Tropicana Jan-Feb 2018 #116 A Start from the Heart

GAME CHANGER
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“I’m a horrible
perfectionist. I’m
almost never happy
with anything I do,
100 per cent.”
“I was worried, I was in the
car and I was like, “Do you have
any powder?”” she says, when I
make a (positive) comment about
her complexion. “There are little
breakouts. I’m wearing a little bit of
make-up right now but underneath
are very dark under-eye circles…
I was thinking I wasn’t looking so
normal.”
While she does not exhibit the same self-assuredness
as a Kate, Naomi or Christy might do, Park has still
managed to follow them into mononym status. And
though the Korean-American supermodel may not have
been around for as long, she’s a regular on the Chanel
catwalk, and has been an agent of change in the beauty
world as the first Asian model to land a multi-million
dollar contract with L’Oréal.
It’s thanks to Chanel that we’re meeting today. Park
counts the house’s creative director, Karl Lagerfeld, as one
of her greatest supporters and has spent the day shooting
at the grand Château de Vaugien, south-west of Paris,
clad in the fashion house’s latest couture collection; all
flamboyant frothy gowns and pastel-hued tweeds.
This is a world in which Park is now in control.
Millennial models such as the Hadid sisters and Kendall
Jenner might have had to walk in show after show this
year alone, but Park, 31, can decide how busy she wants
to be — partly because “I’m a horrible perfectionist. I’m
almost never happy with anything I do, 100 per cent.”
Compared with previous seasons, this most recent month
of ready-to-wear shows was a breeze; aside from appearing
in the Baja East presentation in New York she only
walked the Chanel show with its unforgettable simulated
rocket launch within the Grand Palais.
The trade-off of such success is that she has outgrown
the desirable niche of newness. “Even though there are a
more diverse group of [models], you still are categorised
as a person into a certain type; and a lot of the time, they
want something new. I had my time, the blonde hair was
new and refreshing to the scene at that point,” she says,
matter-of-factly.
In many ways she still doesn’t fit the traditional
model mould. The industry might give the impression of
pursuing greater diversity but she remains among a small
group of internationally known, in-demand Asian models
that include Liu Wen and Fernanda Ly. Unsurprisingly,
models.com has ranked her one of its ‘Money Girls’, a
benchmark of the size and quality of her contracts. This
puts her in the company of the ‘new supers’ such as Karlie
Kloss, Cara Delevingne and Joan Smalls.
Park made history in 2015 as L’Oréal’s first Asian-
American spokesmodel (the French beauty behemoth
dates back to 1909) and she is the face of Redken, making
her the first Asian-American to front two large beauty
brands. Her hair happens to be a pearly shade of white,
TM | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
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