Sora Davidson
- beautyandavoice
- May 29, 2024
- 3 min read
Sora Davidson: Finding Comfort in Chaos
For Sora Davidson the modelling world was immediately one of contradictions: growing up in distant Collingwood, Ontario, far from the great metropolises of fashion, she was initially scouted online. Less than three years later, she has walked the streets of Sydney, Montreal, Paris, London and Seoul, learning to capably navigate the complexities of a revolving industry, and a global society in flux. Upon obtaining her university degree, reflection motivated Sora to postpone a hasty entrance into an obvious career, opting rather for several years of travel to undertake further reflection and expand her knowledge of the world. The success she has already achieved in her work as a model has not only brought her into the highest spheres of the fashion world, but revealed to her both the possibilities and the barriers present within it. Fortunately, her greatest strengths are aptly suited to a world that changes as quickly as her own life did, when first she moved to Toronto with the hope of seeing the world. As Sora tells me: “I find comfort in the chaos”.
Independence and resilience have always been crucial, natural attributes for Sora, though modelling has brought them to the forefront of her daily life. Previously of the tendency to draw up long-distance plans, stretching five or ten years down the line, she has been forced by the frenetic pace of city life in fashion to give up on stubborn details. Moving frequently between various environments for work, almost always densely urban ones in stark contrast to the Georgian Bay of her upbringing, homesickness has been a common and dangerous threat. Nevertheless Sora’s travels have shown her other manifestations of home, such as her shooting for Vogue Korea in Seoul, the capital of her mother’s native country, from which she immigrated to Canada “while still learning English and raising a kid all on her own.” Finding inspiration in her mother, and all those she cares for, Sora has come to find home “[not] so much [in] the place itself, but the people in it that you’re sharing experiences with.” The modelling industry, however, has often brought this inspiration to the test.
Before Sora’s featuring in a Vogue Korea editorial during her first week in Seoul, her work had already brought her into collaboration with nearly every renowned fashion brand in Canada. From shoots with Holt Renfrew and Ssense, to a beauty editorial for the prestigious Elle Canada, Sora has not only made waves internationally, but firmly established herself as a top player in the local Canadian market. As fashion soon called her abroad, the frenzy of urban life, especially in foreign places, forced Sora out of her comfort zone. The mixing of attitudes and styles one discovers from city to city came to influence her significantly, and she now prides herself in her exploration of art galleries, independent film-making, local cuisines, and vintage shopping, such as can be found excellently in Paris. In the capital of France Sora experienced a newfound degree of success, where she can presently be seen in the new Sephora campaign, as well as having shot for YSL beauty. Today she continues to reach higher echelons of style in Seoul.
Having been discovered on the internet renders its place in fashion a point of particularly intense ambiguity for Sora; lent by social media an exposure otherwise impossible, she is also put into competition with the great number of others given the same chance. “This is both a blessing” she says, “and a curse.” The rapid revolution of internet culture has also profoundly influenced Sora’s experience of the modelling world, as trends ricochet back and forth by the week, demanding from her one or another changeable ideal. She hopes that her work can contribute to diversifying these ideals, and aid in diminishing the “outdated mentality and practices” that still affect much of the industry. It is likely that her capacity for adaptation will help her through whatever ebbs and flows the world brings her, but in the sea of heads that crowd the streets of Paris, London or Sydney, Sora makes sure to keep herself centered in her own terms. She continues to travel and work, with plans to keep doing what she loves, surrounded by her people, whatever may come.
