Alex Consani and Anok Yai are arguably the hottest models in the industry right now—so booked and busy that sitting with them over breakfast at Le Crocodile in Brooklyn one July morning feels like a small miracle. Consani, 22, has just walked the Marc Jacobs show in New York and will fly to Paris for the couture shows after our interview, while Yai, 27, is back from a trip to Japan that started as work but extended into a mini vacation.

The moment they arrive at our booth, they pick up the conversational threads from the last time they saw each other, catching up on plans, including a birthday party (Consani) and a new home (Yai). They’re so in sync, in fact, that they’re both wearing Marni: Consani in a fitted white dress, Yai in a gray tank and baggy jeans. It’s not exactly the stereotypical picture of two rival supes having a bitch-off.

“Me and Alex have been hand in hand throughout our career,” Yai says of their close friendship. “We always confide in each other; we've cried together so many times and we're always there to support each other. But the narrative was really spun for us.”

What “narrative,” you ask? You can find the answer in untold online forums and comment sections. After Consani won Model of the Year at last year’s Fashion Awards in London, people were swift to take Yai’s reaction (on social media, she congratulated Consani, but told the British Fashion Council, “Thank you, but I don’t want it anymore”) and spin it into rumors of a feud between the two. Fans took sides, the conversation turned ugly, and racism and transphobia were used as weapons. The duo found it more baffling than anything else.

“It's quite funny to me, to see the way that people turn on us and our identities [instead of] focusing on us as people,” Consani says. “Yes, an award within fashion is a very important accolade and it's a recognition that obviously someone who works hard in the industry would want, but it's not like it changes the lives of anybody other than people within fashion.”

Consani and Yai are happy to set the record straight on the alleged “feud,” and eager to dive deep on issues of tokenism and representation in the fashion industry, the challenges they face even at their level of success, and what they hope to achieve with their platform. Clearly, these are conversations they’ve been having with each other for a long time, but on this summer day, Allure got to take part.

Allure: I want to know how you both got into modeling. Was it a plan? An accident?

Alex Consani: I've always appreciated fashion. I was eight or nine, and I went to a Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition with my grandma; that was the first time I ever saw fashion in its full artistic sense, and it was really beautiful. I got the opportunity to do it and I thought it was fun, especially for me as a trans woman, to express myself and my femininity in different ways. It's a good platform to speak in a digestible way—fashion is a really good way to spoon-feed people what you believe in politically, morally, whatever.

Anok Yai: I grew up watching America's Next Top Model, and my first memory as a kid is being four years old, with my mom dressing me for preschool—I always wanted to be the best dressed. The second I got into New York, I hit the ground running; I was like, I want to take over the industry, I want to be the best I can be. Obviously, it's competitive, but the crazy thing is the models, we get along quite well; it's the people around us that will pit us against each other for their own entertainment.

Alex: Heavy on that!

Allure: Talk about the “feud” between you after the 2024 Fashion Awards.

Anok: We have a really close relationship, and that night, we were actually partying. We were celebrating [Alex] with her trophy, and then when we stepped out, we got all the [social] notifications. It was like, “Oh shit.”

When Alex won, I was so proud of her. And the stuff that Alex has done, no one's done it in the game before. She's the first trans model to really be acknowledged, and she deserves all of it. What I didn't like was people attacking Alex for being trans.

Alex: I was really upset because there was a lot of racism towards [Anok], which I just don't understand. I do think there's value in celebrating the small moments, but also letting it be known that an award doesn't give you recognition; it's the work you do and the message you spread.

You have a really important message, Anok. I think it's special. There aren't a lot of dark-skinned models that have reached the status you're at, and the mistreatment that I see in fashion, especially towards dark-skinned girls, it's really upsetting.

There's value in giving girls their flowers, especially girls that are almost always mistreated. The focus of that whole situation should have been what we need to do to support one another, not creating some beef that was never there.

