Models Direct reviews the first woman to have signed as a male model – Casey Legler…

Celebration of androgyny is far from a new concept in the modelling and fashion industries and it’s certainly not the first time that we have seen models play with expressions of gender for a photo-shoot. Regular readers of the Talent Management blog will have seen several stories about the young Bosnian male model Andrej Pejic, who is renowned for his feminine looks and for modelling women’s clothing – including wedding dresses.

But former Olympian and artist Casey Legler is the first woman we have heard to have been signed up as a ‘male model’ and Models Direct has been loving the results.

Legler works in the mens’ division at Ford Models New York and she has become the subject of some stunning and, at times, thought provoking images. This month, the 35-year-old model has even inspired Observer reporter Eva Wiseman to ask, “Is she the perfect man?”

But this 6’2″ model has more than a female model that can rock men’s style – she is deeply passionate about what she does. “My job is to be brave. And to show what that looks like,” she told Wiseman. “And if that moves other people to be exactly who they are – [swears] this is going to make me cry – well that’s what it’s for. This… is just what it looks like for me.”

“We’re social creatures and we have a physical language of communicating with each other but it would be a really beautiful thing if we could all just wear what we wanted, without it meaning something.

“We have very strict ways in which we identify ourselves as men or women and I think that those can sometimes be limiting. Seeing me on the men’s board … speaks to the notion of freedom, you know.

“There’s something really bold about that, and what it really is saying look… there is also this other way.

“And it’s really rad.”