Melbourne model Ajak Deng, who has booked jobs for Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Gaultier, Valentino and Marc Jacobs in her short but bright career, announced this week that she is quitting the fashion industry to pursue a “real life.”
The Sudanese-Australian Deng, who has worked extensively overseas, announced her departure in an Instagram post, saying that she “can no longer deal with the fakes and lies” in the modelling business, as “life is too short.”
She told her followers:
“I am happy to announce that I am officially done with the fashion industry, I will be moving back to Australia in order to live the life that I fully deserved. Which is real life.”
Fans were surprised at Deng’s announcement, which came just days after a successful run at New York Fashion Week, that saw her feature in some of the biggest shows.
She noted their concern in a subsequent Instagram post, but said:
“I am good and very happy with my decision. I am a fighter and a go getta, I will figured out what to do next.”
Interestingly, Deng’s big news comes in the same week that her manager Stephen Bucknall told the Herald Sun that, while she is a big name overseas, he struggles to book jobs for her in Australia.
He said:
“Ajak has said to me many times, it saddens her there isn’t more work for dark skinned girls in Australia, as she would like to book more work here. The budgets probably aren’t big enough for (her), because she’s a big money earner, but they will spend the money on a Miranda Kerr or a Jess Hart.”They’ll book the big caucasian girls, spend the big dollars, and fly them in from LA, but I’m yet to see them book a dark skinned girl in that way. The Australian market doesn’t want to take the risk of using darker models as mainstream models. But if you go to New York, you’ll see African American, Asian, and all these diverse cultures. Australia just doesn’t get it.”
Source: Instagram.
Photo: Dimitros Kambouris / Getty.
