One year ago in Seoul, amid the mad whirl of Fashion Week shows and street style swarm, a single face managed to stick in the mind—that of model Yoon Young Bae, whose incredible doll-like features popped instantly on each runway she walked. “That girl is amazing,” one editor murmured backstage, eyeing her full lips and cheeks. “She’s going to be big.”
Fast forward to June, when the 19-year-old Daegu native was plucked out of relative obscurity to walk Prada’s men’s show in a tangerine silk dress dotted with purple elephants. Not long after that, Bae boarded a 14-hour-plus flight to New York to appear in the house’s Steven Meisel–shot campaign—stepping in time with Natalie Westling—then returned to Milan last month for a second Prada exclusive in pastel-feathered pink. A thrilling first runaround Paris followed that (Chloé, Kenzo, Loewe, Christian Dior), all falling not two years after her modeling debut.
“I can’t keep my head straight!” Bae told me recently with a blissful smile. “Something like Dior, you know, I wouldn’t have ever even hoped for.” Of course, there are a few points working in her favor: that distinct heart-shaped face, dotted with freckles and marked by a singular cluster of moles on the left cheek. “I’d never get rid of them,” she said. “They suit me.” Then there’s her down-to-earth personality, the easy, offhand way she speaks—gesturing freely as she recalled finding a Korean restaurant near her Paris apartment. “I was having a tough day, so I asked for super spicy jjambong—so hot, it made me sweat—and it gave me strength,” she said, laughing.
As @Mulan_Bae on Instagram, she’s amassed a cult following and turned countless heads—Jeremy Scott, who regrammed a Moschino-clad selfie (“Take my breath away,” he wrote) and casting director Ashley Brokaw, who put her in Prada in the first place, no doubt after noting her knack for mixing sweet, girlish hemlines with boyish caps and tees. That rather brilliant handle was picked in high school, a nod to Bae’s childhood nickname. “I’d heard so many times that we looked alike, so I made it without thinking,” she said. “Lately, everyone tells me I did a good job picking it—so funny.”
For now, Bae has returned to the comforts of home, where a run of Seoul Fashion Week appearances feels like a victory tour. Today, a frenzied mob of street photographers and fans clustered around her, snapping frantically at her tangerine logo sweatshirt, though she still posed happily. “It’s the work I love,” Bae explained, with a shrug. “I’ve been very lucky!” Lucky enough, she's just getting started.