Andrej Pejic Talks Lea T. and Kissing Karolina Kurkova
Photo courtesy of StyleCaster
Blond(e) ambition: Andrej Pejic in his "Boy Wonder" StyleCaster editorial
He's starred in the Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring 2011 campaign, hit the runway in a wedding gown for Jean Paul Gaultier, and elicited double-takes with his smoldering, feminine beauty and long blond mane. Now it's time for model Andrej Pejic to spill the beans.
The gender-bending Serbian-Australian male model is the subject of StyleCaster's "Boy Wonder," in which he opens up about his whirlwind success while slipping his willowy frame into designer womenswear from the likes of Rodarte, Ohne Titel, and Marchesa for photographer Thomas Lohr.
"I think the media storm is very surprising since models don’t really get so much attention these days," Pejic says of his newfound fame. "So I guess it has gone beyond just the fashion industry or any model ranking, which is nice because it’s offering me a wide array of opportunities. But sometimes I do just have to stop and hit myself in the head with my diamond-encrusted vase."
Though Pejic admits his feminine appearance has garnered comparisons to transsexual model Lea T., he is wary of lumping them in the same category.
"Well, I don’t think my situation and Lea T.'s are completely different when it comes to our personal lives but that’s personal, for me at least," he says. "And I really think people should stop trying to categorize me because of their need for labels. When it comes to our professional lives, well, she only does womenswear and I think I cover more fields. Some people in the industry will use us in a very similar way to represent similar ideas and some will want me to be a bit different from her—more androgynous, more boyish, or even sexless rather than womanly. I think professionally I am capable of being very versatile."
That versatility has involved walking in both Gaultier's menswear and womenswear shows ("It was like a dream," Pejic says of his bridal turn on the designer's haute couture runway), as well as kissing look-alike supermodel Karolina Kurkova in Gaultier's Spring 2011 campaign.
"Literally the photographers just told us to turn to each other and lock lips and it took maybe 10 minutes to shoot," he says of the smooch. "It’s like our lips were always meant to meet and then the photographers had to separate us!"
Photo courtesy of StyleCaster
Andrej Pejic shows his versatility on StyleCaster
For more, visit StyleCaster.com and pick up the latest issue of The Block Magazine.
