The (lady) boys of Spring Summer 2011

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Andrej Pejic may have only done four shows during the just-wrapped Paris menswear season, but he proved the talk of the town. Since frockwriter caught up with his news on Friday and Saturday, where hasn't he been? A spot in WWD (above), complete with the headline "Gender bender", Fairfax's WA Today and The New Zealand Herald (and The Sydney Morning Herald on July 3), while influential modelling website models.com asked on Facebook, "Andrej Pejic is getting a lot of buzz lately, do you like his look?". Profiles popped up on Pages Digital and Tokyo Dandy, with the Beauty Hunter blog asking “Is Andrej Pejic the most androgynous male model on the planet?”. On Twitter, MusaKL reported "Everyone in Paris last week kept talking about this one model from Down Under: Andrej Pejic", while Homotography noted "i keep getting asked who's the blond in these shows" and “Even professional fashion databases are mistaking Andrej Pejic for a girl!” According to photographer Antonio Barros, "he was the icon of this season".

The big question - will all this buzz translate into bigger bookings for Pejic?

Beyond the Facebook mention, the chatter did not appear to cut any mustard with models.com, which curiously left Pejic out of both its top walkers and Top 10 Newcomers lists for the SS11 menswear season.

According to his Australian mother agency Chadwicks, Pejic was already booked for one advertising campaign in Milan next week. There is as yet no update on other bookings. But frockwriter predicts we may well see him in some capacity at next week's haute couture shows in Paris. Yes, they are women's shows but men make the occasional appearance.

The New York Times' fashion critic Cathy Horyn, meanwhile, made no mention of Pejic in her review of the week, but she did seem a little perturbed by the feminisation of the collections, which featured skirt-like shorts - and even dresses at Comme des Garçons.

Noted Horyn:

"men are having a hard time, as Hanna Rosin observed in an article in the current issue of The Atlantic, its tag line, “How women are taking control — of everything.” Men are wimping out, in the example of Judd Apatow’s chronic adolescent characters, or being mowed down by Beyoncé and Lady Gaga....You sensed a little of this problem at the shows, and it was not a pretty sight".

At least two other Australian men walked the Spring/Summer 2011 runways. Priscillas has yet to confirm exact show numbers, but they report their very cool-looking Jakub Vasak walked in at least Alexander McQueen, while Broed Dillewaard nabbed Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gazzarrini.


jakub vasak at alexander mcqueen SS11/style.com


broed dillewaard at louis vuitton SS11/style.com


Below is a great little video on the boys of Paris Fashion Week just-posted by Paris-based photographer Justin Wu.

Pejic makes a very brief cameo at 1.57.