Alek Wek

Alek Wek (* April 16, 1977 in Wau, Sudan ) is a photo model.

Childhood and youth

She was born in 1977 as the seventh of nine siblings in the southern Sudanese town of Wau and belongs to the people of the Dinka to. When, after 1983, the civil war in southern Sudan flared up again, and fighting broke out in Wau, her family fled to her about Khartoum to Britain. There she attended the London College of Fashion.

Career

Great attention she received in 1995 by the music video for Goldeneye by Tina Turner and was then quickly made ​​their way into the fashion world as a model. In 1997, Alek Wek was the first African model who was seen on the cover of Elle.

Alek Wek had ad campaigns for brands such as Issey Miyake, Moschino, Victoria's Secret and Clinique. She walked fashion shows among others for John Galliano, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein. Multiple they appeared in the Pirelli calendar and turned television advertising etc. GAP jeans. In 1997 she received three awards as a model: "Best New Model " by Venus de la Mode Fashion Award, MTV's "Model of the Year" and "Model of the Decade" by the magazine iD.

In 2002 she played a supporting role in the film The Four Feathers. Since 2003, Alek Wek lives in New York, where she also works as a designer for bags with own collections alongside her model career. Your bag collection Wek1933 is named after her late father and his year of birth.

Wek is a member of the board of the U.S. Committee for Refugees.

Bibliography

Appeared in 2007 Alek weks book nomad child ( Original English edition: Alek - From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel ), in which she describes her escape from Sudan, her childhood in London and its beginnings as a model.

• Alek Wek: nomad child - my escape from Sudan and my way to the top model. Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-8105-2367-9.