New Givenchy Ads Feature Transsexual Model
Givenchy designer Ricardo Tisci has made the progressive and move to cast transsexual model Lea T (in the feathered top, here) in the high fashion house’s fall ad campaign.
The Brazilian model, formerly known as Leo Cerezo, is actually Tisci’s longtime personal assistant, and a former fit model for her own clothing line, Lea T.
“She’s always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic. She’s part of the family, ” Ricardo explains of his choice to feature Lea T.
According to WWD.com, Tisci went on to explain that including a transgender person in the campaign “exemplifies the masculine-feminine dichotomy” that is one of the label’s defining characteristics.
If you are an America’s Next Top Model fan, you might remember Isis, a male to female transsexual who stood out so much as an extra during a past photo shoot, that she was asked to try out for the show. Unfortunately, Isis was eliminated, not because the fashion world wasn’t ready for transgender model, but because Tyra ‘just couldn’t feel the fire’ or whatever else random nonsense she spewed to justify the cut that day.
Lea T may not take the modelling world by storm, as it is reported she is now persuing a career in veterinary medicine in Milan, but she may have forever changed the modelling world.
In all honesty, most high fashion models look ambiguous and androgynous, which is what makes them so intriguing, so a transgender model doesn’t exactly raise eyebrows in an fashion ad, but the campaign is undeniable progress for the transgender community and, based on the results, a welcome, refreshing addition to the fashion world.
