Life

Barneys highlights lives of transgender models in spring ad campaign

Barneys highlights lives of transgender models in spring ad campaign
Courtesy: Barney's New York
Courtesy: Barney’s New York
Katie Hill and Arin Andrews.

NEW YORK — Barneys New York, an American retail chain of luxury department stores, has partnered with the National Center for Transgender Equality and the New York LGBT Community Center to feature the lives and stories of 17 transgender models and their family members as part of its Spring advertising campaign.

The campaign, “Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters” highlights both the struggles and triumphs a trans person may face in relation to their gender identity.

Each model interviewed by journalist Patricia Bosworth, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The first-person interviews address a range of issues from bullying, discrimination and abandonment to empowerment, self-confidence and unconditional love.

The first couple featured (pictured) are Katie Hill and Arin Andrews from Oklahoma. Hill was the first transgender student to graduate from her Oklahoma high school in 2012, and the former couple, who remain close friends, first met at a transgender support group.

You can read their story here; following is a video introduction:

“Barneys New York is bringing the wholeness and internal beauty of transgender people to the public. Bruce Weber, Patricia Bosworth and Barneys New York have made transgender lives real and have given these models the chance to tell their own touching and inspiring stories in their own voices,” said Mara Keisling, Executive Director for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“‘Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters’ is a powerful reminder of how far we have come culturally as transgender people, and it will help push us further,” said Keisling.

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The campaign, launched Thursday on the Barney’s corporate website, was shot on location in New York City by iconic American fashion photographer Bruce Weber, widely known for his ad campaigns for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, as well as his work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone magazines.

The retail chain also announced that the National Center for Transgender Equality and the New York LGBT Community Center will receive a portion of all sales from Barney’s 11 flagship stores nationwide and Barneys.com on February 11.

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