Trans Models Are Not A Trend
IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, headlines boasted that Marco Marco underwear’s latest fashion show at New York Fashion Week was “groundbreaking.” Part of a history-making fashion month where a reported 83 openly trans women were cast across 52 shows (the most ever), the Marco Marco presentation featured the likes of Dominique Jackson, Trace Lysette, Laith Ashley, and Aydian Dowling. It was said to be the first in NYFW history to boast a runway that exclusively featured transgender models. But in the days following, many of those stories had to be edited, and their proclamations dialed back, as social media began to point out that while Marco Marco probably now holds the record for the most trans male models in a runway show, the event was not the first of its kind. Another brand, created by a trans woman of color, had done the same three years before: In 2015, Gogo Graham put on her first NYFW show, displaying her fifth collection of one-of-a-kind pieces for (and modeled by) trans femmes.
As trans models begin to find increased representation in the industry, they face a new set of challenges—like historical erasure—as brands attempt to tokenize them, and use them have is an opportunity afforded to them not only through society’s changing attitudes, but through inroads made by their predecessors, who are part of a collective, 60-plus-year history that, to many, is unknown.
