Andrej Pejic Stuns in Dossier
Andrej Pejic is crossing gender lines once again in a fashion shoot that explores the subject of—what else?—androgyny for Dossier issue No. 7
Photographed by Collier Schorr, the Serbian-Australian stunner suits up in such men’s styles as a Lanvin tuxedo shirt and pants, a patterned Yohji Yamamoto suit, and a Comme de Garçons coat with Calvin Klein boxers. But with his feminine features, rolled hair, and red-polished toenails, Pejic will definitely have readers doing a double take—and that’s exactly the point.
“In these images, Andrej is somehow both sexless and hypersexualized,” writes T. Cole Rachel, whose essay accompanies Pejic’s pictorial. “Depending on the viewer, Collier’s images reveal either the most beautiful boy ever or a striking blonde goddess. He is neither. He is both.”
Indeed, Collier, whose black-and-white cover shot of Pejic shows him peeling off his shirt in black pants and hair curlers, says androgyny is all about being one thing but looking like something in between two.
“For Andrej, one senses he is a combination but he is also so strong and confident,” the photographer says of Pejic, who has walked in Gaultier’s Fall/Winter 2011-12 Haute Couture show and Yoana Baraschi’s Fall 2011 presentation, appeared in a StyleCaster editorial and glossies including Vogue Paris, and starred in Spring 2011 campaigns for both Gaultier and Marc by Marc Jacobs.
“It is as though he is perfectly at ease in his skin, clothes and identity, which can be unusual for people who look the opposite of what they are. I don’t want to see him as an outsider. I want him to be comfortable being seen in totality, rather than being cast as a woman or a man, but not to be asexual—to be sexy, even if we aren’t sure who he is seducing.”
Adds author Rachel, “It matters less whether a person is a beautiful man or a beautiful woman … What first enters the brain is simply that they are beautiful.”
We certainly won’t argue with that!
Dossier No. 7 hits newsstands May 1.