Alex Consani and Anok Yai on Friendship, Not Rivalry

Rivalry makes a neat headline, but the real story of two of fashion’s biggest names is a lot warmer. Alex Consani and Anok Yai appear together on a September magazine cover, intertwined, to talk about a friendship that has been wrongly cast as competition.

Alex Consani and the feud that never was

Alex is a trans woman and Anok is a Black woman, and in their conversation they reflect on being seen as the person, not simply the identity. They also describe a shared responsibility to be the same person in public as they are in private, so that others can see them for who they are.

The rumour of a feud started after Alex won Model of the Year at the 2024 Fashion Awards. Anok says the two have been side by side throughout their careers, confiding in each other, crying together and offering support whenever it is needed. In her words, the story was spun for them by outsiders.

Alex finds it almost funny how quickly people turned on them and their identities rather than seeing two people. She believes there is value in giving women their flowers, especially those who are so often mistreated, and says the focus should have been on how they can lift each other up.

Identity and representation

Anok says she has often walked into rooms feeling like a token, always labelled as the Black model or the Black artist. When a Black creative makes a small mistake, she explains, it can feel as though they are representing an entire race.

Alex told Anok that her message matters, pointing out how few dark-skinned models have reached her level of success. She finds the mistreatment of dark-skinned women in fashion deeply upsetting.

Anok also spoke about proving doubters wrong. From the start of her career, many people thought she would be a flash in the pan, and she says that knowledge fired her up. She likes to reinvent herself and keeps only people around her that she admires or finds inspiring. She does not expect to ever feel she has made it, because she is always chasing the next goal.

Alex says she has become strategic about what she discusses, especially in relation to her own community. She wants to be seen as a woman whose story may be shaped by being trans, rather than defined by it. When every conversation centres on identity it can take attention away from the point, though she also feels that simply existing as a trans person in her position is a message in itself.

The legacy each of them wants

Anok hopes other models will see that she came from nothing and still got here, and that it is possible for them too. She also wants to be remembered for her creativity and passion, and for how hard she pushed to follow what she believed in. Being called a trailblazer or an icon, she says, is not for her to decide. That belongs to the public.

Alex wants to be the woman she was searching for as a girl flicking through magazines, someone she could relate to. She notes that fashion has no rule book and nobody teaches you the ropes. The trans women she grew up around spoke their minds about fashion, but they were never given the chances she has had.

What she values most, she says, is people who see models as human beings and care about how they feel, not only how they look.

A friendship worth celebrating

In a business that loves a rivalry, these two are showing that supporting one another is the better story.