Adwoa Aboah Told Me the Key to Her Next-Level Style

When you get an opportunity to speak with someone as like Adwoa Aboah, you take it. Obviously, I was excited—and a bit nervous—to meet with the British model who's been a name on everyone's lips this year following her historic British Vogue cover, standout street style moments, and a number of collaborations with iconic fashion houses from Burberry to Versace. To say that it's been Aboah's year is an understatement.

She arrived in Los Angeles fresh off the heels of a jam-packed fashion month—Aboah walked for Fendi, Marc Jacobs, and Chanel, just to name a few—to celebrate with Ugg for its 40th-anniversary collection. The California heritage brand tapped the model to be the face of its campaign alongside another industry disruptor, designer Heron Preston.

Ugg is no stranger to working with some of the most innovative talent in the fashion industry, as its track record of collaborations with everyone from Jeremy Scott to Y/Project shows. But to celebrate its 40th anniversary, the brand went back to its bread-and-butter styles and launched a limited edit of the most well-known styles like the short and mini boots in its classic sand colorway.

As for Aboah, well, one look into her closet reveals that she's one of the Ugg brand's biggest fans (her personal collection is vast). "I think they're definitely paving the way," she shared with me. Aside from her beloved boots, we also talked about the key to her next-level style ("more is more") and what she hopes for the fashion industry down the road. To read our interview with Aboah and get a look at her campaign images with Ugg, keep reading.

Tell me about your first pair of Uggs.

My first Ugg memory was stealing my sister’s pair. There was definitely a cool pair of girls who wore them with Juicy tracksuits back then. You know, we were from London and aspiring to have that American look we thought was really cool. Actually, I still think it’s quite cool.

What do you put on to feel like the best version of yourself?

A suit is always good at making me feel strong. I have a particular suit I wear for important moments or for when I did CNN or when I read my poetry for the first time. I think always bringing it back to being comfortable. It might not be the most flattering, but a tracksuit always makes me feel quite like myself, like the real Adwoa, I suppose.

What advice would you give to younger girls looking to get into fashion?

I'm so grateful for everything that modeling has given me, but I think my biggest piece of advice is to make sure you have other things, other passions in your life, whether it be art, music, acting, activism… I don't know maybe knitting. I think it’s so important to make you have other things going on in your life because this is such a fickle business. I think it’s just good for one’s mental state that you’re concentrating on that as well as making a career and a name for yourself.

People still talk about your British Vogue cover as being a historical moment. How did you react when you first saw it?

Edward [Enninful] and I still talk about it. We had such an amazing time shooting it and we knew it was going to be a moment. We knew people were going to love but definitely didn’t know people outside of the fashion industry were going to love it as much as they did, like people who’d never even bought British Vogue, so that was the most exciting thing about it, how much people loved it.

How do you envision the fashion industry in five years from now?

I’d like to see it be 100% inclusive. I would like to sit at a fashion show and see every type of girl, every shape and every ethnicity, and I don’t want it to be like a quota or anything; I just want it to be the norm. I’d love for every model to feel safe, however old they are, however long they’ve been in the industry, however supported they are. I want them to feel safe going into work. And I’d like to see younger talent in powerful positions doing their own thing and changing it up.

Shop Ugg's 40th anniversary collection:

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