrough came in 2016 when, at just sixteen years old, she was selected as an exclusive model for Saint Laurent's Spring/Summer 2017 show in Paris. Her distinctive look and confident runway presence quickly attracted the attention of major designers and casting directors, and she soon became a regular at international fashion weeks. She went on to walk for some of the industry's most prestigious fashion houses, including Chanel, Valentino, Dior, Givenchy, Miu Miu, Prada, Alexander McQueen, Versace and Calvin Klein. Vogue subsequently identified her as one of the standout models of the Fall 2018 season, noting her increasingly prominent presence across the major runways.

Her relationship with Chanel became particularly significant. In 2017, Akech became only the second woman of colour to model bridalwear for the house, and she was repeatedly chosen to open or close Chanel runway shows during the Karl Lagerfeld era. She also developed a close creative association with Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, appearing prominently in the house's shows and campaigns. Her growing editorial career included appearances in publications such as *American Vogue*, *Vogue Italia*, *British Vogue* and *i-D*, while her campaign work has included major names such as Balenciaga, Fendi, Moschino, Saint Laurent, Valentino and Versace.

Akech's achievements have been recognized well beyond the runway. In 2018, she was included in *TIME* magazine's list of the 25 Most Influential Teens, and she received the Model of the Year award at the 2018 and 2019 Models.com Industry Awards. In December 2019, she won the prestigious Model of the Year title at the British Fashion Awards, an honor that reflected not only her influence within fashion but also the significance of her personal story and advocacy for greater representation.

Outside modeling, Akech has used her international profile to speak about the experiences of refugees, racial equality and representation. She has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), drawing on her own childhood as a refugee to advocate for displaced people around the world. Her story has consequently become an important part of her public identity: she has frequently emphasized that becoming a successful model did not erase her refugee background, but instead gave her a larger platform from which to represent and support others with similar experiences.

By the mid-2020s, Akech had firmly established herself as a leading figure of her generation, with hundreds of runway appearances, major international campaigns, magazine covers and editorial features to her credit. Models.com continues to rank her among the industry's leading models, with multiple Model of the Year honors and nominations. In 2026, she also served on the host committee for the Met Gala and attended the event while nine months pregnant with her second child, wearing a custom Thom Browne maternity look.

From a refugee camp in Kenya to the world's most prestigious fashion runways, Adut Akech Bior's career has been remarkable not simply because of her success as a model, but because of how she has used that success to challenge conventional ideas about beauty, representation and who belongs at the highest levels of the fashion industry.