Brazilian trans model Lea T has made history by becoming the first transgender model to front a global cosmetics campaign, as she has been chosen as the new face of hair-care brand Redken.
Lea is to be the face of the brand’s Chromatics hair color campaign starting from January 2015. She describes the new role as “an honor and a responsibility at the same time,” and praised Redken for celebrating diversity:
“I love working with Redken because they appreciate all kinds of beauty. They believe in the individuality of the person, and I think that’s really important.”
While the choice of Lea to front the campaign would always have been notable, it’s particularly significant given that the Chromatics campaign will be global, with the model’s face and hair to be seen in salons and adverts across the world.
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Lea reportedly first started exploring her femininity when she befriended Riccardo Tisci, now the head designer at Givenchi. She told French Vogue:
“One night he encouraged me to wear pumps to a party. We went shopping for ‘drag queen’ shoes and we bleached my eyebrows. It was a revelation.”
Lea went on to become Tisci’s “muse,” and made her modelling debut in Givenchy’s autumn-winter 2010 campaign. Since then she’s appeared in several campaigns and editorial shoots, but this is undeniably her biggest role yet.