DREAM MAKER

Swimming pools, Hollywood, movie stars … It’s early afternoon in Los Angeles and Adut Akech Bior is bobbing around the sea-foam green pool of her brand-new home in Studio City. “It’s the first day I’m really enjoying my home,” she says of the modern, four-bedroom property sourced by Ariana Grande’s realtor husband, which she moved into less than a month ago. “My friends are here so we worked out this morning and then we’ve been in the kitchen working and playing music while I was cooking, and then we came down to the pool to eat lunch,” the 22-year-old smiles, clearly relishing her new LA groove after a turbulent few years.

Last night she was a guest at Gucci’s centenary Love Parade show that shut down Hollywood Boulevard (“I enjoyed sitting at the front and watching for a change,” she says laughing), and in an hour she’s off to a cocktail party hosted by her “fashion papa”, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, at the Ai Weiwei-designed UTA Artist Space in Beverly Hills. You could say that the fashion pack is back, with Enninful continuing the reunion at Akech Bior’s home for lunch tomorrow, where she will cook her South Sudanese favourites: okra and fresh cabbage stew. “It’s like the closest thing to home for me and I think that’s why I connected to LA so well,” she continues, of her sunshine city base.

Remarkably, it’s only been six years since Akech Bior was discovered in her hometown of Adelaide, and swiftly signed to a Saint Laurent exclusive at age 16. This was followed by fragrance billboards for Valentino, campaigns for Tiffany & Co., myriad international covers, and now the role of global brand ambassador for Estée Lauder. It’s been a wild ride, during which the