“Anna, who?” was model Arlenis Sosa’s reaction when she was invited to meet Vogue’s legendary editor Anna Wintour a year ago. Having never ventured outside of the Dominican Republic before landing in New York days prior to the appointment, the 20-year-old remained blissfully naive while everyone around her freaked out.
“I said ‘Calm down, please. Let me be how I am,’” she recalls, and the fashion icon approved. “She said, ‘Look at you, you’re so beautiful.’”
That fateful meeting led to a windfall of opportunities. Shortly after, she accompanied Moises de la Renta — her compatriot Oscar’s son — to the celebrated Met Costume Institute Ball. Then for her first job, she strutted her five-foot-eleven frame alongside Iman, Naomi Campbell and other iconic muses for the famous “all black” July 2008 issue of Italian Vogue. And months later, she was signed as the new face of beauty giant Lancome.
“I never expected to do this,” says Sosa, who was about to enroll into college when she was spotted by local clothing designer Luis Menier while walking with relatives along the streets of Santo Domingo.
“It was my first time wearing heels,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I won’t be at peace with myself until you’ve been abroad. You’re going to be a great model.’”
With her parent’s blessing, the Christian beauty packed her bible and left home.
“The only thing I knew how to say in English was, ‘Nice to meet you, my name is Arlenis,’ she says, her pronunciation near perfect. “People would talk to me and I’d say ‘yes’ and smile.” That radiant smile, along with those full lips and high cheekbones, still serve as her calling card today. And though she is widely considered a black model, Sosa is quick to point out that she is, first and foremost, Latina.
“I’m happy with my skin color,” she says, “but I am Dominican”—and proud of it!