ANDROGYNY IN FASHION

ANDROGYNY IN THE FASHION WORLD

Androgyny was seen as a highly modern trait within the fashion world, famously becoming popular in the 1960s as Twiggy unveiled her pixie haircut. From then on, it became popular for women to wear their hair short – a great contrast to the 1950s “up-dos”. This caused dominance within the British fashion industry as mod fashion developed, in keeping with the androgynous style.

Nowadays, androgynous fashion has become extreme, moving on from a simple pixie crop, to pre-op transsexual models.

New model, Lea T is causing a stir in the fashion world after modelling with Kate Moss in the androgynous issue of LOVE magazine and appearing in Givenchy’s A/W 2010 campaign.

Her striking beauty (a face too distinctive to be called ‘merely pretty’), full lips, strong jaw and long hair; mean that Lea fits the obvious model ‘type’. However, she is causing a stir within the world of high-fashion as there is more to her than meets the eye. Lea, born Leandro is an out and proud transsexual. As this aspect to her life is a rarity within the fashion world, it has helped her to become well known within fashion circles.

Classically androgynous models such as Agyness Deyn and Andrej Pejic (a young Australian model) have become increasingly popular throughout the noughties as they have provided designers with iconic looks to grab the attention of budding “fashionistas”.  However, Lea T has broken the mould with her transsexual modelling career, testing the publics’ levels of acceptance.

However, Lea’s open transsexuality has made her subject to a great deal of personal problems as well as boosting her career. She has admitted to having problems with her sexuality at a young age. Being confused as a child she remembers she had no “defined sexuality”. Her controversial life decision has also angered her strictly Catholic family, who claim to have disowned her and caused a family dispute.

The enduring difficulties which Lea incurred when she chose to switch sex are something which she became extremely insecure about. She chose to break through the barrier of humiliation by putting her circumstances into a very public situation and seems to have accepted that romantic relationships will become harder to attract.

Lea is proving to be an ambassador to an increasingly misunderstood community, as she is creating awareness within the large industries of both fashion and consequently advertising... And she couldn’t have been brought into the limelight at a better time – fashion as a whole is in need of more modern controversy and iconic personalities!