Meet Serena Abou Sefian, the Lebanese-Armenian Model Opening Fendi’s AW26 Show

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.