This Ground-Breaking Fashion Show Featured All Trans Models

This Ground-Breaking Fashion Show Featured All Trans Models

The Marco Marco runway at NYFW broke some major barriers. Over the weekend, Los Angeles-based designer Marco Marco unveiled his newest collection as part of New York Fashion Week–and it was a boundary-breaking runway, because all 34 models cast identify as transgender. Though it’s not uncommon for trans models working in fashion to choose not to disclose their gender identity (and to be clear, nor should they have to) it’s almost certainly the first time a major show on the main fashion week circuit featured no openly cisgender models.

There’s an ongoing needed conversation of inclusion in the past fashion seasons that borderlines on tokenism,” Geena Rocero, who opened the show, said in an interview. “But the real tea is that being trans is not a trend; it is life, beauty and power.”

“I flirted with modeling in my early 20s while living in NYC but I had always been shut out because of my curves,” Trace Lysette said in an interview. “I’m too thick for industry standards and not thick enough for plus size. It was nice to be on a runway where none of that mattered and I could let my hourglass be what it is and be confident that the fashion industry is waking up to the many different body types, shades and experiences of this thing we call beauty.”

“This was such a historic moment, and a statement for the fashion industry,” Laith Ashley said in an interview. “Many of the guys had never done something like this before and they displayed so much self-confidence, unity, and courage. Marco has always had a diverse runway, and to have an all trans show, with individuals of all different ages, sizes, backgrounds, colors and identities within the trans umbrella was spectacular.”