She’s one of Australia’s most sought-after models, tipped to follow in the footsteps of Miranda Kerr and and Jessica Hart. At 24 and based in New York, Ajak Deng is a regular on the international catwalk circuit, is signed to the world-famous IMG modelling agency and has appeared on the runway for Lanvin, Chloé, Valentino and Givenchy. In August she will grace the cover of the prestigious W Magazine. But life wasn’t always so golden for this South Sudanese refugee, who arrived in Melbourne’s outer west in 2005.
“Life does feel like a dream right now,” says the long-limbed and wide-smiling Deng, who was in town for Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Week earlier this year as the face of British retailer River Island.
“It feels just like yesterday that my mum would tap me on the shoulder during the night and tell me to, ‘Hush, be quiet, it’s time to run. Don’t ask questions, just get out of bed and run’, she says, recalling her childhood in Sudan, where war was rampant and fleeing home was a regular occurrence.
“When we arrived in Melbourne it was a different set of circumstances that weighed me down,” she says. “Kids at school would say horrible things to me because of my skin colour. It was hard to adjust to the new life because of this, but my dad always told me that anyone who is picking on you has the bigger problem. He told me to just ignore them and not take it personally.”
“I didn’t want these people to drag me down. I just wanted to be their friend.”
She credits her teachers at Kurunjang Secondary College in Melton with helping her get through. “I did have great teachers and I found my way eventually because I learned to keep my head high and not let their taunts affect me.”
Deng arrived in Australia with her father, stepmother and seven siblings, having fled Sudan with her family in 2002, landing in a Kenyan refugee camp when she was 12. It was there among the squalor and poverty of the camp that Deng’s birth mother died from malaria. The tragedy has defined Deng’s outlook for life.
“The ambulance didn’t get to the camp in time. It was a sad situation,” she says. “I do wonder why I had to lose my mother so young. My mum would be proud of me. She is my inspiration and role model. It does irritate me when I see people mistreat their mum. I want to remind them how lucky they are to have her in their life.”
Deng’s father remarried and eventually managed to bring his new wife and eight children to Melbourne, living first in Sunshine before buying a home in Melton.
Just four years after arriving in Australia as a refugee, Deng’s life changed dramatically when she won the 2009 Miss South Sudan pageant. Her success sparked the idea of a career in modelling but it was a high school careers counsellor, Miss Flinders, who encouraged Deng to pursue her dream, urging her to do a modelling course and try her luck on the catwalk. After all, at 1.8 metres in bare feet, with lean limbs and a smile that can stop traffic, Deng had a good chance at earning a buck from her looks.
Deng enrolled in a course at the Tanya Powell Model Agency where she learned how to do her own make up, walk in heels and present herself in front of the camera. At the graduation she met fashion agent Stephen Bucknall of FRM Model Management. “He told me he wanted me to go to New York and had these big plans for me. I was like, ‘Wow, this is great, but I’m a bit freaked out by it all’,” Deng says.
“I didn’t call him back initially. I went with another manager who ripped me off and took my portfolio and money. Then I went to Stephen and he got me a United Colours of Benetton campaign and a Mimco campaign, and said IMG wanted to sign me in New York. It all happened quickly.
“I was cautious and nervous. You put a lot of faith in people you barely know when you start out, but Stephen is fantastic.”
On her first trip to New York in September 2009, Deng took a cab to the airport on her own because her father was too ill to drive her and everyone else in her family was going about their normal business. She was bound for the Big Apple, to share a flat with another aspiring model for a fortnight and appear on the catwalk for Australian fashion designer Michael Angel, Dennis Basso and Sophie Theallet.
Deng would soon call Brooklyn home – but not until she had returned home a few weeks later to sit her Year 12 exams.
By February 2010, she had been cast to walk the runway for Lanvin, Chloé and Givenchy. Her life in outer suburban Melbourne was traded for a whirlwind of big cities, fashion magazines, hanging out with reputed fashion photographers, and modelling offers that would fatten her bank account.
