Last week my love for the luxury brand retailer Barney’s extended beyond an extreme fondness for their purse collection. Barney’s cast 17 transgendered models for their Spring 2014 campaign and the results were both beautiful and moving. This is the first time that Barney’s has stepped away from their usual catalogue style to do something more controversial. Barney’s “Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters” Campaign will feature videos, images and a short film capturing the lives and stories of the models featured.  
Nothing has changed in the sense that the models are still above 6ft and have the perfect bodies, but the models themselves carry a amazing stories. The campaigns first video told the story of a transgendered couple named Arin Andrews and Katie Hill (that have since broken up). They both grew up in the Bible Belt and helped each other make it through their transformations. 

Check out Arin and Katies story here  along with the other 17 models. 

Dennis Freedman, the man behind Barney’s ad campaign, recently said in an interview with the New York Times: “I was exquisitely aware that in the last decade, the L.G.B. communities have made extraordinary advances, and the transgender community has not shared in that progress”. (Via nytimes.com) This campaign will hopefully bring the world, if not the fashion industry, to be more accepting of people who are transgendered. 

Take a look at some of the beautiful images below. 


 



Personally, I think this is so cool and would love to see more of this in fashion. What do you think of this? Is it taking away from the product or adding a more realistic view to fashion campaigns? 

10 percent of all Barneys sales from Feb. 11 will be donated to the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, both of which partnered with Barneys on the campaign.