Liu Wen covers “Vogue” Australia

Liu Wen covers “Vogue” Australia

Model Liu Wen covers “Vogue”

Model Liu Wen covers “Vogue”

Supermodel Liu Wen feels at home as a ‘tomboy’

Liu Wen’s career in the fashion industry began modestly: She entered a modeling contest in her hometown in China’s Hunan province hoping to win a laptop computer while planning to become a tour guide after college.

She didn’t win the contest, but Liu has more than compensated since, having become China’s most recognized presence on the catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York.

Her professional debut was in Milan in 2008, and Liu has since modeled in shows for Donna Karan, Alexander McQueen, Chloe, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang and Tom Ford, among other designers. She also walked the runway for the Victoria’s Secret lingerie show in 2009 and 2010.

Liu is currently ranked sixth on the top 50 list of female models compiled by industry website Models.com, and is the first and, so far, only Asian face for Este Lauder cosmetics.

“Liu Wen is one of the beauties of our time, and she has helped Estee Lauder write a new chapter in beauty history,” said Aerin Lauder, style and image director for the New York company founded by her grandmother. “We felt that her beauty and style would appeal throughout the world – in her native China and throughout all of Asia as well as the United States, Canada and Europe. She is a global supermodel.”

Despite her stunning success, Liu, who now lives in New York, says she never imagined fashion would change her life the way it has.

“It was my mom who pushed me to participate in the modeling contest because she thinks I dress like a tomboy,” the amiable supermodel told China Daily. “She simply wants her daughter to be more like a lady.”

Liu, interviewed on a beautiful summer afternoon in New York’s Central Park, shared stories of her life, work and plans.

When she first came to New York, Liu could barely speak English but has since managed to overcome beginners’ barriers to the language.

“Modeling totally changed my life, but it was very difficult when I first started. I had a very blurry concept of modeling. I didn’t even know how to walk in high heels,” the 24-year-old recalled.

“When I was a teenager, I never imagined that one day I could become a model. After I started, I tried to read a lot of magazines, saw films related to fashion. I still remember distinctly when I was in front of the camera for the first time, I had a very difficult time posing properly. Admittedly, I was very shy. But I see everything as a different form of education and I always try my best to gain more confidence.”

Liu, who is signed with the Marilyn agency in New York, melds beauty, confidence and an outgoing personality on the runway. Despite her elegance as a top model, the 5-foot, 10-inch Liu still prefers to forgo the primping when she’s not at work.

“I prefer the tomboy style because it makes me feel more comfortable,” says Liu, who on this day is wearing a casual top, denim shorts and little makeup. “I always need to wear pretty dresses or evening gowns designed for runway looks, so I like to feel more comfortable and free in my real life.”

Supermodels are typically super-busy, and Liu is no exception.

“Modeling is a lot more work than people usually think,” she says. “It has always been hectic during fashion weeks because you never know when you can go to sleep or have to wake up.

“For example, there was one time when I was in Paris fora fashion week, then I had a fitting at 4:30 in the morning before another 5 am show. There simply wasn’t any sleep. Sometimes it could be four or five shows a day during the intensive fashion weeks.”

During fashion’s off-seasons, Liu enjoys the convenience of living in New York to indulge her appetite.

“It doesn’t even take a split second for me to name some good Chinese restaurants in New York. Grand Sichuan, Chengdu Yinxiang or Cao Tang – famous for their great spicy Sichuan cuisine – are my favorite places,” the super-slender model says, a wide smile on her face.

Though New York has become a second home, Liu’s love for her hometown, Yongzhou, remains strong. She returns to China twice a year to visit her parents and overcome homesickness.

“I really love New York a lot; since now I have an apartment here, I feel it’s my second home now. I have met a lot of great friends here – we go to movies, museums and Broadway shows together. But eventually I will go back to China because deep down in my heart, I want to be closer to my parents.”

