Elton Ilirjani, best known by his model name HANKO, is a mainstay on global runways. He first started modeling in Seoul for the brand BESFXXK, then started walking for other South Korean designers.

It all started back in 2019, when Elton discovered Sam & Marvin’s fashion boutique 3NY in New York City. Elton started to buy clothes there, which focuses on Asian designers you don’t typically find in retail stores in New York City. The designs caught his eye. Elton started to post himself on Instagram to his following of 12 million followers, as he is a renowned human rights activist from Albania. He started wearing the Asian designers' clothes and tagging them in the posts. That led to a friendship with the designers, and some started asking him to walk for them at New York Fashion Week to Seoul Fashion Week.

Now, five years later, Elton has walked for fashion designers at Milan, Paris and Tokyo Fashion Weeks. At the most recent New York Fashion Week, he walked for designers Jemma Russo and Naoka Tosa. He has also walked Costa Rica Fashion Week, for renowned designers like Greedelious and Malan Breton, and just walked for the Ema Savahl runway show at Miami Swim Week, The Shows. Elton talks about the evolution of the runway, why he started modeling, and how fashion designers are like artists.

‍Elton Ilirjani: Why do you walk the runway?

Every runway is different. So every runway you will see a different angle, a different side of me as a model. So I change in every runway, because every runway is a different poetry. It's a different poem. So it has a different topic, it has a different message to give. So I have the thought of the moment, for example, if I work for Malan Breton, or if I work for Greedelious, I enter into their theme. I see what's the colors of the outfit, how the outfit is built, and what's the story behind the outfit, and what's the music, and everything comes together. And it's a story. That's how I think. 

Who are some of your favorite designers to work with? 

I enjoy mainly working with the designers that have their hands on their creation, not the designers that buy other designers, or the designers that purchase outfits like we have plenty of them in Europe and in America that they never touch a pair of scissors. So I like the designers that create that paint, that know the fabric, that are good tailors, and that they can tailor the outfit in your body, those the ones that I like, and there are plenty of them right now, but mainly are in Asia.

Your connection to Asian fashion is strong. Why?

I know designers that are like painters 200 years ago, that they like to create some wonderful outfit that they can also enjoy as a kind of high art. So there are two different types of designers; artists and commercial designers. The ones that are commercial designs are not for me. They may have a big name, they pay like 5 million euros to make a show. They are not mine, because they are for commercial models. They are for commercial videos, and they are for commercial sales. I am for concept design, which is the core of fashion innovation and creation.

And you also support a lot of independent designers, why is that? Is it because they have fresh ideas?

It’s because they have genuine ideas, and they have unique ideas, and the message that they give through the clothing is very powerful. I believe in the energy of the fabric, of the concept, and then the power and the energy of the colors and the color combinations. So that's, I mean, I don't want to complicate it, but that's the real passion that goes beyond what we see, the creativity. 

What do you think of genderless modeling? Is it accepted in the mainstream? Is it still discriminated against in fashion?

It's totally confusing. Many designers confuse it with the transgender and LGBT, which is not always the case. This happens with many brands. They should create for every single person, also the ones that they want to wear as a woman, and one day they want to wear as a man. But that has nothing to do with their sexuality or their gender. Few of them are creative and innovative, and they can understand. The rest are just business makers. They spend their money, they win. That's nothing to do with fashion. 

‍How do you feel about the state of fashion right now?

It's in a state of change. It's in a momentum of change. It's going to change. So many models are used and there has been much human cruelty in the fashion industry, many people have suffered to survive. Models are suffering because of anorexia, because they suffered damaging their legs, because many designers give them not the right size of the shoe to wear. They don't pay them. They use them as objects, because everybody wants to be on the spotlight of the fashion, on the camera of the fashion, so they can be successful. And it was a big cruelty happening all so many years ago, and especially the modeling agencies that really used women and men for their own profit. Fashion will change and will be dedicated only to arts and create models as they should be treated. With the rise of robots, robotics could be the new models. So now with technology and artificial intelligence, we will definitely see more change. There is no other option.

You're redefining what it means to be a model on the runway. You're turning into a solo show, right? You did that in Tirana, you're doing it with the Influencers Award Global 2024 in Miami. You're turning a runway into a one person show. And you're making it a dramatic performance, a spectacle. It's theatrical, is it just an expression of who you are?

It's good to have that. Each show should have a concept, a logic. So what is the main logic? 

Ema Savahl said to go with a forest vibe. Even though I go alone on the runway, on the opening or the closing, there are the other models that come, which are connected to the main ones. So we are trying to make a theater show, a real show, not some people walking aimlessly around the runway, and people get bored because they take their phone down. Sometimes the audience never raises their phone on a runway. That's so sad. We can put mannequins in a runway show, but we should have the human, the living. That's what we need more of in fashion.

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Follow HANKO on Instagram @eilirjani.