Asia's top model finds happiness on runway

Choi So-ra

By Kim Jae-heun

Many celebrities credit their success to their passion and love for their vocation. However, talent and innate physical condition, with a little bit of luck, are inevitable for a fashion model.

Choi So-ra, 25, one of the most popular runway models in the world, does not believe she is a gifted model although she has appeared in top campaigns, such as Louis Vuitton F/W 2016, Marc Jacobs S/S 2016 and Coach S/S 2016.

“I stand 179 centimeters tall (5 feet, 10 inches), which is just taller than the average female runway model,” said Choi So-ra during an interview with The Korea Times on July 19. “I don’t have a small face or good body proportions. The only reason I became successful abroad is because I tried out.

“My strength as a fashion model lies in the diversity of my face. It is like a plain sheet of paper, or I could say an ugly face. But that is a strength for a model. I can appear with any kind of hairstyle or makeup and because I have such a small body, I fit into all types of clothes. Western models have a comparatively large body structure and they have clear-cut features, which limits the images they can express.”

Choi was a prominent young model from the start as she won season three of “Korea’s Next Top Model” on the fashion TV show OnStyle in 2012. It was only a year after she debuted on the fashion scene to take the winner’s title of Korea’s most popular fashion TV show. She started her modeling career when she was a junior in high school and debuted through a fashion college graduation show.

After entering the model department at Dongduk Women’s University, one of the top schools for female fashion, which has fostered models such as Han Hye-jin, Hyoni Kang and Lee Sung-kyoung, she applied for a rookie designer show audition that was hosted by the well-known model management YGKPLUS.

“I did not have an agency then and I managed my schedule by myself. And I made a big mistake making two appointments at the same time. I still remember CEO of YGKPLUS Ko Eun-kyoung shouting ‘who is Choi So-ra?’ in her office.

“I was so nervous because she was such a big name in the field and I couldn’t look her straight in the face. She told me to look up and told me how important it is for a model to be prompt. Then she suggested that I contract with the management.”

The top model is now based in New York and signed with five agencies -- Wilhelmina New York, Marilyn Agency in Paris, Wilhelmina London, SPECIAL MANAGEMENT in Milano and her mother agency, YGKPLUS in Seoul.

Her opportunity to become a household name on the global fashion scene came when she turned 23. Louis Vuitton sent her a request through email to participate in an audition for its Resort Collection in Monaco, France. She had to leave in four days and she did.

“I remember Ashley, the casting director at Louis Vuitton, telling me after she looked at my photo book that I could leave,” Choi said. “I thought I didn’t make it but when I was just about to walk out the door, she called me back to try on some of the clothes.

“It was my first time meeting Nicolas, the creative director of Louis Vuitton, and he saw me in two outfits. When I wore the third one, he started to clap, telling me that I looked beautiful in it.”

Since then, she has participated in nearly all the French luxury brand collection runways.

However, there are always many things one needs to give up to achieve goals in the modeling world. For Choi, it was a struggle with eating, and living alone in a country where she didn’t speak the language.

There is literally no one to talk to in New York and even if she finds someone to talk to, she cannot express what is deep in her heart. The mobile phone is her best friend there.

Starving is her fate as long as she continues her modeling career, she said.

“I love eating but I start fasting a month before the runway season arrives,” Choi said. “I don’t eat anything but only drink water. If I feel like I’m starving, I eat a little bit of banana. I kind of fainted three or four times a day on my way to work. But it is what I have to do, because, in the end, designers like skinny models and that is the only way I can walk on their stages.”

The young model said she barely gets any sleep because she has to wake at 6 o’ clock every morning and take on a schedule of 15 auditions. When she returns home, it is 2 a.m. and she receives calls from the agency to say she has to go to one last meeting. Then she sleeps for two hours and begins her daily routine again.

“I love this job,” Choi said. “I cannot express it with words. When I get the cue sign and the stage manager pushes me to the runway and says ‘go,’ I get goose bumps all over and my hair electrifies. I am happy in every show. One time a staffer saw me cry as I walked backstage and asked why. I told her because I am so happy.”