Anok Yai Previews Fashion in the Wild for Vogue France August 2025 by Mario Sorrenti

Supermodel Anok Yai delivers a commanding presence on the August 2025 issue of French Vogue [IG] styled in a wide range of grandiose, majestic animal print designs by Alastair McKimm. Photographer Mario Sorrenti [IG] captures Anok in Saint Barth, wearing Saint Laurent on the cover.

Claire Thomson Jonville says that Anok — as a Vogue France cover star and talented artist — “embodies a different kind of power - vibrant, magnetic and alive.”

AOC agrees absolutely, but Anne shares a few thoughts further down the page — ones very important to take seriously in July 2025./ Hair by Tomo Jidai; makeup by Jamal Scott

Anne’s Thoughts and Advice

We are living in very difficult times in America, when the topic is immigration, work permits, green cards and citizenship status in this country. It’s best that we all are informed — not only by the facts of immigration status in America, as we knew them 10 or 20 years ago, but as they are defined today by the Trump Administration officials.

I am on the front line of a deadly argument about what it means to be an American. But there is no doubt that I love my country and will fight hard for my vision of her — shared by huge numbers of other like-minded Americans.

It kills me to think that I myself may have to go to prison for my country, but arrangements are in the works about what would happen to AOC and just now I am bringing back my original Glam Tribale Jewelry Collection as well.

So my suggestion to our many models living in New York and LA is no different than the discussions I am having regarding my own affairs. None of us is safe from arrest.

As opposed as I am to what is just another rehash of the 1950’s McCarthy era in America by the Trump Administration, it disturbs me to see her so trashed, as if she’s never done one good thing in her life.

Fairly or not, there’s nothing that ticks off large numbers of American voters more than the lack of anything positive to say about America, a country that has supported refugees for decades.

Even I took a hard line that Rep. Ilhan Omar had to stop trashing this country at every turn, never admitting the benefits America has given her. Omar finally got the message.

She was talking about the nonracist members of my family — I also have the other vintage. Very close to me. But the wing of the family that paid the taxes and worked on the ground in churches in Minneapolis-St. Paul for Ilhan Omar’s people is MY beloved wing of the family. And Omar treated them like dirt. So I spoke up.

In hard numbers, America is in first place on supporting refugees in the last 50 years. Should the richest country in the world take these actions? Yes, in my world. No, in the world of the Trump Administration. Right now, they have the power. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s not easy to defend yourself, once you are in their custody.

In the case of South Sudan, ancestral and original home in many cases for many of our top models in the last 5-8 years, I think Australia has excelled in opening its arms to refugees on a percent of total population. My instincts are that they may hold the hard-numbers honor for models as well — especially Adelaide.

Whatever the facts, there’s no doubt that America has produced its fair share of top models, as has Europe.

In America, there’s a common expression that goes “If you can’t think of anything good to say, it’s better to say nothing at all.”

In this moment, the top model agencies should all have plans in place to allow for the possibility that even an Australian model living in New York could find herself swept up in this disturbing pattern of ICE arresting everyday good people who have lived in America for 20 years with legal work permits and green cards and are deeply embedded in communities across America. In many families, one parent is a US citizen and the other is not.

If you love Sudan or South Sudan so fervently, the US government is happy to put you on the next plane out of America. Any model — even those of great stature — can be offended with my comment, but you should take my advice.

Juba, Here We Come

The American government has an arrangement with the warlords of South Sudan to house deported migrants picked up in America. I can’t speak for Khartoum, where I would be executed on the spot for all the grief I caused the Omar-al-Bashir regime during the period beginning in 2009.

They would stone me to death, just like the pregnant woman condemned to death by stoning once her baby was born in 2011 — while her married boyfriend. I stopped that fiasco by sheer will of my voice and by then, my reputation for being an international pain in the butt in Khartoum.

This week, the US Supreme Court struck down the current challenges that put on hold the first eight migrants headed for South Sudan. The men sent there hailed from six countries; only one came from South Sudan.

Arguments are moving through the courts about migrants from halfway around the world being sent to Juba, but for now, we expect more flights to this North African paradise with an impressive history in the weeks ahead. There’s a comprehensive article today in the NY Times about what is expected to be many more flights to Juba. [The link is free from me for a month [starting 7/13/25] , and any model potentially impacted through these Trump Administration initiatives should read it.]

Forgive me for raising this issue, but especially with this week’s SC ruling about sending migrants to other host countries, and the Republican brutally-bad, big bill just passed, one that vastly increased ICE funding, we all must be clear-eyed in the summer of 2025.

The Trump Administration wants us to be afraid, and while I am not afraid, Anne understands the massive power they are holding and their every intention to use it to shut us all up. For me, America is worth fighting for, whatever it means for me personally, and I intend to fight for her until my last breath because I know what she can become. ~ Anne