Coco Komatsu

Born and raised in Tokyo, import model Coco Komatsu was brought to my attention by another very talented lady, model, artist, and designer April Syrup, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing last year

Coco began her modeling career in Japan, where she still calls home, but she's gradually making quite an impact in the US market and her trips to the States are becoming more frequent. One of her most notable appearances has been on the cover of the May 2012 Super Street magazine. More recently, Coco was in Los Angeles for a shoot with her favorite photographer Rey Trajano and an appearance at Autocon, where she was one of the featured models.

Despite her very busy schedule, Coco took some time out during her recent stay in California, where she was very willing and able to answer most of my questions. Besides being an extremely sweet and gracious lady, she speaks much better English than she gives herself credit for ....particularly impressive since she's mostly self-taught.

Korean Racing Models Do the Gwiyomi Song

Released three months ago by Korean singer Hari, the Gwiyomi ("Cutie") Song immediately went viral and has now become the latest Internet meme to originate from Korea. Above are three of the most popular Korean Racing models doing their version. The ladies are (clockwise from top left) Hana Hong (whom I've had the pleasure of interviewing here), Boyoung Chun, and Siyoung Ha.

Yna Alba

If having perseverance and a positive attitude are key to success, 21 year-old model Yna Alba, is definitely on the right path. Speaking four languages and possessing a great sense of humor doesn't hurt, either.

Yna (her professional name) writes some pretty clever captions to the array of photos in her modeling portfolio. Speaking of which, Yna considers her look very "metamorphic," which enables her to take on a wide range of looks, suitable to the themes of her photo shoots. Besides the more standard glamour, import, and fashion modeling, she's done photo sessions that involve her putting on full body paint, climbing trees, and even being made to look like a man, which was one of her own concepts. I'm not sure what else she'll come up with, but I'd assume, since she's an avid Miami Heat fan, a shoot as a Heat Dancer will be on the horizon ...probably just as soon as she can get ahold of an official Heat Dancers' outfit.

1993 Lakeport Revival Bikini Contestants

Back in 1993, the band I was in at the time, was booked to play a weekend at a club in Lakeport, California, which is about a two hour drive north of San Francisco. While I was up there, I caught a poster advertising the Lakeport Revival Classic Car Show (now defunct), which included a bikini contest, at the Lake County Fairgrounds. Me, being a fan of classic cars and an even bigger fan of bikini contests, decided to go check it out and I made sure to bring my camera along. (35mm, this was the pre-digital age.)

Most of the contestants were from  Northern California (Santa Rosa, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, etc.) and were obviously professional or semi-professional models, with one notable exception, who gave away her amateur status with her less-than-perfect posture. I don't remember who won, or even the names of any contestants, but "Stars and Stripes Girl" here, was the show-stealer who got the biggest response from the crowd once she dropped her white blazer to show her patriotism.

As I look at these photos now, I notice there doesn't seem to be any real differences between the hair and fashion styles of these ladies vs. those whom would be competing in such contests today. However, I can point out the absence of tattoos and piercings (visible ones, anyway) on these ladies vs. the inked and body jewelry-laden bodies you'd be likely to see in bikini contests these days.

Hana Hong

Racing and car show model Hana Hong is among the top ladies in her field in Korea. Her popularity as a model has even helped land her some parts in TV shows. However, since her exposure is pretty much limited to Korea, she's received practically no press outside of her homeland. Of course, models like Hana often have their photos posted all over the net by Korean and non-Korean bloggers alike, but it's very rare you'll see an article or blog post where the author has actually contacted and received a reply from her worthy of publication.

I sent Hana a message through Facebook and asked if she'd like to be featured here and if she'd mind answering a few questions. She gave me a positive response and asked me to e-mail her about it. Knowing it could have been a brush-off, I sent Hana some questions anyway, thinking there's always a chance of getting a reply. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised when Hana replied the next day with answers to some of my questions.

Han Ga-eun

Apparently, there weren't any Minas or Elf Girls that popped up in Korea during this year's World Cup as there were in 2002 and 2006, respectively. However, here's a nice photo of model Han Ga-eun (not to be confused with actresses Han go-eun or Han Ga-in) sporting World Cup cheer gear featuring the official t-shirt of the Korean national team's fans.

The shirt amusingly reads "Korea Legend - Begin to 2010" (sic), but even though the message on the shirt isn't quite clear, Ga-eun (23) compliments it more than well enough for me to forgive the questionable grammar.

Funny thing is, it wasn't my intention to do a solo feature on Ga-eun. Although she's very popular, she's just one of many popular Korean models adorning cars at motor shows these days. A friend sent me an e-mail about the Korean fan t-shirts with the "Konglish" wording and I got the idea to do a compilation post of Korean hotties wearing them, but Ga-eun was just one of too few to be found wearing one. However, rather than trash the entry, here's it is and what follows are a few more photos of Ga-in at some of the many events she's appeared at.

Im Ji-hye

24-year-old Im Ji-hye is currently one of the most popular models in Korea. Standing 172cm tall with (according to most sources) 37D-25-37 stats, she made her debut (and stole the show) in a 2006 music video entitled "Weak Man" by the Korean rap duo, Square.

After landing the June 2006 cover of the Korean edition of Maxim magazine and becoming a favorite event and car show model (as shown above), she has since branched out to fashion modeling and even landed a part in a late night TV drama. Just a few photos here. A Google image search will yield hundreds more.

Korean Santa's Helpers

With Christmas just around the corner, here's car show and racing model Hwang Mi-hee (above) and some more lovely Korean female celebs dressed in the spirit of the season. Happy Holidays.

Hwang Mi-hee

Hwang Mi-hee (26) is currently one of the most popular and most photographed racing/car show models in Korea. According to her brief bio, the 174cm tall beauty began her modeling career just last year at the Daejeon International Dream Car Festival. Besides races and car shows, she also does fashion and glamour modeling. See more of her at her Cyworld blog, these Daum.net photo search results, and here. Happy scrolling.

Kanny Theng

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.