2011-5-2 Art Nation meets Andrej Pejic

When Melbourne’s oldest department store, Myer, recently reopened their flagship store, they pulled off a huge coup by bringing fashion’s man of the moment, Andrej Pejic, home to celebrate. Pejic joined well known models Jennifer Hawkins and Jessica Hart on the red carpet for the gala opening, but all eyes were on him – the male model who is famous for looking like a woman.



Gender bending goes in and out of fashion. Musicians like David Bowie, the stars of glam rock and Boy George have all blurred the gender boundaries. Riding the current wave is Pejic, the 19-year-old Broadmeadows boy who is threatening to rewrite the laws of fashion.

Art Nation met Pejic during a shoot for J'Aton Couture on his recent return home to Melbourne.

As fashion editor Patty Huntington observes, "There’s something quite sexy and subversive about a man in a dress...

"The effect that Andrej’s had in fashion, it’s really like a bomb going off’."

Pejic has emerged as the poster boy for fashion androgyny. Designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs have been so taken with his unique feminine look that they have featured him in their high profile women's fashion campaigns around the globe. But Pejic’s life and his journey from suburban Melbourne boy to the global catwalk model has not been without its challenges. Born in Tulza, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, his family fled the war torn region in the 1990s before settling in Australia as refugees.

Pejic began to experiment with his ”look” as a teenager and was soon picked up by modelling agency, Chadwicks. Since then his career has taken off internationally, making it the stuff of fairytales. However, his rag to riches story hasn’t pleased everyone. When he took to the catwalk for Jean Paul Gaultier’s women’s haute couture show in Paris - the first man ever to do so - there was a feminist backlash with headlines like, ‘Fashion’s Ultimate Insult to Women’ splashed across the tabloids.

However, Pejic himself is enjoying the ride and claims to be equally happy modelling men’s or women’s fashion. He has even become a role model for many young men eager to express their feminine side and young male models keen to follow his lead.

"Andrej is a special story," says Huntington. "He’s become an icon."

   http://abc.com.au/arts/stories/s3205252.htm