China’s Growing Luxury Goods Market and Asian Models – China Daily Hong Kong May 24, 2006

A former Miss China, Du Juan has proved her appeal in her native Shanghai. But how well do her charms translate to the streets of New York?

Not too badly, apparently. “I saw her once while out to lunch walking down the street,” said Wayne Sterling, editorial director of the US Web site Models.com, in an email message, “and every head turned as she floated by.”

Since appearing with Australian model Gemma Ward on the cover of Vogue China’s premiere issue last September, Du has been in constant motion. In addition to more coverage in Vogue China, she has graced Paris and Italian Vogue. In Paris and Milan earlier this year, Du walked on the runway of Marc Jacob’s Louis Vuitton show, as well as for Hermes, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and a few others, leading the editors at Style.com – Vogue and W Magazine’s website – to pick her as one of fall’s top ten new faces.

But Du Juan is more than just the next big Asian model. In many ways Du’s success reflects changing sentiments toward Asian beauty in a globalizing world. Buoyed by interest in Asia and movie stars with a growing presence internationally, China’s promise as a land of luxury goods buyers has also made Chinese beauty matter, and the daughters of the East look to have an even more prominent role in the eyes of the fashion industry in the 21^st century, where a convergence in taste is emerging.

For Du Juan, this had meant that she is – as a certain one-note heiress likes to say – hot.

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