The fashion world has always had a thing for gender bending, from Annie Hall's signature tie to Miss J. Alexander's lessons for walking in high heels, but this season at New York Fashion Week, adoration of androgyny is reaching a whole new level.
Meet Andrej Pejic, a thoroughly male model who's enjoying quite a bit of mainstream success in the world of womenswear, thanks to his strikingly good--and undeniably feminine--looks. When he first appeared on Jean Paul Gaultier's spring 2011 runway, editors everywhere were wondering, "Who is this pretty blonde girl?" He's since become the face of Marc by Marc Jacobs, wore a wedding dress to close Gaultier's couture show, and is officially the poster boy for modern-day androgyny in the fashion world.
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Over at The Cut, they wondered if his runway success would translate on the other side of the Atlantic: "But will American designers have the moxie to cast him?" they wrote. "And if he walks in an otherwise all-female show, will he be paid by that scale or the lower male model rates?" We can't attest to how much cash he's taking in, but we do know that designer Yoana Baraschi has already cast him for her fall 2011 show, taking place this Sunday at Lincoln Center. Here's what her camp has to say about the choice: "For her Fall 2011 collection, Yoana Baraschi was inspired by a faux reality that transports the audience into a world where 70's excess glam divas morph into a virtual world of modern heroines. Andrej Pejic was the perfect choice to bring this heroine to life and take the audience on Baraschi's journey through Virtualand."
We think it's kind of cool to see the heteronormative societal standards being challenged by the fashion world...and to know that there's so much more than just one ideal of beauty out there. What do you gals make of Andrej Pejic? Do you think he'll become the next big face in the modeling world? Can you believe how straight-up pretty he is? Discuss!
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