Givenchy gets first Trans Model

July 30, 2010

The designer label Givenchy is getting its first trans woman model.

The model, Lea T, is in the 2010 group image for the brand, posing with a male model.

Lea T, 28, worked with Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy’s creative director and was a former male model before undergoing hormone therapy. She is planning to have genital surgery soon.

She has become a familiar face in the fashion industry, with her story having been told in several fashion magazines, including next month’s French Vogue where she appears naked with her genitals hidden behind her hand.
 

She tells that the magazine she experienced a “revelation” when she wore high heels in public, on the behest of Tisci.

In Italian Vanity Fair, Lea discussed the discrimination and prejudice she faced as a trans woman.

Speaking to WWD, Tisci described the new Lea as "very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic. She’s part of the family".

But Lea’s modeling career as a woman may be short lived – at her request. Tisci added that the trans woman model was leaving the fashion for a career in veterinary surgery.