January 2017 has boldly steered the conversation towards gender fluidity. For instance, National Geographic put Avery Jackson, a nine-year-old transgender girl from Kansas City on their January cover. Jackson is the first member of the transgender community to feature on the cover of the magazine.
And now, closer home, we hear that Czech model, Petr Nitka, a 23-year-old who was born male, but identifies as gender neutral, will participate in the forthcoming Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2017, that begins on 1 February.
Indian ramps have largely steered away from taking a stand in global movements for inclusion or embracing body positive models, save a few well-publicised exercises in tokenism.
We hope Petr’s debut on the Indian ramp will help engender discussion and debate around issues pertaining to gender, within and outside the Indian fashion community.
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