This Korean-Nigerian Model Is Breaking Boundaries in Seoul

One in a Million is a pale pink coffee shop in the heart of Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, staffed by a few beautiful male model baristas with the pithy tagline, “You are one in a million.” It is the perfect meeting spot for the standout Hyun Min Han, the 6-foot-2 biracial Korean spotted on every other runway this season and breaking down the country’s barriers.

It is here in Itaewon that Han, 15, has spent all his life, born to a Korean mother and Nigerian father who met in the neighborhood while working in trade. “I’ve always lived in Itaewon,” he says over coffee. “Here, there are a lot of people like me.” For years, Itaewon has held two reputations: One, as the waygook, or foreigner, neighborhood, brimming with delicious international cuisine; and two, as a “seedy” area, better avoided at night. Those two tend to go hand in hand here, a geographic indication of vestiges of the country’s narrow-minded worldview.

Yet things are changing. In recent years, Itaewon has become one of Seoul’s coolest spots, a hotbed for incredible curry and taco shops, Turkish halal, and home to the city’s club scene. On a Saturday night, one can barely push through the crowds, drawn to Itaewon’s unique vibrancy, which was first driven by immigrants. It is fitting, then, that at the same time, Han has quickly become one of Seoul’s top models. Last week saw him flit from a pale lavender suit at Münn to layered streetwear at Supercomma B, doing 16 shows in five days.

Han only began modeling last year, after an agency found him on Instagram and arranged a meeting. “We met in Itaewon, actually, at Holly’s coffee shop,” he recalls. “They had me walk there; I walked, and the moment they saw me move, they signed me.” Where most Korean models go through a rigorous training system, he is entirely self-taught, having watched YouTube videos to learn how to stride. He has a smooth walk and cut cheekbones, his long curling hair shaved into a soft hi-top fade; he adores the runway and dreams of going abroad to walk Balmain. His first show was unforgettable—two seasons ago, opening Heich Es Heich in a green velvet suit and magenta buzz cut—and he is deeply grateful for designer Sanghyuk Han’s support. “If it wasn’t for him that season, I don’t think I would’ve been able to debut,” he says.

Back then, in fact, most people assumed Han wasn’t Korean at all—rather, one of the international models, flown in to walk shows—and would speak to him in English backstage (he can’t speak a word of it), or not at all. “At first it was bad, but nowadays, people know me,” he says, happily. “Now, they talk to me a lot.” Still, he faces trouble here. “Because my skin is different, some designers and brands won’t really use me,” he says. “But rather than leaving, I want to work harder—being Han Hyun Min and building my own unique charm is important to me.”

He had to learn that perseverance early on, as growing up in Seoul was not easy. The country remains largely homogenous and fiercely nationalist, a trait one can trace back to the Japanese occupation in World War II. Yet that need to preserve Korean pride and culture left many with certain attitudes toward “outsiders.” It’s painful to hear him speak plainly of it—“They would say bad things about me. If I was with a friend, their mom would come and say don’t play with that kid.” Yet Han found refuge in Itaewon, where most of the city’s biracial children grew up. “In Itaewon, I had a lot of [half-Korean] friends like me, so that was good,” he says. “Even now, there are more and more.”

Thankfully, the face of Seoul is changing bit by bit—with a younger generation more exposed to the rest of the world, that old mindset is starting to die out. Navigating Itaewon’s hills with Han, one sees it firsthand. “A long time ago, they looked at us very badly, but these days, it’s not like that, it’s like we can all be together,” he says. When asked if he’d ever leave it all behind to move abroad, he gives it a bit of thought. “It may be hard, but even so, I was born in Korea, I’m doing well in Korea,” he says. “I do want to go overseas for a while, but coming back to Korea and living here . . . I want to stay here. I am Korean, after all.” That he is.