Winnie Harlow

Winnie Harlow is a Canadian model who, in November 2018, became the first model with vitiligo to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Born Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young on July 27, 1994, in Mississauga, Ontario, she has the skin condition that causes patches of pigment loss, and she built a career on visible difference at a time when lingerie advertising still sold one narrow standard of skin.

Cycle 21 of America's Next Top Model

Tyra Banks, the former Victoria's Secret Angel who created America's Next Top Model, found Harlow on Instagram and cast her in the show's 21st cycle in 2014. She was the only Canadian contestant the series ever cast. Harlow was eliminated in the second week of the finals, won her way back through a separate "comeback series" with the highest average public vote, and was eliminated again in episode 13, finishing ninth from the end.

Desigual and Diesel

Losing did not slow her down. Straight after the show the Spanish brand Desigual hired her as a model and official brand representative. In September 2014 she walked and closed Ashish's spring/summer 2015 show at London Fashion Week, and in 2015 Nick Knight photographed her for Diesel's spring/summer campaign. Her advertising list now includes Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Swarovski, Nike, Puma and MAC.

The 2018 Victoria's Secret show

The 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was held in New York on November 8, 2018, and broadcast on December 2. Harlow's walk was the milestone: no model with vitiligo had appeared on that runway in more than two decades of shows. The same year the BBC named her one of its 100 Women, and she has also appeared in Victoria's Secret advertising.

The last broadcast show

The timing gave her appearance extra weight. The 2018 edition was the last before the company cancelled the show in 2019, after viewership fell from 9.2 million in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2018 and its marketing chief Ed Razek drew criticism for remarks about casting. Harlow's walk was one of the few signs of a broader casting policy before the format ended. Rival brands, led by Savage X Fenty, were by then making inclusive casting the main selling point of their shows.

Cay Skin and later work

In March 2022 Harlow founded Cay Skin, a sun care and skincare brand. She has said she started it after being badly sunburned on a shoot where she was asked not to reapply sunscreen because of the white cast it left in photographs. She began acting in 2023 with "Alone at Night" and "The Perfect Find", and she voiced a lead role in the Marvel animated series "Eyes of Wakanda".

Last updated October 7, 2026