Canadian male model is the new face of Louis Vuitton

When we think of Canadian models, we usually think of the women—Daria Werbowy, Jessica Stam, Linda Evangelista, Coco Rocha—but Louis Vuitton has just thrown a man into the mix. Godfrey Gao, a Vancouver-born Taipei resident, is the newest face of Vuitton, posing for the spring-summer 2011 campaign with one of the brand’s trademark Damier messenger bags—the graphite Elvis version. The brand’s first Asian model, Gao is a star in Taiwan, where he is an actor in television and movies. Landing the gig has some dubbing Gao as the first Asian male supermodel.

Planting Gao on ads in China is a stroke of genius for the designer. Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, the French luxury powerhouse that owns Vuitton, does extremely well in China. As does Gao—he’s beloved throughout the mainland and Taiwan after starring in a number of television shows and the film All About Women.

• The world’s first Asian male supermodel [The Guardian]
• Canadian model the new face of Louis Vuitton [Toronto Star]