Hey, you've got to turn on your camera.” Adut Akech Bior is directing her 17-year-old brother, Bior, over a video call from her home in Los Angeles. She's giving big-sister tone, a familiar sound of warmth and feigned impatience, the kind reserved especially for siblings, as they prepare for their first-ever Vogue cover interview together.
In short order, her little brother appears on screen in his school uniform from Adelaide – his hometown and formerly hers – where it's early morning. Over in LA, where Adut moved from New York in late 2021, it's midday, and the 23-year-old model is folded into a chair in a loose, long-sleeved pink T-shirt. She's fresh-faced in her light-flooded home, though jet-lagged from a flying 24-hour visit to New York – the life of an in-demand model – and about to return to the airport to collect her sister who has just landed at LAX.
Bior is every bit the professional considering he's still a teenager and this cover marks only his second-ever fashion shoot. His first was back in 2018 when Adut's entire family, five siblings including then-baby Akuol, Australia in their Adelaide home. “It was amazing,” Bior begins, reflecting on his latest turn on set, alongside Adut on her sixth cover for her home . “It was a good experience … and to do it with my sister was good.”
