in brief: US department store launches ad campaign with trans* models

New York department store, Barneys’ has launched its fashion advertising campaign featuring 17 trans* models.

The Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters campaign, spearheaded by David Freeman, aims to create awareness and acceptance of the trans* community.

Despite the social advances achieved by gays, lesbians and bisexuals and their presence in the media, Freeman’s concept aims to tackle the fact that the ‘transgender community has not shared in that progress’.

The depiction of trans* people in media is often surrounded by stigma and ignorance and has even lead to the suicide of community members as in the case of a trans*woman outed by a sports blog.

Trans*man Ryley Pogensky was pleased with the outcome of the shoot, originally sceptical of how Freeman would take the campaign creatively.

‘I was like, “I hope this isn’t something where, like, they have all the trans*men wearing tutus”,’ Ryley told Jezebel.

‘He’s really committed to sharing these stories and talking about the trans* world and just really trying to uplift and give money,’ he said.

‘I was really happy when I realised it wasn’t going to be some weird art school project.’

The campaign extends with interviews and character profiles of each of the 17 models used, which will be made on the store’s website shortly, and a documentary on the making of the campaign.

Barneys’ will further donate 10% of its sales on February 11 to US charities National Centre for Transgender Equality and the LGBT Community Centre.