Updated: 9/30/22

**Thanks and credit to ArianaVSCouture, Bovarystedu95, and radolgc for the uploads and pictures

Versace 1992

As African American artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Run DMC, and Janet Jackson herself were transcending the 1980s MTV color barrier to mega-pop success, Yasmeen Ghauri, too in her quiet defiance, would unknowingly lead her own charge in the 1990s, becoming an icon and stalwart for a fashion industry in much need of a diverse shakeup.

“I’ve always hated the word supermodel and I prefer not to describe myself, I prefer other people describe me in whatever terms they like. But I don’t like to categorize myself.”

Yet this native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada would first have to overcome a slew of ordeals and discrimination before becoming a beloved supermodeling high fashion icon. Born to a Pakistani Imam father and German mother, Yasmeen Ghauri’s religious upbringing and brown skin presented a unique set of obstacles that left Yaseem more times than not, the target of racism and feeling ostracized from her peers:

“The fact that my father was Indian had an influence on my life because I wasn’t like the other kids. Most of the kids in my school were white and I had brown skin, so they always used to point that out and I was kind of like a loner.”

“When I was a kid and these things happened to me, I just kind of took it in and absorbed it quietly, and I just dealt with it. I dealt with it internally.”

As I was walkin’ by
Saw you standin’ there with a smile
Lookin’ shy you caught my eye
Thought you’d want to hang for a while
Well I’d like to be with you
And you know it’s Friday too
I hope you can find the time
This weekend to relax and unwind
My mind’s tired
I’ve worked so hard all week
Ooh all week
I cashed my check I’m ready to go
I promise you I’ll show you such a good time

Valentino 1992

Although Yasmeen described herself as an ugly duckling growing up and abhorred having her pictures taken to the extent, she stop taking them around 12 or 13 years old, things would soon start to look up for the future top model to-be as the compliments began to flow in her teens:

“Having been an ugly duckling all through childhood, the first time someone asked me if I was a model I was very flattered and felt that maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. I was in my early teens.”

One day while visiting a salon, a hairdresser encouraged Yaseem to seek out a modeling agency. A 17 year old Yasmeen still in high school took the advice and wasn’t long before Yasmeen Ghauri would become a household name. But things weren’t easy as Yasmeen struggled to find work in an industry at first, hesitant to embrace her look:

“Being ethnic like when I started in Montreal I didn’t work. I had like six bookings from the time I spent in Canada because no one understood my look. It was too ethnic.”

Come on baby let’s get away
Let’s save our troubles for another day
Come go with me we’ve got it made
Let me take you on an escapade
Let’s go

But as the hands of fate would have it, Yasmeen finally found her stride in 1990, landing one of her first major covers for Elle March 1990, following up with a cover for Marie Claire Italia May 1990 photographed by Jacques Olivar, then Vogue Paris June/July 1990 photographed by Arther Elgort, and scoring one of her first major campaigns for Chanel Fall/Winter 1990!

By 1991, Yasmeen Ghauri’s star had finally arrived as she was being touted by designers, editors, and agents alike as being the hit model of the year, walking for everyone from Jil Sander, Azzedine Alaia, Chanel, Gianni Versace, Helmut Lang, Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Lanvin.

Yasmeen would also land on the covers and pages of Vogue in 1991, having her first Vogue Italia cover shot by legendary fashion photographer Steven Meisel for the January 1991 issue, followed up by landing on the monumental 75th cover for British Vogue 1991 photographed by Tyen, and gracing once again British Vogue for their August 1991 issue photographed by Patrick Demarchelier! Yasmeen also had several campaigns for Escada Margaretha and Valentino in the same year.

Yesmeen would have an even grandeur year in 1992, walking for Chanel, Chloe, Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenzo, Max Mara. Yasmeen also had her hands full for major fashion magazines like Elle, Marie Claire, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar! She even graced the star-studded cover of US Vogue’s highly iconic April 1992 issue, celebrating the magazine’s 100th Anniversary photographed by Patrick Demarchelier.

Ghauri had even more commercial success, piling up campaign work for Valentino’s Spring/Summer ad with Karen Mulder photographed by Steven Meisel, while once again bolstering her portfolio with brand names like Gianni Versace and Escada Margaretha. Yasmeen in awe of her meteoric success and new found fame responded:

Jean Paul Gaultier RTW 1992

“I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would get this far, as far as I’ve gotten. I just expected that I would model for a year or two, make some money, then go on.”

In just a few years and barely 21, a young woman who struggled with her physical appearance, facing racism and discrimination along the way, suddenly was the darling of designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace, Valentino, while commanding thousands of dollars a day, electrifying audiences on the biggest runways and making what was deemed undesirable or too “ethnic” en vogue for international markets.

