Singapore’s next top model is bringing much needed diversity to runways around the world

When model Diya Prabhakar stepped off the plane in New York a few months ago, she had another runway to hustle to. Prabhakar had an appointment with acclaimed Nepalese-American fashion designer Prabal Gurung, who was searching for an all-Asian cast to front his autumn-winter 2018 ad campaign.

With a shock of curly hair and pouty lips, the six-foot-tall Singaporean-Indian model snagged a spot on the campaign, which includes four other faces from China, Nepal, South Korea and Thailand. She impressed Gurung enough that he also cast her for his spring-summer 2019 catwalk show in New York.

“I was very excited because he is such an influential designer and he could cast any model he wants, so the fact that he wanted me was a big deal,” says Prabhakar in a phone interview from New York, where she is based.

In an industry dominated by social media superstars with last names like Hadid and Jenner, Prabhakar’s rise as an unknown – and minority – face in the industry is a remarkable achievement.

This season, she also walked for Christian Siriano’s spring-summer 2019 show and made her debut at Paris Fashion Week, the pinnacle of achievement for a new model.  In Paris, the 19-year-old modelled for edgy designers including Marine Serre, Manish Arora and Hong Kong-based Anaïs Jourden.