Hanne Gaby Odiele’s Decade in Street Style

Hanne Gaby OdielePhotographed by Phil Oh

“Model off-duty style” is a turn of phrase we’ll happily leave behind in the 2010s. The leather jacket and skinny jean uniform has been out for a while, mostly thanks to Instagram and street style’s exponential growth. Now, getting photographed outside the show is nearly as important as being on the runway. A few catwalkers never subscribed to the off-duty formula, though. Ask anyone to name the model with the most authentic, surprising, and uncontrived style of the decade, and they’re bound to agree: Hanne Gaby Odiele.

In our minds, Odiele was the ne plus ultra of model style icons before we were even documenting street style. (Perhaps that’s why she has such good taste; she started out before street-style photos had become marketing opportunities and influencer deals). It was in 2011 that Phil Oh shot his first fashion week for Vogue.com, and Odiele is one of the few people who appear in both his earliest and most recent slideshows. She established a knack for print-mixing early on, with a particular affinity for her fellow Belgian, Dries Van Noten; she wears his psychedelic fall 2014 collection like no one else. But she pivots just as easily to minimalist tailoring, and was mixing streetwear with couture years before it was a trend (see: the Balenciaga spring 2012 track shorts she paired with a dramatic pink opera coat).

Most recently, Odiele has used her platform to advocate for the intersex community: In 2017, she shared her own story of growing up intersex. “Being a model is a big compliment, but it can be so one-sided,” she told Vogue’s Lynn Yaeger. “I knew I wanted to use it at some point as a platform to give back, to do something, to tell people: You can be accepted however you happen to be! The ‘norm’ is not what you think it is.”

Consider it one of many reasons she remains one to watch. Here, we’ve traced Odiele’s style through the decade in 26 photos, in chronological order. A regular on the men’s circuit, you’re likely to see her latest looks at the Fall 2020 shows in Europe in just a few weeks.