Liu isn’t the only Chinese face to have impressed the world’s elite designers. She says that as China’s international profile rises and more prestigious fashion designers fuse Eastern and Western elements, more of her peers are gaining opportunities abroad, as she did. Names such as Sui He, Jing Ma, Ming Xi and Sun Feifei have become familiar at fashion shows around the world.

“I’m really happy to see this continue to happen,” Liu says. “We have become friends during the fashion weeks. With more of my peers coming to the States, I believe more people will start to appreciate Asian beauty.”

Having found success with a number of Western brands, Liu plans to draw on her reputation in the industry to help more Chinese designers reach a broader clientele.

“I’m so proud of my country,” she says. “I will do my best to work with more Chinese designers so they can possibly get more recognition internationally in fashion.”

Liu has exciting plans in mind once herrunway days are over.

“Things change all the time in the fashion business, but I will stay close to fashion after modeling. I will try to become a stylist, and maybe I’ll also try acting.”

Since that modeling contest back home, life has changed dramatically for Liu. But, whether in haute couture or denim shorts and little makeup, she’s the same person she was four years ago – a young woman who loves to talk, smile and enjoy life.

“You can see my photos appear on magazine covers from time to time, but this doesn’t really change a thing in me. I still love Chinese food, ice cream and French fries, and I’m still Liu Wen.”

Source: By Liu Yuhan in New York (China Daily)

Liu Wen Covers "Bazaar" Singapore

Chinese model Liu Wen is the featured face on the cover page of the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar Singapore for their June 2012 issue.

Chinese Super Model Liu Wen On The Red Carpet In Cannes

Chinese super Model Liu Wen was spotted at the red carpet of the premiere ceremony of the movie “Amour” on May 20, France. (Source: Chinese Films)

Liu Wen on the Cover of Numéro China March 2011

Liu Wen, photographed by Kai Z Feng, graces the cover of Numéro China’s March 2011 issue.
(image/tfs)

Liu Wen Elle Singapore December 2010

Chinese model Liu Wen pose in flirty frock for the cover page of fashion magazine Elle Singapore for the month of December 2010. Photographed by Thomas Mangieri, Liu Wen looks pretty in an embroidered strapless dress all set to rock this festive season. (MagXone)

2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – Runway (Liu Wen)

Model Liu Wen walks the runway during the 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at the Lexington Avenue Armory on November 10, 2010 in New York City.

Model worker

Source: By Zhang Yuwei (China Daily)

The girl who once studied to be a tour guide in Hunan is now one of the most popular faces on the runway in Paris and New York. Zhang Yuwei reports

Four years ago, Joseph Carle, a creative director for Marie Claire at the time, found what he had been clamoring for at a small Beijing fashion show. As he sat watching the show, a long-legged 18-year-old stunned Carle. He immediately asked the show’s stylist for the model’s name. “Liu Wen, a beginner,” the stylist answered. “No, no. She is no beginner, she is a star,” Carle remembered replying.

His discovery came at a time when Carle was in desperate need of a new face to inspire his methods of expressing beauty, fashion and style in China. He says that he found everything in Liu.

It also came at the most unexpected for Liu, now 22 and one of the most booked models in Paris and New York. She recently became the first and only Chinese model to walk the Victoria’s Secret lingerie fashion show for two years straight.

After a photoshoot for Marie Claire in London, Liu made her professional debut in Milan in 2008. She has since walked for the fashion world’s who’s who: Anna Sui, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Chloe and Lanvin. In April, Liu signed with Estee Lauder to become one of the first Asian models to represent a global cosmetic company.

She is also the leading face for a growing roster of Chinese women models who are crowding international runways, a phenomenon that many fashion experts say goes hand-in-hand with the growing number of Chinese fashion consumers as the nation’s government pushes for more domestic spending.

“Over the last few years, China has become not just an emerging market, but a viable market with millions of consumers. So it makes sense that you want to include more Chinese models whom the consumers can identify with,” says Carle, now the creative director for NUMERO China.

