With temperatures dipping into the teens today, and the crushing pace of New York Fashion Week starting to take its toll, those with an eye toward the long game have already started breaking out their immune-boosting tricks. Model Soo Joo Park has landed upon the go-to supplement that’s always in her bag, though it’s the sort of thing she uses her passport—not her MetroCard—to procure.
“I carry red ginseng extract with me—it’s exported from Korea,” she explained backstage at Alexander Wang this afternoon, cutting a striking figure in her signature platinum shag and bleached brows. “I get it whenever I’m going to the Seoul airport, from duty-free.” Asian ginseng (a different plant than what’s known as American ginseng) has long been said to help fight off colds and other infections. It’s also often referred to as an adaptogen—a type of herb that can play a role in stress management, which certainly comes in handy with back-to-back castings and overseas flights.
That’s not Park’s only strategy for staying calm during the fashion month storm. “I have meditation MP3s on my phone. My friend gave them to me; she was like, ‘This will be very helpful for you because you go through a lot of stress, and you can just turn it on,’ ” she explained. “I’ve done it in cars, but it’s usually best when you’re alone sitting in a room. If the call time is at 6:00 a.m., I try to wake up at 5:00. It only takes like 30 minutes, so I do my meditation, take a quick shower, and then I’m out the door! You feel so much better.”
Fitness is also a priority (she’s currently on the hunt for a Pilates guru). “Being in shape really helps when you’re traveling so much. Your [mental and physical] health just becomes so much stronger when you work out,” she said, adding that she recently tried EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) while in Seoul. “You wear a vest with all these wires, and [the electrical impulses] go into the core of your muscles. You can build strength like that.” Consider us intrigued—and our passport primed and ready.
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