Trans model Hari Nef made MAJOR fashion history this week
While we were all just going about our super-normal weeks, trans model Hari Nef was making fashion history. As Refinery 29 reports, Nef just signed with top modeling agency IMG Models (oh, you know, just the agency that Gisele Bundchen belonged to and Chanel Iman still belongs to, no big). With this historic move, Nef just became the first U.S.-based trans model on the IMG boards. Check out the sweetheart Instagram shout out from IMG’s senior VP and managing director Ivan Bart.
The post was a regram of Nef’s original selfie, which she captioned:”I can’t verbalize how thrilled i am to be joining the @imgmodels family thanks are due to @ivanmbart for his generosity and vision.”
It’s been a big year for Ms. Nef. She was featured in a campaign video for Selfridges “Agender” unisex line, a Paper magazine spread (in which she was named one of 2015’s most beautiful people), and was recently voted one of Dazed magazine’s 100 most influential fashion, film, and music rebels.
As Nef told Dazed, she’s all kinds of ready for 2015 because “This is the part where I break free, ‘cos I can’t resist it no more!”
She also feels incredibly optimistic re: the future for artists who, in the past, have had trouble finding their place in the mainstream.
“The establishment is growing more and more afraid – paranoid. Institutions are beginning to throw money at fearlessness. Right now it’s worse to be out of touch than it is to be a rule-breaker. In 2015, I feel like a lot of deserving folks are going to get their turn.”
2015 has been an awesome year for trans models. We cheered hard earlier this year when Andreja Pejic made her catwalk debut following her gender reassignment surgery and we jumped to our feet to give Pejic a standing ovation when she became the first trans model to be featured in Vogue this month. We love Pejic and Nef for shaking up the fashion world and doing their part to expand the definition of what it means to be a supermodel.
