Models Talk About Their Home Countries, Hilarity Ensues

Dis just published a story with some of the online art/fashion magazine’s favorite new faces of the season. Many of them — including Wang Xiao, pictured, Flaviana Matata, Marihenny Rivera Pasible, and Cris Urena — happen to be some of my favorite new models, too. But what’s even more striking than the photos is that Dis chose to highlight the fact that these girls come from so many different corners of the world. Modeling-meets-Model-UN. Casting director Preston Chaunsumlit asked each girl a couple questions:

Preston: How old are you?
Wang: I come from China. Are you a Japanese?
Preston: No, my father is Chinese. [points to the hair and makeup team] They are Japanese.
Wang: [smiles enthusiastically and begins speaking Mandarin that no one understands]
Preston: … [silence]
Wang: Beijing!
Preston: Sure.

I am kind of shocked that so many of New York City’s Dominicans apparently don’t recognize Marihenny as Dominican herself. But if that allows for superior opportunities for eavesdropping, all power to her.

Even after meeting girls from Argentina, Brazil, China, Tanzania, and the D.R., there’s one model, Cris Urena, who comes from a particularly exotic locale:

Preston: Your agency tells me you are from the Dominican Republic, too. Do you speak English?
Cris: I am from Boston.
Preston: So you understand everything we are saying about you.
Cris: Yes.
Preston: Oh.