Growing up in Yongzhou, a city in Hunan province in Central China, Liu says she never dreamed of walking on an international runway. In her teens, Liu thought about becoming a teacher. She entered a local tourism college where she trained to be a tour guide.

Liu, now 1.81 meters tall, was 1.68 m at middle school. She said that her parents, both of whom are average height, never expected she would become a professional model.

“They never expected me to be this tall, and I always thought that being a model, you have to be pretty. I am not that pretty,” she says humbly.

In 2005, she entered a modeling contest in her hometown, hoping to win a laptop computer. She won.

“Having a laptop was the first step to get me connected to the world and I was so happy I won it,” she says.

But in late 2006, Liu was unemployed. She says she often sat in her Beijing apartment that she shared with some other models, waiting to be called.

“I was very stressed out. I even thought maybe I should just give up,” she recalls. “But I believe in hard work and I wanted to keep trying.”

Then came her discovery by Carle.

“I never expected (meeting Carle) would happen,” Liu says at her New York agency in Lower Manhattan.

“Liu is an exceptional model. For the Victoria’s Secret show, it is not enough to be just beautiful, and to have a great body, you have to have incredible presence, you have to have the ability to project yourself from the runway,” says John Pfeiffer, the head casting director for Victoria’s Secret lingerie show.

To Carle, whom Liu calls bole (which means “the judge of talents”), Liu is more than beautiful. She is unique and breaks the cliches about Asian models.

“When you see her on the runway or in magazines, you don’t say ‘Wow, this Chinese girl is so this or so that.’ You say, ‘Wow, this girl is stunning.’ … She escapes all the cliches of East and West, and she defines a new attitude, a new kind of women’s power, too,” Carle says.

“Fashion tends to embrace the exception, not the norm, and that helps push an ever expansive view of beauty,” says Chris Gay, president of Marilyn Agency in New York, one of Liu’s agencies.

Liu thinks that Chinese models can contribute a lot to the international fashion industry. She says she is grateful to the Chinese models in the 1980s and 1990s who first appeared in international fashion shows.

“We are now better off and have more opportunities because those models opened the market for us.”

For Liu, the Victoria’s Secret lingerie fashion show is one of the pillars of her success. The show, which was taped in New York and broadcast on Nov 30, is the biggest runway show in the world. It is seen on TV in more than 80 countries by more than 30 million people, Pfeiffer says.

Although Victoria’s Secret has shot Asian models for its catalogue for many years, Liu was the first Asian model to be selected for its runway show when she appeared last year.

“It is not just about including an Asian girl or a black girl, we live in a world where everything is seen by everybody,” Pfeiffer says. “We try to be as inclusive as possible but it has to be the right model.”

Despite her near-immediate fame, Liu didn’t always have the easiest of times after she became a professional model.

“Modeling is a busy life. I don’t get to eat and rest properly during fashion weeks. But at the end of the day, it is rewarding,” she says.

Two years ago, Liu’s biggest challenge in her career was the language barrier.

“During the day, I was modeling, but at night, I was learning English. This industry requires us to meet more people, and communicate with designers and photographers. Communication is very important,” she says.

Liu says she is thankful to her parents in Yongzhou, both of whom know little about fashion and modeling but gave her tremendous support when she was thinking about quitting a few years back.

“I miss home a lot. And I haven’t spent the Chinese New Year with my parents in three years.”

The best part of her career, she says, is traveling.

“I have always wanted to travel. Every time I watched the TV show Animal Planet when I was little, I thought it must be nice to travel to different parts of the world to see different cultures,” Liu says.

Now she partly has realized her dream – she travels between Paris, New York, London and Milan for fashion shows and rarely has much spare time.

She says that spending a day in her apartment in Lower Manhattan doing absolutely nothing is like a vacation.

Liu Wen on the Cover of Elle Singapore December 2010

Liu Wen, photographed by Thomas Mangieri, looks fresh and young on the cover of Elle Singapore’s December 2010 issue.