Transgender models: on a high street near you

Posted by Bengtsson on August 20th, 2015

The relationship between transgender models and fashion continues apace with the launch of a new campaign by H&M sister label & Other Stories that stars five transgender “creatives”. Aimed at highlighting the discussion between gender and identity in fashion, the campaign features models Valentijn de Hingh and Hari Nef wearing the Swedish-owned store’s new capsule collection.

Nef was the first transgender model to be signed globally by top agency IMG earlier this year and has since been cast in Netflix’s transgender comedy series Transparent and the music video for There is Nothing Left by American group the Drums.

“Fashion has played a huge role in the process of constructing my identity,” explains Nef. “Fashion was my first exposure to different ways of being a woman that weren’t necessarily rooted in conventions or conventional beauty.”

The & Other Stories collection, which will be in store from tomorrow, comes as transgender celebrities are being afforded a higher profile than ever in the media – Vanity Fair has even launched a dedicated Trans America magazine, profiling well-known transgender spokespeople such as Caitlyn Jenner, Chaz Bono and Reneé Richards, which goes on sale this week. But while it’s tempting to lump the current visibility of transgender people and subsequent discussion of transgender issues together, the & Other Stories campaign marks an interesting phase being on the high street.

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Until now, the shift has mainly been seen with designer fashion: last year, Barneys ran a spring campaign called Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters, which featured 17 transgender models photographed by Bruce Weber; transgender models have been cast for brands such as Givenchy and have featured in glossymagazines including Vogue. Talking to Details magazine earlier this year, Givenchy’s creative director Riccardo Tisci explained why he cast Lea T, one of the industry’s best known transgender models, to front his campaign: “I decided to do the campaign for two reasons. To help Lea financially, and because who says that a transsexual cannot be a top model? Even when I called the photographers, they were like: ‘A transsexual?’ And I was like: ‘Yeah, a transsexual. She’s a beautiful girl, you guys are going to meet her, she’s amazing.’”

The thinking, according to & Other Stories’ campaign photographer Amos Mac, ties in with the current attitude towards non-binary fashion: “The categories of male and female in fashion are an ancient thing.”

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