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| Deborah Chai Garris, a half-Korean, half-black model, walked the runway for over 70 luxury fashion houses in Europe from 1976 to 1985, following her prolific modeling career in New York. / Courtesy of Deborah Chai Garris |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Korean-American Hye-rim Park, who made a splendid runway debut for the Prada and Miu Miu shows during the 2005 Milan Fashion Week, is widely regarded as the first model of Korean descent to make a mark on the global high-fashion scene.
Contrary to popular belief, however, Park is not the first internationally recognized runway model with Korean roots.
In the 1970s ― three decades before Park generated a buzz in Korea for her meteoric rise as one of the most in-demand models on the global high-fashion scene ― there was a half-Korean, half-black model who had walked the runway for dozens of luxury fashion houses in Europe, years after her prolific modeling career in New York.
Deborah Lee Garris, better known by her nickname "The Black Oriental" for her exotic half-Korean, half-black appearance, was a trailblazer believed to be the first model of Korean descent to walk for major fashion shows.
From the 1970s till the mid-1980s, Garris, whose modeling name was "Chai," had been a sought-after model and enjoyed career highs.
Garris walked for over 70 luxury fashion houses, including Gucci, Mila Schon, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent and Missoni, since she made her European runway debut in Milan, Italy, in 1976, years after she debuted as a model in New York.
How could such a successful model on the global high-fashion scene have been completely forgotten by Koreans?
In an email interview with The Korea Times, Garris, now 63, offered some clues regarding her fame being lost in Korea and said she had no opportunities to mingle with Koreans back in the 1970s and 1980s.
"During those years, there were no Korean models that I knew of. The well-known Asian models who were working at the same time as I was were Japanese and Chinese," she said. "I was always wondering in the back of my mind what it would be like to work in Korea … I always wanted and still want to visit Korea and experience the fashion and beauty industries which I so admire."
Deep in her heart, however, Garris said she had worried about how Koreans would react to her being half-black. "Back in the day I was concerned about how I might be received as a black Korean model who didn't speak the language. I truly wish my mother had taught me Korean, because if she had I'd be able to feel even more connected to the culture and this significant part of my identity."
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| Deborah Chai Garris wearing dress by Gianni Versace in 1984 / Courtesy of Deborah Chai Garris |
Kim Dong-su, a professor at Dongduk Women's University in Seoul, said Korean models in the 1970s and 1980s were unable to reach the global fashion scene, partly because of the overseas travel restriction which was only lifted in 1989.
"It was difficult for models here to travel abroad freely because of the travel restrictions," Kim said. "So it's natural that (Garris) couldn't meet Korean models in Europe during those years."
Kim, a former model before she assumed a teaching job at the university in the late 1990s, said she has never heard of Garris but what she had achieved is seen as something remarkable.
Kim said the Big 4 fashion weeks ― namely Milan, Paris, London and New York ― are dream runways for all models. "Every Korean model would be dying for the opportunities to walk the Big 4 runways. It's like football players playing in the English Premier League or Germany's Bundesliga," she said.
It was in recent years Deborah Garris began to dream of exploring Korea and its fashion industry.
She and her husband with their three children have lived in Switzerland since 1993, years after she retired from modeling in the mid-1980s and left Milan to start a family in the United States.
In Switzerland, she made friends with Koreans and was exposed to a flurry of Korean culture.
Over the past four years, she said she watched over 60 Korean dramas in the original language with subtitles.
"I've felt connected to the culture through its cuisine. My mother taught me how to make kimchi, japchae and bulgogi. It wasn't until recent years that I realized how inside I feel very Korean. I've been able to notice this in my relationships with my Korean friends," Garris said.
"(When she and her siblings were kids) my mother was mostly concerned about us learning English and assimilating into American society. But for me it was a huge loss because I think language is an immediate cultural bridge and unfortunately my connection to Korean culture is limited by this factor."
'GI baby'
Born in New York in 1955, a year after her Korean mother Moon-ja and her African-American father Benjamin Garris went to the United States at the end of his tour of duty in Korea, Deborah Garris was a photogenic child.
She was tall and slim and everybody encouraged her to consider becoming a model.
She followed their advice and took a course at the Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Dallas, Texas, and learned how to apply makeup, do her hair and walk the runway under the guidance of professional models.
Her career break came in 1972 when she graduated from high school in Texas as she went to New York to earn money before attending college.
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| Deborah with her father Benjamin Garris / Courtesy of Deborah Chai Garris |
She initially worked in the mailroom of the Barbizon Modeling School in New York and at the same time they would send her on go-sees for modeling jobs through their agency. At that time she earned her modeling name Chai, which was inspired by her mother's family name Choi. She debuted as a model at the Simplicity Pattern Company show at the Hotel Plaza, which was a luncheon for 600 women.
