The Hong Kong style icon reflects on how the beauty industry has changed in the 30 years since her debut, recalling highlights like appearing in a 1980s campaign with Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford, and sharing her thoughts on the trends—and diversity—of today
The global beauty landscape is ever evolving and often seen as acting more quickly than fashion in matters of inclusivity—from product development to accessibility to beauty standards. Can the same be said of the industry in Asia? We could think of few better people to answer that question than a fixture who has represented what Asian beauty means for more than 30 years: QiQi, Hong Kong’s original supermodel.
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Her decades of experience and appearances in countless campaigns and on glossy pages all started with a summer job: the 17-year-old QiQi was scouted by a modelling agent on the streets of Vienna, where her family lived during her teenage years. “In Austria, I was constantly approached from the age of 13 by Japanese people and westerners who asked me to model,” she recalls. “I have East Asian facial features, and a height and build that fit the western standard. People thought I was mixed-race, but I’m 100 per cent Chinese.”
The Shanghai-born model finally accepted the job, which took her to Germany for fashion week and a jewellery fair in Switzerland, and involved a cover shoot for Austrian men’s lifestyle magazine Wiener and a commercial for Yves Saint Laurent perfume in Hong Kong—all in the short span of four months. And the rest is history.