FERNANDA LY
Since breaking into the industry with her distinct candy-coloured locks, Fernanda Ly has continued to defy conventions with an authentic sense of style and self. The WOW caught up with the model-turned-YouTuber on her journey so far, current obsessions and self-love.
PHOTOGRAPHER MAX PAPENDIECK
STYLIST AMY MACH
INTERVIEWER KELLY LIM
“Love is sort of an obsession for me. Something that occupies my mind 24/7,” Fernanda Ly muses over a glitchy Zoom call from New York. It’s early in the Big Apple, sometime mid-December, and just a few days before the Aussie-born Chinese model is scheduled to do her cover shoot for this issue. Her current loves? Butter, her cat and RPG game Genshin Impact. “That’s all I think about.”
Ly, also known as Warukatta by her 314k followers on Instagram, is dressed casually with a gaming headset and sporting her current ginger-orange ‘do (not red nor brown, as clarified on her hair transformation YouTube vlog back in the summer of 2021). That same ‘do marks her exclusive contract with L’Oreal-owned professional haircare brand Kérastase, announced just this year with the launch of new campaigns, alongside an all-Asian editorial in British Vogue, as well as various runway appearances for the SS22 season, with brands from Peter Do to Missoni and Roberto Cavalli. A graduation from the platinum blonde locks she’s been rocking for the last two years or so, the hair change was also a shift from her trending hime cut to the bluntly-chopped bangs she had when she first broke into the industry. Who can forget the girl with Pepto-pink tresses – Manic Panic’s Cotton Candy Pink, to be precise – during Louis Vuitton’s hypermodern AW15 show?
Total look SIMONE ROCHA.
“At the time, I didn’t really understand how significant the show was,” she remembers. The gig was her first high-fashion debut, and she was showing off hair she’d DIY’ed herself. Amidst the sea of leggy blondes and brunette counterparts, she was a refreshing sight to behold – so much so that creative director Nicolas Ghesquière kept her off-limits for the next two seasons, booking her exclusively for his AW16 and SS16 shows and campaigns. All because she’d taken her hair into her own hands before getting signed. Talk about the power of individual self-expression (and hair).
“I was maybe 14 when I first started dying it,” Ly thinks back. “My parents are very traditional and they think of your body as something to treasure so you’re not supposed to have piercings, tattoos or dyed hair. Dying my hair and changing my identity was me accepting and embracing the fact that I can’t meet the standards of my family. I rebelled in my own way”.
Dress REN
Experimenting with her hair and going through shocking shade changes was a way for her to present and express herself to the world, which made sense given that modelling was never a career she’d imagined for herself seriously. A first-generation Australian-born Chinese, Ly’s parents were born and met in Vienam before moving down under. She was still in high school when she was first scouted, and had been doing two years of smaller jobs to learn the ropes of the profession before the opportunity presented itself. It just so happened that she was in New York during castings, went in and subsequently received a call to go to Paris the next day.
“The day after when I was flying, someone came up to me and asked, ‘oh my god, are you that girl who did the LV show?’ I wasn’t expecting people to know what that all was but it’s also the reason I really have a career at all,” she recalls on the overnight buzz. Countless interviews and a social media frenzy later, Ly was poised to dominate, booking endless campaigns, runway shows and high-fashion editorials since.
Dress MELITTA BAUMEISTER, belt ACT NO. 1.
The best and most challenging part of the job so far? Travelling. “Australia is so physically far from the rest of the world that I never imagined that I’d ever go to Europe, much less that I’d go so often. And because I travel so much, I have a very inconsistent schedule, so the rest of my life is quite difficult, which makes me a very flaky person. I always get last minute jobs so it’s like hey, I’m sorry I know we planned this like a month ago but I have to go work now. I never know if I’ll be in the country.”
Total look YINGLIN HE
Despite her place in the high fashion world and subsequent spotlight on the street style front, the former architecture student has never dressed for the cameras. Her personal style is the unexpected culmination of vintage finds, day-to-day moods and individual quirks, shifting from (anime) school uniform-inspired ‘fits to layered luxe ensembles that lean slightly goth with a flair for the romantic – and always with an air of cool-girl nonchalance. “I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the references and history of fashion if not for my job, but for my own personal style, I find a lot of stuff on places like eBay and Poshmark. It’s sort of like treasure hunting because you never know what’s out there. I like the fact that someone wore it but then were like now it’s time for it to have another life to live.”
Top JISOO BAIK, skirt KITS.
Beyond fashion, Ly has also ventured into the world of YouTube – a lockdown pastime that has since turned into a regular activity – via FernTube, where she shares fashion week vlogs, outfit inspiration, and plenty of coloured haircare and styling tips. “What I love about it is having creative control over everything because as a model, I’m part of someone else’s vision. I’ve learnt how to use Premiere Pro, Photoshop and how to utilize the sounds, so it’s a fun process.” Sculpting is another hobby that she does on the DL for herself, using polymer clay to recreate figures from her favorite anime shows because buying them is “simply too expensive”. These are all part of her self-love routines that help her unwind and keep her grounded after a long day (or week) at work.
Jacket ACT NO. 1
Additionally, a strong emotional support system has also been important, something that Ly’s had to learn along the way of her career. “I have a very close set of friends that are the same as me. We’re all Asian females who were born into a Western society, accepted that this was our situation and talked about it together. I think it’s truly important to understand your position in society, but it can be difficult because of the way the world is.”
Top and trousers DIDU, shoes JISOO BAIK
Although diversity and individuality have become increasingly more accepted in recent years, she states that it’s still important to speak up for yourself, more so now than ever. “For example, if makeup artists don’t clean their stuff properly [during the pandemic], you don’t know what will happen. Even with small things like mascara, you have to ask them to get a new spoolie because sometimes it’s shared. At the end of the day, you can only trust yourself. You just have to be able to get over it and speak up for yourself.”
Dress and hat CHRISTIAN COWAN, shoes LUAR.
This cover story and interview will be published in The WOW N° 6.
Issue6 pre-order available now.
Photographer: MAX PAPENDIECK
Stylist : AMY MACH @ LALALAND ARTISTS
Hair: SHIN ARIMA @ HOME AGENCY
Make-up: OLIVIA BARARD @ STREETERS
Casting Director: MARIE LEVY
Model: FERNANDA LY @ VIVA LONDON
Photography Assistants: TOM MALTBIE, SAM KANG & TUGCAN TEMIZKAN
Digitech: TINA ZABALIEV
Styling Assistant: ALANA SARDO