Anok: The whole thing has actually brought us closer. The more I work in fashion, the more I value humanity and individual people. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to what people online talk about. They're always fantasizing about the lives of these low-key boring bitches that never experienced anything. I'm like, “Babe, why aren't we talking about the girls who worked hard for it, have an actual story, have a history, have a message?”

Allure: When you were coming up, did you have mentors or role models who brought you in and said, “Here's how you do this” or “Here's how you handle that?”

Anok: I definitely didn't have anyone telling me how to do anything because I grew up [in Manchester, New Hampshire] really poor. My parents didn't understand the fashion industry, and when I got to New York, I was this 19-year-old kid who just dropped out of college. [Editor’s note: Yai was discovered when a photo of her at Howard University’s homecoming in 2017 went viral; within weeks, she’d signed to Next Models, and her career took off.] I learned very quickly that whenever I got to set, I was seen as this “idea.”

I realized that part of being on set is performing for everyone, being the idea they want you to be. I felt like people in the industry were trying to pit me against other girls, so I didn't really feel like I could trust anybody. But it thickened my skin very quickly, and now I'm able to give girls advice and be that person that I didn't have.

Alex: It's hard because, when you go in, there's no rule book. No one teaches you anything. I grew up around a lot of really powerful, beautiful trans women that spoke their mind about fashion, but their experience in fashion was so different from mine because none of the women I grew up around were ever given the opportunities that I was.

It was a difficult thing, but it took me time to realize what I value, and that's people who look at us girls as human beings and care about our well-being outside of work. [People who] don't care only about how we look, but how we feel—how it looks inside our brain and not outside of it.

Allure: When did you feel like you made it?

Anok: From the second I started my career, a lot of people thought I was going to be a flash in the pan. When I found that out, I was like, Let's go! I like to reinvent myself, and I only surround myself with people that I either want to be like or I'm inspired by. That has helped me get to where I am now. But I don't think I'm ever going to be like, Oh, I made it, because I'm always chasing the next goal.

Alex: I don't think there's ever really a point where you “make it,” because getting comfortable in fashion is always going to be your demise. It's important to reinvent yourself and continuously question what you're doing, where you're going.

Allure: There’s Alex and Anok, the people, and then there’s this version of you that exists for fans. How do you reconcile the two?

Alex: We are very talked about online, and that creates a lot of parasocial relationships where people think they know us or see us for who we are. A facet of that is kind of the job: You have to be able to perform in a certain way outside as you do inside.

Obviously, it's important to be able to separate yourself from your work. It's important to be friends with people inside the industry, just as it is to be friends with people outside the industry. Having that balance of people you can talk to about shit like math or what book you're reading or what's a good movie, and also talk about what [fashion] shows you're excited to see.

Anok: It can be quite jarring, people coming up to you out of nowhere, but the majority of my fans are really positive. There have been so many times my fans don't know about when I was on the brink of crying, and then they'll come up to me, give me a hug and tell me that I'm inspiring. That's helped me really push on.

But I think it's important to have quiet moments. That's why I'm so into journaling. My journal is insane—I write everything with no judgment of myself. And, like Alex said, finding the right people to surround yourself with and strip away the model. And when you go out, go back to—

Alex: —being the entity and not the identity.

Anok: Ooh!

Alex: That one, girl, that one.

Allure: How do you approach social media?

Anok: I suck at social media. I remember I used to post once a month and my fans would drag me, like, "Hey, bitch, you haven't posted, where are you?" I feel awkward taking the camera out and taking a photo of myself.

Alex: That's such a real thing.

Anok: When I’m on set, I can do anything in front of the camera, but if I'm just hanging around and my friend's like, "Oh, let's take a photo for Instagram," I don't know what I'm doing.

Alex: Shooting for a cover versus shooting for an Instagram picture is so different. Everyone is so shy when they get on the phone.

