Signing Casey Legler as a young-begetting(prenominal) model pushes boundaries between sexuality and identity.
Despite being declared a trend in 2011 by Vogue, gender as art and performance in bearing appears to be lasting longer than a single season.
With Casey Legler being signed to Ford models exclusively as a male model, she joins transgender model lea T and male model Andrej Pejic in blurring boundaries between the definitions of gendered kayo.
Challenging the traditional concepts of male and female may be easier in an industry that celebrates the outré, particularly in couture.
However, for an industry often in the headlines for the wrong reasons – the skinniness of models, rather than the art of the image – using models who expand the definitions of beauty may help carry on general acceptance and understanding of more fluid concepts of gender.
Legler is a former Olympic swimmer for France who, after quitting swimming, moved to immature York where she worked and studied before being signed to Ford.
Lea T was innate(p) in Brazil to a Catholic family and was named Leandro. From the start of her mannequin career, she has spoken out rough being transgender and the loneliness it preserve cause.
Andrej Pejic, while modelling two men’s and women’s garb, is increasingly building his name on his beauty in pieces designed for women.
While Pejic is known for his reticence on the subjects of gender and sexuality, both Lea T and Legler are using their public profiles as a platform from which to lead discussions on identity and gender.
Lea has been blossom about her decision to undergo sex reassignment surgery in 2012, and it is her unique honesty coupled with her beauty that Benetton is featuring in its dancing/Summer 2013 ad campaign.
Brand Republic says the ads show that Benetton ‘is aligning the genial issues it features in brand advertising with its product campaigns for the first time.’
Benetton president Alessandro Benetton said that “this brand… holds diversity as a value, and the single of differences as a wealth to be treasured.”
In a novel interview with the Guardian, Legler said, “My job is to be brave. And to show what that looks like.
“And if that moves other battalion to be exactly who they are, that’s what it’s for.”
As well as the models wearing the designs, the clothes themselves are playing a exercise in the new discussions about gender.
British designer JW Anderson is making a name for himself through his androgynous designs which focus on the beauty of the clothes, rather than the definition of the person who may wear them.
“I think the brand will always be about androgyny,” he said.
“That kind of mixture of sex and sharing of garments – I think it’s normal. It’s about wearing clothes that tell a story and an emotion; it’s non so much about gender.”
It appears possible that an industry that is on a regular basis accused of various “isms”, particularly size-ism and age-ism, is providing increased space for desolation about gender in its many forms.
And as Lea says in her Benetton video, “I try to be myself.”
Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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