Chanel has cast its first openly transgender model as the face of a beauty campaign

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28th Aug 2019

While the roster of faces for Chanel’s beauty collection has always included notable names—Lily-Rose Depp, Kristen Stewart and the brand’s new ambassador for their fragrance arm, Margot Robbie—its latest recruit may be the fashion house’s most ground-breaking to date.

Making her debut on Chanel Beauty’s Instagram feed just days ago, it’s been confirmed that Teddy Quinlivan is Chanel Beauty’s new face, a landmark hire for the French house by way of being their very first openly transgender model recruit in history.

Quinlivan posted the first imagery produced in her partnership with Chanel to her own Instagram, expressing her excitement for her new role at great length in the following caption:

“I find I don’t cry anymore when things are sad, but isn’t it interesting when we shed tears in moments of triumph,” she wrote. “This was one of those triumphant cry moments for me. My whole life has been a fight. From being bullied at school consistently, kids threatening to kill me and going into graphic detail how they were going to do it, my own father beating me and calling me a fagot, to receiving industry blowback after speaking publicly about being sexually assaulted on the job… This was a victory that made all of that shit worth it.”

 

As some may already know—and as Quinlivan has confirmed herself—this isn’t the first time the model has worked with the brand. In the same caption, she explained that while she’d already walked in two Chanel shows in the past, she has done so in “stealth”, explaining the term to mean that she hadn’t yet chosen to make her trans identity public yet.

Despite fearing backlash in the form of less, or no, work particularly when it came to such an industry fixture, Quinlivan was rightly proven wrong in her latest modelling assignment.

“I thought I’d never work with the iconic house of Chanel ever again,” she wrote. Adding: “But here I am in Chanel Beauty Advertising. I am the first openly trans person to work for the house of Chanel, and I am deeply humbled and proud to represent my community… Thank you to everyone who made this dream a reality!”

Following her emotional post, praise for her new barrier-breaking role came in thick and fast, with fellow openly transgender actress, Laverne Cox, commenting: “Amazing. Congratulations darling!!” A number of industry powerhouses also joined in on the well-wishing, with John Galliano, Peter Dundas and model, Karen Elson, congratulating Quinlivan.

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Having already filmed a quick-cut beauty tutorial featuring a number of Chanel Beauty products, we can’t wait to see what else comes out of this exciting partnership.