The ambitious model soon found herself at the Paris and London fashion weeks, on the cover of Vogue Italia and i-D and in advertising campaigns for Kenzo, CK and Topshop.
Last year she appeared in a photo essay with singer Bruno Mars in Flaunt Magazine.
Watching Deng strut her stuff at River Island’s runway launch at Melbourne Fashion Week this year, it was easy to see why the talent spotters at IMG were knocked off their feet when they saw her. All heads inside the Stonnington Town Hall turned as Deng appeared from backstage, towering above the assembled fashion writers, bloggers and VIPs, in the brightest high street fashion. Her siblings, who had been allocated front row seats, watched on in awe – although five-month-old nephew Erasmus nodded off to sleep in his mother’s arms, unfazed by the thumping house music and flashing lights.
“We never get to be in the front row, this is a first,” said her sister Sahara at the VIP gathering after the show.
Missing from the occasion was Deng’s father, who returned to Africa after separating from his wife a few years ago. Deng’s stepmother has also since returned home. “My dad abandoned us here without anybody,” Deng says sounding momentarily defeated. “It’s made me realise I have to take responsibility for my brothers and sisters.”
Deng has supported her siblings financially since she was 16, sharing the rewards of her modelling success. “It’s a Sudanese thing, I guess,” she says. “Family is very important. That is how my mother raised me to think.”
She lives in New York with her dog, but frequently returns to Australia to visit her family. She says she has grown fond of the big city, but admits it wasn’t love at first sight. “When I moved to New York, I hated it,” she says. “I didn’t know anybody but my flatmate. I remember calling my stepmum and telling her there were so many black people at the airport in New York, it sort of freaked me out. She was like, ‘Don’t be silly, you are black, too’.”
Deng’s glittering ascent has not been without its hiccups. A few months ago she launched an expletive-laden Twitter tirade against French fashion house Balmain, claiming it had excluded her from its February Paris shows due to her skin colour.
It’s not clear what exactly transpired between Balmain, its staff and Deng – for the record, there were nine black models in the Balmain runway show. Whatever the explanation, somebody at Balmain (run by mixed-race French designer Olivier Rousteing) had done something to offend her.
Today Deng says her comments were taken out of context. “My manager always tells me to be careful on Twitter. When I did express myself I think it became a bigger deal than I had intended. It was just an expression. I wasn’t really saying f— you to anyone in particular. I was just saying I don’t care. F.U.”
Deng has since closed her Twitter account, preferring to use Instagram instead. With more than 20,000 followers, she enjoys the celebrity status associated with being an international model and posts pictures daily – some from her fashion shoots, others backstage and many with her siblings. She’s also more than happy to stop and sign autographs for fans when she’s out and about in Melbourne.
“My sisters get so annoyed,” she says. “They don’t treat me any differently now that I am a model. To them I am still their sister. They just want to get on with shopping and tell me to hurry up.”
Deng was raised a Catholic and her faith is still a big influence. “I still feel connected to it. But it’s also the 21st century and, while I never used to eat meat on a Friday as a child, because that’s how mum raised me, I do it now. It’s not such a big deal,” she says. “I used to get freaked out about it, but it’s like the new age, you don’t have to be that strict.”
There are moments, Deng says, when the hectic nature of modelling seems all too much. One day she’s in Miami for a shoot, the next she’s in another big city for shows, waiting for hours backstage while other models have their hair and makeup done.
“I don’t have hair and I still need to hang around for hours while the other models have their hair done,” Deng says. “But then I realise how lucky I was to end up in Australia and how lucky I am to be working as a model.
“I have definitely become more confident in my own skin now. If you asked me to do sexy when I started I would stare into space and freak out,” she says. “Now that I’m older I feel like I own this space, I’m supposed to be here and all is OK.”