I started off very confident on social media. I still am very confident, but now I'm hyperaware of how people perceive it, because it is becoming a part of my job as well as modeling. Approaching it in a way that's authentic will always feel good for me. [On social media,] I'm able to express myself on my own terms. As a model, you don't get many opportunities to express yourself in your own way.

Allure: What's the message you want to use your platform to get across?

Anok: I'd always entered these rooms and felt like a token. I was always the Black model or the Black artist. And Black creatives or Black models or Black entities, if you do anything wrong, if you have a little fuck up, it's like you're representative of the whole race.

I used to always say that I wanted to be a role model, and I think that heightens the idea of having to be perfect. Now I don't really want to be a role model, I just want to be inspiring to other Black people around the world. That comes with personal growth and finding what makes you special and what your experiences are.

Alex: I agree with you. It is real, that feeling of being hyper-representative of a community that you're in. There aren’t that many trans or Black people who get recognition, so when you have a voice, people put so much pressure on what you say.

I've learned to become strategic about what I talk about, especially when it comes to my own community, because it's important to be seen as humans in our identities. I never want to be seen as a trans woman; I want to be seen as a woman whose story might be based off of her identity being trans, but that's not who I am.

Having the conversation always be centered on my identity, sometimes it can take away from the point. It's important to hear and share stories, but existence for people, at least my position as a trans person, that in itself is a message.

Allure: What is your favorite part of the job?

Alex: I hate to travel, but I love to travel. I've met so many amazing people. I've expanded my mind so much. I think a lot of fashion is glamorized incorrectly, but the travel and the people—it can be nice.

Anok: I love meeting people that I'm inspired by. Growing up, I had these icons [such as Canadian singer Daniel Caesar], and now I'm in a position where I can meet them, I can work with them, and I can put it into my art. It's also seeing the impact that I have on the culture and people around me. Seeing little kids come up to me like, "Oh my God, you inspired me so much. You make me want to do this."

Allure: What is the worst part of the job?

Anok: Trying to work through exhaustion, or pushing yourself past the point of exhaustion. Because I'm so grateful to be in this industry and to be where I am, I felt guilty if I ever said no or took time to rest, and I would push myself to the point where I'd pass out.

Alex: For me, it's the way it changes your perception of yourself. I don't think human beings were meant to be this hyperaware of what they look like. It's really jarring for any person, especially when something as superficial as appearance is associated with money and success.

Allure: I'm curious, because both of you are so inside the industry, what would you like to see change within fashion?

Alex: A lot, girl.

Representation—obviously, that's always something I want to see change. But I don't want it to feel like representation; I want it to feel like authenticity.

Anok: I'd like brands to be aware of social and political things and not only do it because it's a trend; do it because that's really the stance you have. I've seen many brands do a call to action just because everyone else is doing it, and then a few months goes by, and everything that they stood for is thrown out the window.

Alex: They sit on business, but with one leg. I'm like, “Girl, put both feet down and stand on it!”

Allure: What do you want your legacies to be as models?

Anok: I want other models to see that I was also a girl who came from nothing and made it here, and it's possible. If I can do it, they can do it. But I also want to be known for my creativity and passion, and how hard I drove to say things and follow things I believed in.

And, of course, I want to be a trailblazer and icon, but I don't think that's really something I can say for myself. We're not the ones who decide if we're a supermodel or not—it's the public. It's you guys who decide who the greats are. I can just pray that I become one of the greats and inspire as many people as possible. I want people to look at my shit and be like, "Damn, that bitch can model."

Alex: I just want to be the girl that I was looking for when I was reading through magazines and trying to see somebody that I could relate to. That's it.

Photographed by: Zhong Lin
Stylist: Gabriella Karefa-Johnson
Hair: Jawara
Makeup: Raoul Alejandre
Manicures: Mei Kawajiri
Set Design: Gerard Santos
Production: Tiagi
DP (Motion only): Brad Wickham
Writer: Tyler McCall