Slumdog Millionaire star Frieda Pinto does a sexy photo shoot with Complex Magazine. The 23-year-old former model from Bombay talks to Complex about the film industry here. Previously, Grace Park and Olivia Munn were in Complex Magazine.

Frieda Pinto in Complex Magazine

See the model at the 56 second mark of the video. That’s Hye Park on the Nicole Miller Runway for the Fall 2009 collection. There aren’t many Asian models on the runway. Check out Breaking the Color line of modeling and fashion.

Hye Park on Nicole Miller Runway Fall 2009 collection

Taiwanese fashion designer Jason Wu created Michelle Obama’s Inauguration Gown. He designed 2 gowns one colorful and one white. Mrs. Obama chose the white one. According to the 26-year-old designer, the white gown was designed to have a dream like quality. Funny enough, Jason Wu found out at the same time as the rest of us on TV. He called into CNN to talk about his gown. (See the clip below.)

Seeing the First Lady wear his design has given Jason Wu more insppiration for his Fall 2009 collection he is working on now. Jason Wu studied at Parsons School of Design in New York. He also interned with designer Narciso Rodriguez. You can see Jason Wu’s Spring 2009 collection. He was one of only a few Asian American designers in New York’s Fashion Week.

The Wall Street Journal reports Wu’s evening wear sells for $3,000 to $6,000. Previously, Michelle Obama wore a $3,510 dress made by Jason Wu for a November interview with Barbara Walters.

CNN interviews 26-year-old Designer Jason Wu – Michelle Obama’s Inauguration Gown Designer

Jason Wu talks about Michelle Obama’s dress, dolls, and his new line

More about Jason Wu

Although only 26, the Taipei native has already achieved many accomplishments. His family moved to Vancouver when Wu was 9 where he began learning how to sew, draft patterns, and sketch in fashion proportions by using dolls as mannequins. At the age of 14, he went to study sculpture in Tokyo and then spent his senior year of high school in Paris, where he decided to become a fashion designer. Wu then enrolled in the prestigious Parsons School of Design and interned with Narciso Rodriguez.

In February 2006 he debuted his collection, emerging as one of the leading new American talents. The Jason Wu collection is carried at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Ikram, Nordstrom, Susan of Burlingame and Louis Boston. The fashion star is a favorite among press, stylists and celebrities including Amber Valetta, Leighton Meester, Joy Bryant, Gretchen Mol and Kerry Washington.

Jason continues to receive accolades including Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award for Women’s Ready-to-Wear in January 2008 and in July 2008 he was named one of the finalists in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund

Asian models have appeared before, but the numbers never reached a critical mass. The ones who shot to fame in the 1980s and ’90s, including Filipina Anna Bayle, Korean-African-American Kimora Lee Simmons, Eurasian Devon Aoki and Siberian Irina Pantaeva, were of mixed-race heritage or had extreme features that the industry embraced as exotic.

Rising stars such as Du Juan from China, Korean-American Hye Park and Eugenia Mandzhieva, a Russian of Asian descent, are breaking into the industry, walking runway shows for big names like Dior and Oscar de la Renta, and landing advertising campaigns with Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and Moschino.

This year’s winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World, 20-year-old Hyoni from South Korea, underlined a change in the fashion/modeling industry that has been notoriously slow to embrace diversity. Hyoni, whose real name is Kang Seung-hyun, is the first Asian winner in the 27-year history of the competition. Since her victory, which earned her a $250,000 contract with Ford Models, Kang has walked in nearly 20 shows and shot ads for Benetton and Lacoste. “Fashion is changing,” she says. “Many designers know Asian girls can be high-fashion models too.”

The face leading the Asian wave is Du Juan, a 21-year-old ballerina from Shanghai. One year after winning Model of the Year at the China Fashion Awards in 2004, Du became the first Asian to grace the cover of French Vogue. Now she walks an average of 50 runway shows a season and has appeared in advertising campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.

Japan and China, the world’s second and fourth largest economies, have become forces that luxury brands can no longer afford to ignore. Spending on luxury goods in China is expected to grow 12% a year and total $44 billion in 2016, according to figures from MasterCard. By 2015, China will make up 29% of the global luxury market, putting it on track to overtake Japan as the world’s biggest luxury market, according to research from Goldman Sachs. At top fashion houses like LVMH, Asia already contributes a third of total revenue. Luxury-goods purveyors want to cater to Asian tastes on the runway, and more and more have started to use Asian faces to do so. Today, the visuals for ads and runways are increasingly being called by Asians/Asian Americans, including top designers Vivienne Tam, Anna Sui, Derek Lam and Phillip Lim. Look for more Asians/Asian Americans on the fashion runways soon.

A diverse group of beauties is finally breaking through in the fashion industry. Meet Eugenia Mandzhieva, Hye Park, and Du Juan.