Trans model Andreja Pejic

Andrej Pejić (pronounced ‘pay-itch’) was a 16-year-old kid from Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, tall and willowy at 1.85m, with a tiny waist and racehorse limbs — not that you could really tell in those baggy clothes.

‘It took me 10 years to get here,’ she tells Australia’s Sunday Telegraph Style magazine today (8 March)

‘And there was never a moment when I didn’t want this.’

Pejic, who was scouted while working at McDonald’s in Melbourne, came out publicly as transgender in July 2014 after having gender reassignment surgery in the US.

‘It was a very, very intense year,’ she says.

‘I achieved my personal dream and completed my transition to be able to live life as a woman. I came out to the world and the press, then started rebranding and planning my comeback.’

Since her runway debut in 2008, Pejic has enjoyed a career which is going from strength to strength. She has walked the runway for Marc Jacobs, appeared on the cover of GQ magazine and has been featured in editorials for Elle and Vogue.

However, she cites legendary gay fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier as the man who helped unlock her potential.

‘I started with his men’s shows,’ she explains.

‘Then did his women’s shows, the couture, the [women’s] campaign. [Gaultier] came along and supported me at the right time when I needed people to understand my aesthetic and what kind of career I could have.’ The 23-year-old model says she was not scared of the operation, but more worried about how the fashion world would react. – See more at:

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