LEA T- E

A Look At Lea T: The Model, The Muse, The Pioneer

by Verena von Pfetten | 12:10 pm, August 2nd, 2010

Lea T may very well be our favorite model of the season. She first caught our eye in Riccardo Tisci’s Givenchy Fall/Winter 2010 ad campaign, but her profile and accompanying image [NSFW] in this month’s French Vogue solidified it for us: she’s beautiful. But who is Lea T — other than Tisci’s former personal assistant, that is?
***Scroll down for images.***
Lea T. was born Leandro Cerezo in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as the son of soccer star Toninho Cerezo. Though Lea did not begin experimenting with her sexuality until she went to school in Italy, she tells French Vogue that both she and her father knew she was different.

“When papa came home he would look at me and say there was something wrong with me. In the years to come, everyone started to pray that I was gay. It would have been the lesser evil for a religious family used to rules and type of colonial, rigid way of life.”

But it wasn’t so clearcut for Lea. As an adolescent, Lea says she was attracted to both boys and girls, and that the idea of transsexuality terrified her. “I was curious then recoiled with fear, telling myself, ‘I am not like that,’” she explained.
And then, a few years later, she met Tisci, while the designer was still in school at Central St. Martin’s in London. It was Tisci who recognized what The Guardian calls Lea’s “inherent femininity.”

“One night he encouraged me to wear pumps to a party,” she recalled in French Vogue. “We went shopping for ‘drag queen’ shoes and we bleached my eyebrows. It was a revelation.”

But while Lea may have found herself thanks to Tisci’s good eye, it hasn’t been a seamless transition. Lea’s nuanced and honest explanation of what the so-called “revelation” has been like is both refreshing and heart-wrenching. And makes us love Carine Roitfeld all the more for featuring her in the mag — which Lea agreed to do “in the name of all my transsexual friends.”
From the Guardian’s profile of the model:

“I would wander the streets, full of hormones, depressed, with people laughing behind my back…
Lea, who says she “cannot allow [herself] the luxury of being in love”, is pessimistic about her chances of finding happiness with someone else. Those transsexuals who do enter into serious relationships, she says, often do so by keeping their past from their partners.
“They live as hypocrites; it is a variation on solitude,” she said. “We transsexuals are born and grow up alone. After the operation we are born again, but once again alone. And we die alone. It is the price we pay.”

But for Lea, the decision was worth it. “The choice,” she says, ”is between being unhappy forever or trying to be happy.” We couldn’t be happier for her. Thanks to friends like Tisci — who calls Lea “a true goddess” — and supporters like Roitfeld, Lea is not only changing the face of fashion, but changing the way we view and talk about sexuality in the industry, in America, and around the world.

Meet the latest hot supermodel off Brazil's production line... but can you guess what's different about her?

Fashion muse: Transgender model Lea T is the star of Givenchy's new ad campaign

As the muse of Givenchy's creative director Riccardo Tisci, supermodel Lea T has graced the catwalk at the label's recent Haute Couture show, and stars in its new campaign.
But the Brazilian beauty, who is currently the toast of the fashion world, has been making headlines for more than just her looks.
The 28-year-old was actually born Leandro Cerezo - male - and is undergoing hormone replacement therapy in preparation for a full sex-change.
Lea, whose father is former footballer Toninho Cerezo, has now made further waves in the fashion industry by posing naked in French Vogue.
She also appears in the current issue of Italian Vanity Fair, in which she describes how she struggled with her identity, but always felt feminine.
She describes how, even in her previous career as a male model, casting directors would confuse her with the female models.
'I had a big Afro similar to Michael Jackson's in his Jackson Five days,' she said.
'When I walked into a room for a casting, there would always be someone who would say: "The girls' casting is that way!"'
But her transition from man to woman has not been straightforward. She described how she was taunted while walking down the street in Italy, and that the hormone treatment had left her feeling 'constantly premenstrual'.

Tisci first spotted Lea's potential when she was appointed as his personal assistant. He said: 'Lea has innate elegance - she's a true goddess!'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1298084/Meet-Brazilian-sex-change-supermodel-Lea-T-hot-production-line.html#ixzz1Cvx74MJS