This Model’s Shocking “Penny Red” Dye Job Ruled the Alexander Wang Runway

A few floors up from the former Vogue office at Manhattan’s 4 Times Square, models are getting their hair slicked back, their skin prepped, and their nails painted a chromatic sheer nude. The look is “Modern CEO,” according to designer Alexander Wang, who is about to unleash an army's worth of executive realness on his fall 2018 runway.

Backstage, amid the sea of seriously dark brunettes, their eyelids smoked in a matte grey-brown Nars powder to match, one redhead model is pacing back and forth. A double take or two and you’ll recognize it’s the Seoul-born, Queens-bound muse, EZ, whose career took off at Wang’s show exactly one year ago today.

In 2017, it was EZ’s bleach blonde buzz cut that made waves at New York Fashion Week, eventually turning up in Hollywood on the the likes of Cara Delevingne, Kristen Stewart, Kate Hudson and more. But today? “Bleach blonde is so normal,” says Josh Wood, the colorist responsible for the Korean model’s fiery lengths. “It’s either beautiful, dark rich hair or redheads—there is no in between," he said, declaring the reign of platinum dead.

For EZ, whose transformation from white blonde to tonight’s jewel-colored ruby tone, agrees: “I think red is the color right now, it’s the one everybody wants.” It's true: high up in this skyscraper, in a room full of the industry’s most in-demand models, it’s the redheads (including fellow gingers Nathalie Westling and Teddy Quinlivan) who seem to command the room. “That’s not your meek and mild red,” he says of the handiwork that took no less than six hours. “That’s a penny red.”

If anything, says EZ, it’s a color that gets remembered. “Oh, that’s EZ, the one with the red hair,” the model anticipates. “I’m looking forward to being that girl.”