The fashion industry is one of the most influential of all platforms; its creativity allows it to explore the uncharted and express new notions and ideas from a visual standpoint to be appreciated in their own right. The celebration of transgender models is one of the most highly anticipated movements and is now finally in the midst of its explosion.

Rising to fame from last year’s Eurovision, Conchita Wurst now stands as an icon for trans- people, and is shattering boundaries and wearing away the trans–taboo. Global celebration of this is being encouraged by the high fashion industry with Conchita modelling the closing look in Jean Paul Gautier’s catwalk, along with being shot purely in suspenders in a black and white editorial by Karl Lagerfeld, presenting a prevailing depiction of her with pregnant model, Ashleigh Good, both with barely anything to depend on but their womanhood.

However, Conchita’s negative reception strayed further than just ‘Anti-Conchita’ Facebook pages; many Russian and Belarusian politicians called for their state television networks to edit her from their transmissions and even pushed to boycott the competition entirely. Church leaders called her ‘dangerous’, men shaved their beards in a social media protest, and she was even blamed for fatal Balkan floods. These projections of such outdated and ignorant opinions are recognisably destructive, but such powerful views in combination with online social networks undoubtedly gain misled followers.

Nonetheless, trans- people are leading a cultural shift – and it’s refreshing to see this debate internalized into the world of fashion. Could this be a shift in the elitism or fashion?

 

Beth Arthurs