PARIS (Vogue Arabia) — It’s every model’s dream to open a runway show for a major luxury house — to be the first face, the first silhouette, the woman who sets the tone for an entire season. For 20-year-old Serena Abou Sefian, that moment arrived at the very start of her career when she opened the Fendi Autumn/Winter 2026 show, signing an exclusive with the Roman house in the process.
But Serena’s story begins far from Milan — in Bourj Hammoud.
Born to fully Armenian parents raised in Lebanon, Serena grew up in a home where Armenian and Lebanese identities weren’t distinct categories but a seamless blend. “I thought everyone experienced their home the same way,” she says. “But as I matured, I realized that wasn’t the case.”
The Lebanese-Armenian community, though small, is tightly knit — almost its own ecosystem. From the schools children attend to the circles they socialize in, life often unfolds within that shared cultural space. Serena spent her earliest years in Bourj Hammoud living with her grandparents alongside her sister while her parents worked. Her grandmother walked them to school and back; her grandfather slipped her pocket money she would promptly negotiate into a stop at the dollar shop. “I was very convincing even as a child,” she laughs — a quality that would later serve her well.
As she grew older, her family moved to Antelias. She attended two Armenian schools before enrolling for a freshman semester at Haigazian University. Fashion was always present in her life, though not in an obvious way. “I was always interested in fashion, but not necessarily the modeling side of it,” she says. “There was a part of me that wanted it, but I never said it out loud because I didn’t want to sound vain.”
Instead, she gravitated toward what felt attainable. During quarantine, she took a fashion design course, imagining that design might be a more realistic entry point into the industry. If modeling hadn’t intervened, she suspects she would have pursued digital marketing — not out of passion, but because it felt safe. “When you don’t know what you want to do, you pick the safest option.”
Photo: @serenaabousefian
Her sense of identity felt similarly complex. Outside of her immediate community, answering the simple question “Where are you from?” was never straightforward. “Sometimes I felt too Armenian, sometimes too Lebanese,” she explains. “But slowly I learned that I could just be me in the middle. These labels aren’t important — at the end of the day, we’re all the same.”
Her path shifted unexpectedly at 16 — on the leg press at the gym. Someone connected to Elie Saab approached her and suggested she had the look of a model. Flattered but skeptical, she went home and told her parents. Her father, who had briefly modeled in his youth, was cautious. He understood the industry’s demands. About a year later, when she applied to her mother agency, Local Vice Management, she braced herself for resistance.
Instead, her father surprised her. “He told me he saw that he could trust me to handle myself,” she says. “He never had to worry about me.” Her mother took longer to warm to the idea — but Serena’s powers of persuasion, honed since childhood, eventually prevailed.
Her first booking came just four days after signing. Her agent called casually: Bazaar wants to shoot with you. Do you know how to swim? The shoot lasted nine hours underwater in a tank with photographer Lara Zankoul. For a debut job, it was intense and unconventional — and she loved it. “It was challenging, but incredibly fun. It made me realize how exciting this industry could be.”
Momentum followed. Campaigns for Chanel Beauty, eyewear for Etro, and Ramadan projects with Gucci and Jil Sander positioned her as a fresh presence across markets. Yet nothing compared to the magnitude of Fendi.
The opportunity was a mix of preparation and timing. On the day of her callback, she was on her way to the airport. She met the team, answered a few questions, and left without overthinking it. Days later, her agents called: Fendi wanted her not only to walk but to open the Autumn/Winter 2026 show — and to sign exclusively with the house. “I started crying and so did they,” she says. “But after that, I couldn’t process it.” The relationship continued beyond the runway, with Serena also appearing in Fendi’s Cruize 2026/27 presentation, cementing her status as one of the house’s emerging new faces.
Backstage at the Autumn/Winter 2026 show, adrenaline replaced disbelief. The atmosphere was electric — chaotic in the way fashion shows always are, yet suspended in anticipation. “It felt like everyone was waiting for a pin to drop,” she says. As the opening look, she carried the weight of first impression — the responsibility to embody the mood of an entire collection.
It wasn’t until she called her parents that the magnitude settled in. Hearing her father’s voice break on the phone made it real. “That’s when I realized what was happening.”
Despite her growing international schedule — Paris, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona — Lebanon remains her anchor. After months abroad, it is always the place she longs to return to. “It’s where I grew up, where my family is, where my friends are. There’s nothing quite like being home.”
There were no Lebanese-Armenian models before her to look up to. The absence of representation meant navigating much of the path independently. “Of course, I had support,” she says. “But there are things you have to take responsibility for and own yourself.” In an industry already demanding, that added layer requires resilience.
Perhaps that resilience is something uniquely Lebanese. “If you’re lucky enough to be born in Lebanon, you grow up with a strong sense of self,” she reflects. It’s a strength shaped by culture, tradition, and contradiction — elegance paired with grit, confidence tempered by humility. “And yes,” she adds with a smile, “a bit of stubbornness. But sometimes being stubborn is what allows you to achieve what you set your mind to.”
From persuading her grandmother to stop at the dollar shop in Bourj Hammoud to convincing her parents to trust her instincts, Serena Abou Sefian has always known how to advocate for herself. Opening the Fendi Autumn/Winter 2026 show may be every model’s dream — but for a young woman who once felt suspended between identities, it is also something deeper: proof that you don’t have to choose between where you come from and where you’re going.