Anok Yai "never cared about fitting in" with her fashion.
Anok Yai never really cared about her sense of style when she was growing up
The 26-year-old supermodel has now made several appearances on i-D and international Vogue covers but admitted that when she was in high school, her clothing choices were just an erratic mix of varying styles.
She told ELLE: "My style was nonsense. I would have themes on certain days. One day, I’d wear all fur—fur boots, a fur jacket, a fur hat, even a fur wallet that had my flip phone in it. I’ve always been the person who never cared to try to fit in. Kids always saw that as weird, but now as I grow into myself, I think it’s a special quality that I have."
The catwalk star reflected that when she first took up modelling as a career, those in the industry expected her to conform to a certain type of character but insisted that the "cute" persona was never really representative of her true self.
She said: "When I started modeling, the industry wanted me to be the cute, bubbly, happy girl who’s just a ball of joy—that’s really not me. I'm not your average person. I’m very dark. I’m obsessed with knife-fighting. I love edgy movies—I’m obsessed with the Joker."
Anok also noted that her parents were "really scared" of her choice of her career because they had followed a more academic route in life and had no clue of anything to do with the world of fashion.
She said: "They were really scared. My parents were more academic and didn’t know anything about the fashion world. I remember I gave my mom this Fendi bag that Karl Lagerfeld had given me, and she didn’t even know what Fendi was. She was like, ‘Oh, cute.’ And then put it in her room. I don’t know if she’s ever worn it.
"They didn’t fight me that hard, but they were definitely terrified."