On Her 40th Birthday, Revisit Devon Aoki’s Greatest Runway Moments

What makes a good model a great model? For one, it’s their ability to radiate a constant, ineffable sense of cool, no matter where they are or what they’re wearing. Where that’s concerned, few possess the same sense of playfulness, personality, and versatility as Devon Aoki, the cult model who stormed the runways of Chanel, Versace, and Comme des Garçons throughout the 1990s and early-’00s, and quickly became a favorite of photographers like Steven Meisel, Juergen Teller, and Nick Knight. (You might recognize her from the silver screen, too; Aoki featured in Sin City and 2 Fast 2 Furious, among other films.)

While Aoki’s chameleonic ability to bend to the vision of whichever designer or photographer she’s working with—appearing as a prim and proper princess for Karl Lagerfeld, a coquettish sex kitten for Ellen von Unwerth, a cyberpunk warrior girl for Nick Knight, a kaleidoscopic hippie chick for Jeremy Scott—might have made her the star that she is today, her origin story is equally auspicious. Born to the amateur wrestler and Benihana tycoon Rocky Aoki and his wife, jewelry designer Pamela Hilburger (her half-brother is also DJ Steve Aoki), she was first spotted at a Rancid concert at the age of 13. After being photographed by Interview magazine, legend has it that Kate Moss introduced her to the modeling agency Storm; the rest was history.

By the age of 16, Aoki had become a muse to Lagerfeld at Chanel, was racking up appearances on the runways of Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, and Celine, and was being booked to front campaigns for everyone from Tiffany & Co. to L’Oréal. In the early 2000s, she switched gears, primarily focusing on her acting career, most notably with appearances in a series of blockbuster action movies; by 2009, she decided to take a step back from her career to focus on motherhood after marrying her husband, financier James Bailey. Still, when her long-time friend Jeremy Scott came calling in 2018, she couldn’t resist stepping back on the runway, both closing the show and appearing hand-in-hand with the designer for his final walk to mark the return of one of his most enduring muses.

As the seemingly unstoppable Y2K revival rages on, it feels like Aoki’s arresting beauty, powerful runway presence, and, of course, her showstopping personal style, has never been more relevant. So in honor of her 40th birthday, here, Vogue is rounding up all of her best runway looks from across the decades—because whatever that mysterious, ineffable “it” factor that marks out the world’s most compelling models, Devon Aoki still has it.