Bonae's Blog

Joanna Hillman (in) Fashion People

Harper’s Bazaar - Senior Fashion Market Editor 

Ediely Scapinello (in) Face Hunting

From Brazil with such a beautiful and memorable face…  

Back Shot (in) The Streets

inspiration comes from the streets, the public, the open

Sasha Pivovarova (in) Face Hunting

Karmen Pedaru (in) Contagious Smiles

even snowflakes <3’s her

Snowy Nights (in) New York

Monika “Jac” Jagaciak (in) Contagious Smiles

Arlenis Sosa Pena (in) Model’s Street Style

Never rushing and  always smiling, the always sweet and nice Arlenis.

Crescent City Connection (in) New Orleans

This was my beautiful view while growing up. This is where my heart remains. New Orleans, I miss you dear.

Irina Pantaeva (in) Frontier Models

There isn’t going to be a lot of posts in the Frontier Models category, but I think it is well deserving to have Irina start it. Time for a history lesson…

I am very happy to blog about Irina Pantaeva. I was able to capture Irina after the Anna Sui F/W 10.11 fashion show. When she exited from the backstage entrance, I wasn’t sure who she was.  She looked familiar, and she was tall.  She was not Anna Sui, and she did not look age appropriate for runway walking. Not a current model, not a fashion designer on the calendar, not a celebrity that people would know.  Who was she? No one around me knew, but something inside me could not resist from capturing an image of her for my archive. Something inside told me this woman was important. I had seen her somewhere.

Months later, while reading through some blogs and trying to identify a few models I still have not id-ed, I came across a familiar face- a face that had been snapped by my camera. I learned her name was Irina. I quickly perused my photo archive from fashion week, and presto! Perfect match!

Today, I feel like one of the luckiest bastards in the world simply because my instincts were right! Irina Pantaeva is a historical icon in the modeling world.  She also is a significant part of Asian American history.

Irina is a model and actress of Buryat descent. She played Jade in the movie Mortal Kombat - Annihilation.  And more importantly, in 1998, she was the first Asian model to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. In the late 1990s, she walked for runways, such as Dior and Galliano. During her heyday, Irina was the face of Anne Klein, Badgley Mischka, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Dana Buchman, DKNY, Ellen Tracy, Emanuel Ungaro, GAP, Issey Miyake, John Frieda, Kenzo, Lafayette, Levi Silver Tab Jeans, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tommy Hilfiger, and Vivienne Westwood. She carved the way for Asian visibility in the modeling world. She broke barriers, barriers that still exist today in which Asian American parents are still shunning their kids for pursuing non-technical/scientific fields.

Thank you Irina! It was an honor to have photograph a historical figure; one that unfortunately many history books will not care to include.

Irina Kulikova (in) Face Hunting

Backstage Alexandre Herchcovitch F/W 10.11

Night Light (in) unprocessedinspirations

Close your eyes so we can hold on to this moment longer
Pretend that this dance and embrace will last forever