A magazine cover featuring groundbreaking Melbourne model Andrej Pejic has been deemed too racy for magazine stands in the US because the gender-bending "Broady boy" is bare-chested and looks too feminine.
The 19-year-old from working-class Broadmeadows has taken the fashion world by storm with his androgynous look, modelling womenswear for Paris couture shows and even wearing a wedding dress for Jean Paul Gaultier.
But his latest magazine cover for the New York-based magazine Dossier Journal - in which he is pictured taking off his shirt with his long blond locks in curlers - has been ruled too risque by US bookstores Barnes & Noble and Borders, which are covering the image with an opaque sleeve.
Dossier creative director Skye Parrott told the Huffington Post that the magazine had informed both stores that Pejic was male, and that they were essentially censoring the image of a shirtless man.
However, both stores stood by their decisions, saying customers could mistake Pejic for a shirtless woman.
"It's a naked man on the cover of a magazine, which is done all of the time without being covered up, so I definitely don't think it merits this, but I understand what it is," Ms Parrott said.
"It seems that it probably made people uncomfortable. But that's part of what's interesting about the cover, I think, is that it's playing with those ideas of gender roles. He's topless, you can see that he's a man, but if you look at his face, he looks like a woman and he's so beautiful ... "
She said both book stores had asked for all copies of the magazine to be placed in "opaque poly bags because even though they knew Andrej was a man, he looked too much like a woman, basically".
International chains in Britain, where Dossier is also stocked, apparently do not share Barnes & Noble's and Borders' concerns.
Pejic has ridden a global wave of popularity in fashion circles with his "femiman" look.
His reputation was sealed this year when he appeared as a "bride" with a towering veil headdress on Gaultier's Paris catwalk.
At the last New York fashion week, Pejic modelled in five menswear shows and four womenswear shows.
Originally from Bosnia, Pejic moved to Melbourne when he was eight. At the age of 16 he was spotted by a modelling scout while working at McDonald's.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/f ashion/book-giants-censor-aussie- male-models-breasts-20110517-1eqa s.html#ixzz1MaTCluPk
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