Jenny Shimizu is a Japanese-American model and actor who became one of the defining androgynous faces of 1990s fashion. She was working as a mechanic in Los Angeles when she arrived at a Calvin Klein casting on her motorcycle and was noticed in the parking lot. Her crew cut, tattoos and men’s clothes were retained rather than styled away. Within weeks, she was appearing in Italian Vogue, walking for designers including Jean Paul Gaultier and becoming the first Asian model to walk for Prada. A Banana Republic billboard later placed her above the words “American Beauty”—a description she had never felt applied to her.
Jenny Shimizu
