Get to know Ugbad Abdi.

If someone told Somali born and Iowa resident that she’ll be swapping her graduation gown for Valentino Haute Couture creation, we doubt she would’ve believed them but this is exactly how one of the breakout models of Fall 2019 began her career.

 

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“I have never been more happier in my entire life until today,” she wrote on Instagram following her Valentino debut. “I’ve always dreamt of walking for Valentino and to think that it is the first ever show I’ve walked for is so bizarre.”

Discovered on Instagram by Next Models just two months after graduating in Des Moines, Abdi was flown to Paris to walk alongside Naomi Cambell in the Valentino Spring 2019 couture show, fast forward few months and she’s stomping the runways of Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs, Matty Bovan, Victoria Beckham, Simone Rocha, Burberry, Max Mara, Roberto Cavalli, Fendi, Off-White and Lanvin.

 

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It happened so fast that the 18-year-old barely had the time to pinch herself. A Muslim woman, she joins a new generation of veiled models who are using the runway to shift the conversation, including Halima Aden, Shahira Yusuf, Ikram Abdi Omar, Kadija Diawaraa and Feriel Moulaï.

 

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Until the age of nine, Abdi grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp before the family made a move to the United States. Now she has become the first model to wear headscarf at Lavin as well as for Karl Lagerfeld’s last Fendi collection.

 

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“Walking for @fendi @silviaventurinifendi and being the first hijab wearing woman to do so is just so incredibly unbelievable in itself but the fact that I walked in @karllagerfeld last collection with Fendi is…. words could never describe how I felt being so fortunate enough to walk in Karl’s last creations alongside such strong and incredible women.” Abdi shared on Instagram.

All hail diversity in fashion.

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Media: Getty, Instagram