Andrej Pejic

I've become somewhat of a fashion junkie in the past few years.  I used to hate the fashion industry, on account of it being shallow and excessive and a major sponsor of turning "beautiful" into "looking like you're starving".  And it is those things, but mostly only if you take it seriously as, like, a lifestyle.

Case in point

Think of fashion as art, and it all becomes much more palatable.  Some incredible work goes into making a $20K dress, and if said dress ended up on a wall, like other kinds of fine art, instead of hidden away in a closet, the price tag isn't so jaw-dropping.

McQueen's genius could not have been properly captured on canvas

The most recent thing the fashion world has thrown out that makes me squee like a teenager is Andrej Pejic, a 19-year-old Serbo-Australian male model that is bringing androgyny back to fashion in a new and utterly delicious way.

androgylicious

He's beautiful!  And having no breasts and no hips, he's a DREAM for the runway!  And this kid is not a novelty - he's getting serious, high-profile work: he's the new face of Marc Jacobs' Spring 2011 line.

Fashion has always been pretty accepting where sexuality and gender expression is concerned (provided you're not poor or fat, of course), but using a male model in women's clothes - in a non-campy way - as part of an international ad campaign is, I think, relatively revolutionary.  Way to be, Marc.

smoking is still bad for you, though

The fact these clothes look so good on a skinny 19-year-old boy means they were decidedly NOT made for the vast majority of women in the world, and this irks me somewhat.  However, the fact that most fashion isn't made for most women is hardly a revelation, so I'm going to ignore it for now and instead revel in fashion's willingness to genderfuck the world for a while, and hope it's not just a passing fancy.