Supermodels Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow take the cover story of VOGUE Hong Kong March 2023 The Anniversary Issue, captured by fashion photographer Craig McDean. In charge of styling was Dena Neustadter Giannini, with hair by Diego Da Silva, makeup by Holly Silius and nails by Ashlie Johnson. The production was the work of Alexey Galetskiy and Ryan Fahey, with casting by Jill Demling and tailoring by Vitalina Gavrylyuk. For the cover, Valletta and Harlow are wearing full Prada looks.
I thought Shalom was this tall exotic being but also the beloved of the agency. I felt I wasn’t as cool as her! We went to a dinner to vet each other to become roommates and after about 10 minutes we feel in deep friendship love! We have so many backstage stories I don’t even know where to begin. To be honest I don’t know if I would have survived all the pressure and challenges of my days of doing tons of shows without Shalom. I remember being so tired one morning waking up for an early morning show (we were almost in tears) and I said “we just have to bin and grear it”. What I meant to say was “we just have to grin and bare it.” We laughed so hard about all of it and still do today.
When Amber and I met we were still teenagers. So we saw each other from the lens of high school cliques. Amber was preppy and clean-cut with an Hermès scarf. I was grungy with ripped jeans and old band T-shirts. We would’ve run in different circles back in our respective hometowns. But once we started talking childhood dynamics; our single mothers and absentee fathers and our eldest sibling syndrome, our commonality was evident. Our first dinner date lasted hours and culminated in a decision to live together. The rest is history as they say.
