Suit Up

Model LIU WEN takes charge in standout tailored styles.

- Alison Syrett

Fair warning to Liu Wen’s New York City neighbors: The model recently acquired a ukulele and has big plans to learn how to play it.

“I’m actually really bad at music,” she admits. “My [childhood] teacher used to say I have no talent at all.” But for Liu, having natural ability (or not) has never factored into her choice to take on a challenge. “When I’m ready [to try something], I just put all my power into doing it.”

That was certainly the mind-set she brought to a modeling competition near her hometown outside Yongzhou in southern China at age 17. “My friends were going, so I figured I would too,” she says. Still, Liu, who considered herself a gangly tomboy, had never seen a catwalk let alone imagined walking on one.