Although having massive success as a 90s top model, the signs and writing were on the walls for a premature departure as Yasmeen lamented a strained relationship with her father because of his strong Muslim faith, disapproving of a lifestyle of a model. Yasmeen also felt at odds with celebrity and fame, grimacing at the chore of keeping up appearances and the high maintenance of being a supermodel.

“It’s not nearly as glamorous as people see it as being. There’s a lot of travel involved, there’s a lot of work involved. You’re doing hair and makeup for three hours before you even get on the set. That’s not so glamorous. People expect a lot of you, to behave in a certain way. It’s a lot.”

Versace RTW 1991 (Left), Valentino 1991 (Center), Versace SS 1992 (Right)

“After a while you kind of get tired. I felt like I was on one big runway and I never left the runway, I’m just kind of walking back and forth on it.”

As a surprise to many, Yasmeen Ghauri in 1997 walked away from it all for family and a life away from fame. “Hopefully, I’m towards the end of my career and I say hopefully because I want to get on with my life and have children and do other things and experience life. I went from school to work. So I never actually had the opportunity to discover myself to find out what interest me and what it is that I want to do, so I’m very much looking forward to doing that, to discovering who I am.”

Yves Saint Laurent RTW 1990

Although removed from the public eye and fashion industry for more than two decades, the lasting image, impact, and iconography of Yasmeen Ghauri is still felt, perhaps even more today with media and entertainment finally heeding the calls for diverse representation.

Dior SS 1998

Christian Lacroix RTW 1993 & FW 1991

In her time along with Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek, Yasmeen Ghauri represented a gradual changing of the guard for the runways, editorials, and magazine covers. Yasmeen’s look was bold, refreshing, powerful yet graceful. She had a quiet confidence, but her body language and aura could electrify a room of strangers.

Coincidentally, it was that same body language and elegant rhythmic motion that would beguile and enthrall captive audiences, making Ghauri must see on the runways from Paris to Milan with many trying to imitate her one of a kind strut:

“I really like runway a lot, I prefer that actually to pictures because I can really do whatever I want and no one’s controlling me and it’s nice to try and hold an audience. It’s a nice feeling if you can make an audience feel the clothes.”

Along with being a household name for Victoria’s Secret, a fixture for celebrated fashion magazines like Elle and Vogue, and wowing designers, Yasmeen was most cherished for her consummate professionalism, passion for the job, down-to-earth attitude, and an infectious humanity that enamored so many:

“She really has so much substance behind her beauty and I think a lot of Yaseem’s beauty comes from the inside as opposed from the outside.” – Faith Kates

Ooh
My mind’s tired, I’ve..
Ooh
Worked so hard all
Ooh
Worked so hard all week
All week
I just got paid, we’ve got it made, ready to go
I promise you, I’ll show you such a good time

“Normally when we find girls, there’s so much we have to do with, we have to develop them, we have to change them, we have to cut their hair, there’s so much we have to start with. There was absolutely nothing we had to change about Yasmeen.” – Giovanni Bernardi

Yasmeen also had a keen ability to readily interpret designers visions for the clothes before taking the runway, often times doing her own makeup and improvising on the fly with her motion and movement to express the feelings of the clothes:

“She’s one of the incredible superstar runway girls. She’s like a sketch, she’s like a designer’s dream. You put her in something, it always works, it’s always over the top.” – Mark Badgley

In numerous interviews, Yasmeen Ghauri would stress the importance of living a normal life, not letting the environment or fame change who you are as a person, not falling for the trappings of an increasingly material world, staying steadfast to who you are and your better nature. It was these same virtues imparted by her father and his faith that ultimately guided her well in life.

“I think that the things my dad taught me, regardless of not going on the path he wanted me to go, still affected me. I think he raised me to be a good person, all of the cliches respect people and to be a good person, and that is definitely from my religious upbringing.”

With a tumultuous start, to meteoric rise, and eventual unforeseen curtain call to a beautiful career, Yasmeen Ghauri’s story is one of the most unique in fashion. And rather a Cinderella, Yasmeen was a true-to-life Disney Esmeralda where perseverance, kindness, and the brilliance of her humanity shattered barriers, serving as an inspiration even decades later. A momentary escapade, a brief excursion of beauty and fame, a youthful dalliance of the urbane, reverberates over a life time, how strange:

“People always ask us the same questions, you know. ‘What’s it like to be a top model, what are your beauty tips?’ And I think people should see the people that we are not just the outside.”

Come on baby let’s get away
Let’s save our troubles for another day
Come go with me we’ve got it made
Let me take you on an escapade
On an escapade, baby!