By BONNY GHOSH
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Andrej Pejic settles into a Manhattan cafe with a cup of Earl Grey tea, sitting gracefully, long legs crossed. The blue-eyed fashion model gazes out a window.
A man in a black leather jacket walks up to the window, presses his face against the glass and kisses it. Pejic giggles and admits: “I find it flattering.”
The admirer was likely unaware that the beautiful blond is a man.
As Fashion Week gets started in New York City, Pejic is one of the most recognizable — and controversial — faces in the industry.
He’s the only top-tier fashion model who can walk down the runway as either a man or a woman. And his androgynous beauty has turned him into a trendsetter in an industry that’s always seeking to push the envelope.
“He’s just this beautiful thing that everyone wants a piece of,” said stylist Kyle Anderson, who dressed Pejic for a German magazine cover.
When Pejic speaks, his ever-so-slight Adam’s apple is the first sign of his masculinity.
Though he isn’t trying to be a woman, many in the transgender community have claimed him as their own. Last year, the gay and lesbian magazine Out named him “stylemaker of the year” and put him on its cover.
Pejic graced the covers of 14 magazines last year alone, including an ad campaign for a Dutch push-up bra. In 2011, he was the face for a fashion line by designer Marc Jacobs.
He has walked the runways for heavyweight designers, including John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier.
French designer Gaultier was so enamored of Pejic that he used his look as a source of inspiration for his 2011 men’s- and women’s-wear shows, both of which Pejic modeled in. In the Gaultier men’s show, a pistol-packing, bare-chested Pejic wore a sleek black suit as “James Blonde.”
That was in contrast with the women’s show, where Gaultier crowned Pejic with the prized piece in the women’s-wear collection: a couture bride’s dress.
Life hasn’t always been so easy or glamorous for Pejic, 20. Born in Bosnia, he spent much of his childhood living in a Serbian refugee camp before his family fled to Australia.
He was discovered by a talent scout while working at a McDonald’s as a teenager.
From an early age, Pejic exhibited qualities thought of as traditionally feminine, for instance, preferring Barbie dolls over toy cars. Pejic said acceptance from his friends and family made him comfortable in his own skin.
“I’m lucky in that sense,” he says. “If I had big muscles and were hairy with a beard, I might not be comfortable with that.”
At 6-feet-1, he’s a women’s size 2 or 4. His shoe size is the most problematic. Technically a women’s size 11, he’s forced to squeeze his feet into a size 10 to walk in women’s shows.
With the frenzy of media attention over the past year, industry insiders say Pejic runs the risk of overexposure. Pejic is aware of the fickle nature of the fashion business.
He plans to attend college eventually, having deferred his acceptance to a university in Australia.
Although open to discussing almost anything, he remains secretive about his sexual orientation.
When asked whether he prefers men or women, he smiles and says: “Love has no boundaries.”
