Aaron Shandel

Aaron Shandel is a South African model from Cape Town whose career began with an encounter in the surf. International runway work followed while he was still at school, developing into a career pursued alongside university and business interests.

Aaron was fifteen when photographer Oliver Sutton approached him in the water at Sollies in Cape Town. Initially suspicious, he met Oliver again two weeks later and decided to try modeling. In a 2026 interview with LE MILE, he recalled traveling alone to London and Milan at sixteen, with Ferragamo becoming his first Milan show. Returning to the house’s runway a decade later gave that early experience a new significance.

After school, Aaron moved to London and then New York. The instability of living out of a suitcase encouraged him to develop work of his own. Alongside modeling and university, he co-founded Yerb, a British-made sparkling yerba maté drink. “I want to build things that outlast me,” he told the magazine, connecting his business ambitions with a wish to support communities in South Africa.

His fashion career developed through advertising as well as runway shows. Aaron joined the cast of Versace’s fall-winter 2018 campaign, photographed by Steven Meisel. Subsequent work included magazine stories for Código Único and fashion imagery for LuisaViaRoma. His appearance in Luigi Bianchi Sartoria’s fall-winter 2024 imagery added Italian tailoring to a portfolio already established across several menswear markets.

Aaron’s own relationship with clothing includes an interest in reuse. Asked whether he preferred new or recycled things in an interview with The Greatest, he answered, “Recycled! We’ve made enough stuff already.” He also described a preference for vintage clothing and a personal style built around simple pieces with individual touches.

Those interests sit alongside a professional life interpreting other people’s clothes, while his entrepreneurial work gives him another way to make something of his own.