Old pictures from Prada male model to Iowa Governor Sander keep going viral

The 44-year-old man who just won the Iowa gubernatorial electiondemocratic party Rob Sand, who was recently discovered by netizens as a model more than 20 years ago, unexpectedly becamesocial media Hot issue. This politician, who is about to enter the governor’s mansion, walked on the European fashion catwalk for the famous brand Prade in early 2002.

Sander lost on November 3republican party Candidate Zach Lahn became the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election in Iowa in 20 years, breaking the long-term Republican control of the governorship. Just as the outside world was paying attention to her political victory, a little-known fashion experience also came to light.

According to reports in “Vogue”, “Harper’s Bazaar” and “People”, the 6 feet 3 inches tall Sander worked part-time as a fashion model to earn tuition and living expenses while studying political science at Brown University in the early 2000s, and traveled to Milan and Paris to participate in fashion shows.

Her modeling career is no ordinary clothing advertising shoot, but actually stepping onto the international boutique catwalk. In August 2002, he participated in the Prada 2003 spring and summer menswear series presentation, and also walked the catwalk for Japanese designer brands No(n)in and Giuliano Fujiwara.

What’s even more surprising is that Sander also appeared in Italian Vogue in 2004, taking part in the “Be My Baby” feature shot by renowned fashion photographer Steven Meisel, and was shot with then-rising model Caroline Trentini.

This series of photographs is inspired by American youth culture of the 1950s. Sander has a retro hairstyle, a leather jacket and boutique clothes, a sharp contrast to today’s image of often wearing shirts and casual tops to attend political events.

Sander has always kept little information about this past incident. He doesn’t often talk about it publicly. By the end of this year’s gubernatorial election, old photos were circulated on the Internet again, and “Vogue” even wrote a special review article.

When “Vogue” asked netizens on Instagram if they knew that Sander walked for Prada, she jokingly replied through her verified account: “Yes, I know.” The campaign team also confirmed that she had worked as a model in college and joked about her previous background as a state auditor, saying that the rumor had been “verified to be true.”

After leaving the fashion industry, Sander completed her studies at Brown University and received a law degree from the University of Iowa School of Law. He served as State Assistant Attorney General responsible for public corruption cases, and participated in the investigation of one of the largest lottery ticket fraud cases in United States history.

He then turned to elections and served as Auditor General of Iowa for two consecutive terms. When he was re-elected in 2022, he became the only Democrat to win statewide office in the state.

In this year’s gubernatorial election, Sander focused on government accountability, lowering the cost of living, improving public education, and cross-party cooperation. Ultimately, in the 2024 presidential election in Iowa, which Trump won by more than 13 percentage points, he successfully secured the governorship for the Democratic Party.

As his photos of former models became popular, Sander also humorously posted on his campaign’s Facebook page: “I was really disappointed to learn that photos of me modeling for Prada are circulating on the Internet. Because the photo I took in Italian Vogue is obviously much better!”

He also took the opportunity to promote campaign merchandise: “If you would like to purchase the ‘My Model Governor’ T-shirt, please visit shop.robsand.com to purchase it.”