By Jasmine Chorley Foster
The fashion industry is often seen and portrayed as a gay utopia — a safe haven for young gay men and their straight gal pals. But the industry straddles the worlds of beauty, fashion, advertising, film, television, and more, and these are all spaces that can be alienating, oppressive, and violent for women, people of colour, queer and trans people, poor and working class people, Indigenous people, differently abled people, and people with bodies that are anything other than very thin. Most of us live and the intersection of many of these experiences.
Modelling can make us feel empowered, but it can also make us feel vulnerable and invisible. For Gay Pride month, we’re taking a look at the out LGBT2S identifying models, while acknowledging that we aren’t all as visible and privileged. It’s important to keep those too tired to celebrate in our hearts.
Maybe you aren’t out at work. Maybe you aren’t out to yourself yet. Maybe you’re just not at the point of being loud and proud. Where ever you are right now, you’re valid and we celebrate you.
In a sloppy (if not mildly homophobic) cover story for Vogue’s July 2015 issue, Rob Haskell writes of Cara Delevingne:
Those who have been gathering the crumbs on Cara’s romantic trail may be confused about whether it’s men or women who excite her. She conveys a Millennial’s ennui at the expectation that she ought to settle upon a sexual orientation, and her interests—video games, yes; manicures, no—might register as gender-defiant in the realm of dresses and heels. (“I’m a bro-ey chick,” says Cara.) As this story went to press, she was seriously involved with the singer Annie Clark, better known by her stage name, St. Vincent. “I think that being in love with my girlfriend is a big part of why I’m feeling so happy with who I am these days. And for those words to come out of my mouth is actually a miracle.”
Cara says she felt confused by her sexuality as a child, and the possibility of being gay frightened her. “It took me a long time to accept the idea, until I first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognized that I had to accept it,” she explains. […] Her parents seem to think girls are just a phase for Cara, and they may be correct.
This prompted a petition on Care2 asking Vogue to apologize for characterizing Cara’s relationships with women as a “phase.” The words in the petition read,
He goes on to suggest that she is only dating women due to a troubled relationship to her mother and urges her during the interview to learn to “trust men.” The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades. How could Vogue’s editorial staff greenlight this article and publish it without anyone raising concerns about this dismissive and demeaning language?
What Vogue can’t or won’t say, but what is totally obvious to anyone actually interested in this woman and her life, is that Freja Beha Erichsen is an extremely successful model and she dates women. She is a PJ Harvey-listening, tattoo-having, tomboy-dressing, public-photographs-with-her-girlfriends-allowing, Danish supermodel lesbian. Lesbian. Lesbian. Why is that word so hard to say, Vogue?
Erichsen has been romantically linked to Irina Lazareanu and was Catherine McNeil’s girlfriend. And her sexuality is hardly a secret. When so-French-you-don’t-even-get-how-edgy-it-is Purple magazine ran a nude editorial with Freja in February, it called her «living proof that you can be one of the most important models in current fashion without having to hide your body or your sexuality.» And in a 2007 interview for V magazine with makeup artist James Kaliardos — who is also gay — Freja and Kaliardos both started laughing when he referred to her as «straight.»
«I’m very straight…forward,» she joked.
Despite the gay utopia stereotype, out male models are hard to come by. John Tuite and Carlos Santolalla (or Jarlos) are bucking the trend as the real-life couple are signed to Fusion as a pair. Dazed reports:
Tuite and Santolalla said that they dropped their previous agencies because they were under pressure to conceal their relationship. «We were discouraged from identifying as being gay. They’d rather you be ambiguous about it,» Tuite said. «I met with this one agency and they said, ‘We’d like to sign you, but you have to delete your Instagram account with your boyfriend and you guys can’t go out to parties together anymore.»
Now their relationship is a defining part of their brand and their 36,400 Instagram followers seems to be cool with it.
Jade Willoughby is a two-spirited Ojiibwe-Jamaican model from Canada. In this 2013 Models By Models interview, she chats about her girlfriend, the industry, and what two-spirited means.
Brandon Wilson is a Canadian model, and we asked him what his advice would be for young queer models. «Don’t be afraid to be yourself,» he told The Business Model. «In the fashion industry you are surrounded by people who have been around all sorts of LGBT people, especially if they have been modelling for a long time!» Wilson adds, «Make sure you’re safe and always protect yourself when hooking up/sleeping with someone.» Essential advice for us all!
