For centuries androgyny has been a style, and echo, a fad. In many cases, style in and of itself is about playing up or playing down sexuality. Lea T, however, is anything but androgynous. On the cover of Lurve, she dons a lacy, feathered frock that is transparent in all of the right places. She poses with her hands placed sensuously on either side of her neck, a come-hither pout on her mouth. This is a cover that any model would lie, cheat, steal, or kill to have in her portfolio. What makes Lea T different from all of the other models on the catwalks and covers is that she is transgender.
Lea T has been a fit model and personal assistant for Ricardo Tisci for many years. Tisci is, of course, the creative director for Givenchy womenswear. Lea T appeared in Tisci’s Fall 2010 advertising campaign and, since then, seems to have begun a journey towards supermodel status. In addition to snagging the cover of Lurve, Lea T has also commanded editorial pages of Interview and Hercules magazines. Editorial space has also been dedicated to her in the top of the top, the pinnacle glossy of glossies. We are talking, of course, about the French edition of Vogue.
It seems that there could be very great things in the future for this ground-breaking model. All of this is not to say, of course, that Lea T is the first transgender model. There certainly have been transgender people who have at least attempted to begin careers in modeling. In fact, there was even a transgender model on the reality television show America’s Next Top Model. Lea T, however, seems to be the first to be able to book top modeling jobs and get the focused attention of numerous high-end designers.
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