New Hot Hapa: Model Rachel Rutt

The term hapa means someone of part Asian and Caucasian descent. And I’m one– in case you haven’t guessed from the name of the blog. So there’s your dose of ethnic studies for the day.

I love to see women of color in fashion– like Chanel Iman, Du Juan, Hye Park, Bruna Tenorio, Hyoni Kang, Han Jin, Sessilee Lopez, Arlenis Sosa, and Lakshmi Menon. I could go on and on. So when I came across the face of this new hapa model I hadn’t seen before in some of the new resort collections, I couldn’t help but want to find out more. So here’s a brief run down of the facts. Another young one from down under, like Zippora Seven, she’s a Singaporean/Australian 17-year-old who was the breakout star of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2009. And now that she’s made it across the sea to New York, she’s already been cast for both resort collections of 3.1 Phillip Lim and Doo.Ri, not to mention setting editors and casting directors abuzz about whether she’s the next big face to watch. I hope so, because for lack of a more creative way to say it– she’s stunning. See more of Rachel after the jump.

Models in the Movies: Big Screen Newbies Lily Cole & Naomi Campbell

The trend of model-to-actress makes perfect sense. They already have camera-ready faces, so moving to a bigger lense seems like the logical next step when just being pretty gets boring. It’s the age old phenomenon that includes everyone from Marilyn Monroe to– how could we forget, because she just won’t let us– Tyra Banks. But sometimes their efforts at TV or movie stardom fails, and they are forced to go back to their other highly-successful day jobs. Sigh.

Here’s a veritable short list of ones you might recognize. In the ’90s, you had Cindy Crawford in Fair Game (flop); Elle Macpherson in Jane Eyre and Batman and Robin (eh); and Elizabeth Hurley in Betwiched and Austin Powers (success!). More recently in the ’00s, we’ve had Amber Valetta in Hitch; Rebecca Romijn in the X-Men series; Milla Jovovich in all those action flicks; Gisesle Bundchen in Taxi and The Devil Wears Prada; and Gemma Ward as the creepy girl next door in The Strangers (although, does it really count if you never saw her face?).

Even more recently, we’ve had two new attempts at the big screen. Enter cell-phone throwing Naomi Campbell– who also attempted to transition her modeling skills to a short-lived career as a pop star in ’95 by releasing an album Baby Woman (clearly a fail, because have you heard it?)– who scored her first major role in a Bollywood movie Karma Aur Holi. And then there’s baby-faced redhead Lily Cole, who stars in Terry Gilliam’s new fantasy flick The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus about a traveling theater troupe (alongside a star-studded male cast including Johnny Depp, Colin Ferrell, Jude Law, and the late Heath Ledger). Based on these two clips, who are we guessing has a better chance at success?