22-year-old Columbia graduate Hari Nef is the first trans woman signed to IMG Models. She was photographed and interviewed for Vogue this June. Katherine Bernard writes,
Nef hopes that, by being open in her work, she can help others understand that there are as many ways to be trans as there are trans people. “Being a woman is an option, being trans is an option, and they’re options that appeal to me,” she says. “We need to listen to people, not labels, not semantics.”
Tumblr users send her messages, like this one from a young transgender woman from Iraq who is “stealth”—gender-conforming—at her high school: “It’s so lonely being the only person in my town who is trans. I am so thankful that I follow you and other girls on this site . . . maybe I’m living vicariously through you a bit. You’re so brave.”
You can follow Hari on Instagram @harinef.
Andreja Pejic by Patrick Demarchelier, styled by Tonne Goodman, hair by Shay Ashual, MUA Yadim for Vogue’s May 2015 issue | Source
Andreja Pejic by Patrick Demarchelier, styled by Tonne Goodman, hair by Shay Ashual, MUA Yadim for Vogue’s May 2015 issue | Source
Andreja Pejic came out as trans in July 2014. This year she became the first trans woman to land a major cosmetics campaign and to appear in Vogue. She was quoted as saying,
I became this androgynous male model, and that was a big part of my growing up and my self-discovery. But I always kept in mind that, ultimately, my biggest dream was to be a girl. I wasn’t ready to talk about it before in a public way because I was scared that I would not be understood. I didn’t know if people would like me. But now I’m taking that step because I’m a little older—I’m 22—and I think my story can help people. My goal is to give a human face to this struggle, and I feel like I have a responsibility.
As trans actress and activist Laverne Cox said, «It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.»
Russian models Ekaterina (Kate) Bogucharskaia and Tanya Katysheva (both with Next worldwide) constantly document their travels together on Instagram and they may just be the cutest. Follow them at @foxy1kate and @limur_t.
I myself am pansexual (sexual attraction/romantic love/emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity). There is a lot of overlap between pansexuality and bisexuality and a lot of complicated politics as well (see here). As a teenager, I was trying to make sense of my gender and sexuality while wearing all the layers of what I thought I had to be as a model. And being surrounded by beautiful women, mistaking attraction for jealousy, was quite painful for me. I stopped modelling in 2011, and I had to really sever myself from the industry and certain social circles to finally come to terms with who I am. But in a small way, knowing about Freja and others comforted me until I was ready to really come out to myself.
Tasha Tilberg, now in her thirties, has been working and in-demand for 15 years, and she’s been out for almost her entire career. An article for SheWired says,
Tasha Tilberg by Nick Hudson, styling by Bex Sheers, hair by Hiro + Mari, MUA Ingeborg, manicure by Angel Williams, produced by Mirham Ascencio for the June 2015 issue of Elle Mexico | Source
Tasha Tilberg by Nick Hudson, styling by Bex Sheers, hair by Hiro + Mari, MUA Ingeborg, manicure by Angel Williams, produced by Mirham Ascencio for the June 2015 issue of Elle Mexico | Source
As a lesbian working and succeeding in the world of modeling, Tilberg knows there is a gulf between reality and the world advanced by the fashion industry. She’s had to come to terms with that void herself. […] She never felt that her sexuality was a liability at work, even though she was one of the few out women in the profession, but she did sense her identity was being subsumed by the bright light of the runway.
Tilberg resumed her career in 2000 with a firmer sense of self. “I got my ears stretched [with gauges in her lobes]. People got pretty freaked about that,” she recalls with a laugh. “But I figured I may lose jobs, but maybe I’ll gain others. At least I can feel good when I wake up in the morning.” She also set some boundaries for the types of jobs she wanted. No lingerie shoots. No assignments where she has to play straight.
“The fashion industry used to be much more closeted for girls,” [Tilberg] says, noting that ascension of lesbian models is a good thing not only for fashion but for culture. “I think it’s great for people to realize that we are everywhere and not a stereotype,” she says. “We are everywhere, and we look like everybody else.”
The Business Model wishes you all a safe and happy Pride!
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