"I wore a beautiful halter gown made of gold lame and was escorted by a Ford male model named Allen Jeffers who wore a tuxedo. After the show I felt so great because I was truly proud that I had overcome my fear and actually had a lot of fun."
In New York, her modeling career had gone smoothly. She worked for Glemby International Hair Salon and hair designer Walter Fontaine created the famous pyramid hairdo for her. Her photo circulated through all the hair salons in the United States. She also modeled for General Motors and was a house model for Giorgio Sant'Angelo who she said "was an incredibly talented designer and a fabulous personality."
She said she had lots of fun modeling and decided to skip college to continue pursuing a modeling career. But her parents were not happy with her decision because they wanted her to become a doctor.
They soon realized they couldn't stop their first daughter from chasing her dream.
After years of smooth sailing in New York, Deborah Garris' career made another major turn in 1976 when she moved to Milan. "Although I loved NYC I had always wanted to experience working in Europe. My first fashion show was with Ken Scott," she said.
Asian upbringing
Deborah Garris called her Korean mother Moon-ja "a tiger in every sense."
"My mother was a survivor and an incredible example to me during those tense years of racial bias," she said. "She protected me with every fiber of her being by using all the skills taught to her by my Korean grandparents."
Due to her first-hand experience of racial bias against biracial children in Korea in the 1950s, her mother advised her three children not to travel to Korea since Deborah was young.
"When I was little my mother was worried about being treated differently by her family because of her choices," Deborah said. "Her mother was completely against her marrying my father and moving to the United States, so going back was definitely not easy for her especially since her mother was no longer alive."
Her mother was well aware of the suffering of "GI babies" who were born between Korean women and American soldiers during and after the Korean War.
Biracial children fell victim to racial intolerance in Korea in the 1950s. In the predominantly homogenous Korean society back then, GI babies were considered social outcasts, and particularly biracial war orphans were hit hardest.
Their suffering is described in great detail in Elizabeth Kim's book, "Ten Thousand Sorrows: An Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan," released in 2000. The author herself was a GI baby born between a Korean woman and an African-American soldier who later dumped Kim's mother. She testifies how her biological mother suffered a tragic end to her life through honor killing by her grandfather and brother in the book.
Like other Koreans of their times, Deborah Garris' grandparents on her mother's side were also conservative and against their daughter's marriage to an African-American soldier who was stationed in Camp Hialeah in the southern port city of Busan after the outbreak of the Korean War.
Deborah's grandmother cried and tried in vain to deter her daughter from leaving her home country for her American husband. "She cried and cried and said 'You know that if I had two daughters it would have been okay but (if my only daughter leaves me like this, this means my daughter is dead),'" Deborah quoted her grandmother as saying.
But her mother's love for the U.S. soldier was unstoppable. The couple arrived in New York in 1954 as Ben received orders to serve at Camp Drum.
Trying times, however, continued after Korea.
Racial tension in the United States back then had put Deborah Garris' and her family's smooth adaptation to America to the test.
"I faced a lot of harassment and in school I used to be called nigger by white students and Chinky-eyed Chinese by the black students. My mother removed me from a public kindergarten and had us both baptized Catholic so that I could attend a Catholic school where I faced less harassment from the kids."
In 1962, she and her mother moved to Germany to join her father who was then stationed in Kaiserslautern. She said she had some fond memories during her family's three-year stay in Germany as they traveled to Amsterdam and saw the tulip fields and Market Island. Her sister Marcia was born there. Deborah said her life after returning to Texas was difficult as racial tensions were still strong there and she suffered bullying and harassment again.
"The day we drove into Fort Hood in Texas I experienced a big culture shock. I had been used to living in New York and Germany surrounded by international people and Fort Hood was a completely different world. At school I was the only black kid in my class and I experienced a fair amount of racial discrimination. When I was 11 years old I remember being followed after school by three white high school boys who were calling me nigger."
Deborah Garris said her mother's strong Asian upbringing kept her family together.
"I have memories of my father receiving orders to go to Germany initially unaccompanied till my mother and I got the green light to join him," she said. "During that time my mother was forced into survival mode. With a mere $137 a month she was able to pay for rent, bills, my school and groceries. Thanks to my mother's sewing abilities and her landing a job at a Jewish tailor shop that had heard about a Korean girl who could sew, we were able to keep our heads above water as we anxiously awaited family orders to join my father abroad."
Her father died of lung cancer in 1982.
