Daniel Liu for Vogue Nippon June 2010

Pool Party, Vogue Nippon June 2010
photography: Francois Nars
styling: Patti Wilson
makeup: Lena Koro

Mr. Liu -- in just a tee and speedos -- shows up opposite Tao Okamoto -- and for once, she doesn't sport a pixie cut, YES! -- in these shots for Vogue Nippon's June 2010 beauty section. Daniel's actual face only shows in two of the photos...but the full spread can be seen on tFS courtesy of MAGstyle and Flashbang.

Daniel Liu for J. Crew Fall Winter 2010 Presentation

Check out what Flashbang from tFS found from Habitually Chic! I think it's cool Mr. Liu has become a J. Crew regular.

Daniel Liu for GQ Taiwan March 2010

Mad Man, GQ Taiwan March 2010

photography: Chiun-Kai Shih

styling: Bernando Siaotong

source: Ford, by way of AMB and Flashbang (tFS)

UPDATE 05.06.2010 >> A few more images were added to tFS archives about a little less than a month ago...and I just got around to updating my own "blog archives" here...these come off of newmadison.fr via Flashbang...

Daniel Liu for V Magazine #64

image source: V by way of testinofan and Flashbang at tFS

photography: Richard Burbridge

styling: Robbie Spencer

Daniel shows up in V! Specifically, he is featured in one of the images (of five total) from the editorial spread, "All the World's a Stage", part of the current issue of V Magazine featuring Kirsten Dunst on the cover.

I love V Magazine, I first happened upon it while rummaging through Colette back in 2003...B&N hadn't begun stocking it yet...or perhaps it had and I just never took notice...so yes, it took a trip to Paris to discover an American publication...over the years, my motivation to pick up a copy off the newstand has gone up and down...but I'm seriously tempted to pick up the current issue...

Daniel Liu for J. Crew SS 2010

This is pretty cool...we all first saw him modeling for J. Crew at the GQ/CFDA event earlier this month...and I thought, how strange, the two other models posed front row alongside him are J. Crew veterans...having been used time and time again both online and in the print catalogs.

Unless...

So he's shown up in the latest batch of online updates modeling several of the label's pieces...is this a harbinger of print catalog work to come?!! I certainly hope so...the March catalog featuring the staff of Monocle magazine is great, but perhaps in April we can go back to models and highly editorialized shots??

image source

Daniel Liu for Liberty of London X Target

:: video still taken from the Liberty of London X Target site ::

Daniel Liu for J. Crew at GQ's Best New Designers in America Event, 02.11.10

I've always thought J. Crew could use an Asian male model in its catalogs. Asian women have broken down that barrier for quite some time now (Hye Park, Du Juan, Liu Wen), but I wonder if that will ever translate to the male gender. Well until that day actually comes, whenever that will be, we in the meantime have Daniel Liu head-to-toe in J. Crew at the Best New Designers in America event put on by GQ. Editing and styling were done per GQ, so who knows how much say each label -- J. Crew included -- had in the casting of the models. However, there are a few other J. Crew favorites that pop up in the series. So who knows.

ALSO, J. Crew Fall 2010 ALREADY! It's great to catch a glimpse of what will be coming out. Apparently, Red Wings are still good for another season. Wait. Maybe I should devote Fall 2010 @ J. Crew to a post of its own...

Keep on popping up, Daniel!

I wish there was a better version of this photo floating around somewhere. Big THANKS to Flashbang over at tFS for finding a better quality version of this photo!

all images per GQ.com

Daniel Liu for John Bartlett FW 2010

Glad to see my favorite Asian male model pop up at NYFW. Here he is at John Bartlett. Cue resurgent/ongoing crush.

image source: GQ by way of Flashbang over at tFS

Daniel Liu for GQ China, November 2009

image source: ???? @ tFS, photography: Blair Getz Metzibov, styling: Grant Pearce

Okay, so I'm late to the game, but it looks like hot male model Daniel Liu was successful in landing his spread for GQ China, as he had tentatively alluded to in his interview on NPR. Flashbang over at theFashionSpot posted these beautiful pictures from that successfully printed editorial 5 days ago. In my defense, I was distracted with work? And over the weekend, I was preoccupied with landing a certain pair of boots from a certain high end shoe label's collaboration collection with H&M (more on that tomorrow)... Regardless, I wanted a set of these pics for my blog, so here they are. The clothes are GQ editorial appropriate, safe luxury as I like to put it...but that just goes to show that after a certain point, it becomes the man that makes the man, and not the clothes, right? As for the female model, Hana Mayeda...she's eh to me...I could care less about her looks...although I do envy she got this gig...what I wouldn't give to be in her spot... Daniel is definitely my favorite male model of the moment...okay, it doesn't hurt that he's the same ethnicity as I am and embodies everything I had hoped to achieve in an alternate more fabulous life...I hope his star continues to rise and the he continues to put out good work.

P.S. Does anybody know how a guy like me, who lives in the middle of nowhere, can land a physical copy of this magazine? GQ China is apparently very new, launched just last month (October of this year)...what a great outlet for asian models to get some international attention...maybe in the future they can get both Daniel as well as Philip Huang to do a spread together...crossing my fingers here...

HDNB <3's Daniel Liu

UPDATE 11/16/2009 >> Daniel's editorial for GQ China has materialized! Click HERE to see the photos.

Last week, while sorting through my inbox, I noticed GILT.com had decided on an Asian face to showcase their PRPS sale. To be honest, I'd never seen him before, but I was pleased to see yet another Asian model doing his part to diversify the look of the industry...I saved a few pics, and figured it'd make for something good to discuss in the future.

Between now and then, I've learned his name is Daniel Liu, he's TAIWANESE (which is HUGE and AWESOME in my mind...anybody want to take a stab at my ethnicity? hehe...), and he's signed with Ford Models. Jealous, to say the least. He seems to be relatively new...as in...end of the summer new.

comp card image via Asian Models Blog

NPR has a nice interview with him conducted by Linda Wertheimer that aired early in September and is available for replay online...he's got a beautiful deep and gentle voice to match his looks. The interview is also trascribed. A couple excerpts...

On what made him a hit with Ford:

"You know, I don't know if it's, like, any one thing. I've been told I've got very strong cheekbones. I've definitely got the height. So…"

On looking toward what's next:

"And well, I'm also on hold for a couple of projects. I don't know if they're going to go through yet, but I am on hold for GQ China."

In Uniqlo's winter ad campaign for their HeatTech line, he's already sitting there next to Sean O'Pry, Boyd Holbrook, and Blaine Cook. Impressive.

images via Uniqlo

Here's to hoping he keeps on climbing up the popularity index so we can see more of him...definitely keeping my eyes and ears peeled on GQ China...but just in case, let me know if you hear of anything first!

In the meantime, in terms of additional images, there is a set from a largely Western-themed shoot that can be found on John Tan Casting. There's also an interview posted on Mr. Tan's blog. The image below is my favorite of the set...not too overtly sexed up, but the fact that the sweater is Tom Ford keeps it sexy enough. Personally, I feel if you add a pair of thermal long-johns, especially w/ those socks as shown, and then a pair of black boots, you're ready to go traipsing around in public...

image courtesy of John Tan Casting, Photographer: Karl Simone, Fashion Editor/Casting: John Tan, Grooming: Yinna Wang for Badass Hair