Precious Lee, who appears on British Vogue’s April 2023 cover alongside her friends and fellow supermodels Paloma Elsesser and Jill Kortleve, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the industry since her runway debut in 2017. “My mother called me a supermodel from the beginning,” Lee says in the cover story. “Even when we were sitting in a waiting room at a casting with dozens of other girls, I was her super. Back then, I’d get annoyed with her. ‘Supermodel’ wasn’t a word I’d use to describe myself, even once I started ticking off the boxes.” 

Fast forward to now, and Precious is the star of countless campaigns and a fixture on the runways for the likes of Versace, Balmain, Fendi, Lanvin and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty. Read on to learn more about this enigmatic new super. 

She made her runway debut at New York Fashion Week

Lee – who was raised in Atlanta, Georgia – made her runway debut at Christian Siriano’s autumn/winter 2017 show at New York Fashion Week, wearing a black and gold crop top and trouser set. She’s walked for Siriano many times since, including in the designer’s spring/summer 2022 show, which she opened in a razor-sharp orange suit and closed wearing a panelled bralette, a hooded shawl and a tangerine tulle skirt of voluminous proportions.

Precious made history at Versace

For Versace’s spring/summer 2021 show, Lee became one of the first curve models to ever walk a Versace runway, alongside her cover co-star Jill Kortleve and Alva Claire. Since then, she has gone on to work with the Italian mega-brand on a number of shows and advertising campaigns.

This isn’t her first British Vogue cover

This isn’t the first time that Lee has graced the cover of British Vogue. For the April 2021 issue, she was one of a quartet of models – alongside Mona Tougaard, Achenrin Madit and Janaye Furman – to work with a team of fashion legends including photographer Steven Meisel, stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, make-up artist Pat McGrath and hairstylist Guido Palau on a series of optimistic covers. 

Precious’s star power transcends fashion

While Lee’s trajectory as a model has been impressive, she originally planned to be a lawyer. Having conquered the runway, Precious shares in her British Vogue interview that she’s now pursuing an acting career in Hollywood. We can’t wait to see her on the big screen in the near future.