ANDREJ PEJIC | La Monda
читать дальшеIT IS, IN FACT, IMPOSSIBLE TO SET ANY LIMITS, PIGEONHOLE OR CATEGORISE ANDREJ PEJIĆ. EVEN TO USE A GENRE. THIS SERBIAN-BOSNIAN-CROATIAN MODEL THAT WAS BORN IN THE MIDDLE OF A MILITARY CONFLICT HAS MANAGED TO SUCCEED IN NOT ONLY THE BEST WOMEN HAUTE COUTURE INTERNATIONAL CATWALKS, BUT ALSO MEN’S ONES. ANDREJ KNOWS NO BORDERS.
In your life, the question of identity is key from the very beginning: a Bosnian-Croat father and a Bosnian-Serbian mother, then you were born in Bosnia, you fled the war and ended up in a refugee camp in Serbia before being granted political asylum in Australia at the age of 8… Can we draw a parallel between your multiple origins and your career as both a female and a male supermodel?
I definitely think that I was born in a world of conflict and transition and it has been a theme that has stayed with me for a while. I don’t think it causes who I am, but you can definitely draw a parallel. Before the war, it was normal that my parents were married, but as soon as the war broke up it was almost like strange for them to be a couple because they were mixed race. My brother and I, half Croatian, half Serbian, we didn’t really fit into Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian. Today I don’t fit in any particular gender boundaries, at least physically.
How would you describe yourself?
I try not to describe myself, even though when I do interviews and I work with journalists it is difficult because they want you to summarize yourself into one thing and I find it very limiting. I would definitely describe my last moments as living between genders. You can’t say it’s one or the other.
How should we refer to you? He or she?
A lot of my close friends say ‘she’. But a lot of people say ‘he’ too and I am not offended by that; when you are in this position living this life in between, you can’t be too offended by anything. Either way is fine, but ‘she’ is fine.
Being a supermodel that embodies both genders, maybe you can help us with the following questions:
- What is it to be a woman?
- What is it to be a man?
Sigh. I think to be either one is to be a human being and at the end of the day I don’t think that in reality it is that different to be one or the other, it is just a part of who you are, how feminine or masculine your feelings are. Obviously there is a physical aspect to it and an emotional one.
But you know how to behave as a man or as a woman since you ‘play’ both role, how different is being a woman from being a man for instance?
I have never been really good at playing a man! I can do it for photoshoots very easily, but it is different from living in a man’s world; putting a feminine soul in a man’s world it’s socially mumbo jumbo. I really don’t think it is that different to be one or the other, but society does draw quite a big line. Boys are expected to be a lot less emotional, tougher and, I guess, somehow rough, where girls have a bit more freedom to express themselves, but with little less freedom too because men are obviously the favoured sex. I think women are very sexualised and reduced, at least most of them.
You can often hear that basically you learn to be a woman and that being a man means to be “natural”, “unsophisticated”… but it is as difficult to be a man, or at least to be what is expected of a man, than to be a woman, don’t you think ?
Yes. We are born with a gender identity, as well as a sexual orientation. Most people are not aware of their gender identity because they look in the mirror and if they are female they see a female body; they aren’t even aware. They are more aware of their sexual orientation, who they find attractive. But when the physical part and the mental part don’t match or the match is much more complicated, that is when you become aware of gender identity. A lot of scientists just point out to the fact that it is something we are born with. Of course, later on we definitely learn how to behave in the sense society wants us to behave but there is a biological factor to it. I think that men have definitely as much pressure to be a man, as women have to be woman.
You dress with womenswear, you wear make up… how does it feel for you? Is it a way to be truer to yourself or to ‘play’ with people?
It depends, it is very related to what I feel comfortable in. I didn’t wake up one day when I was a teenager thinking ‘I want to provoke people’. Bleaching my hair for instance, it was a very personal thing: I just wanted to be happy, pretty and comfortable. I was lucky throughout this process to gain a modelling career.
You have experienced war, refugee camp, asylum… what impact does that heavy past had on you? How does it show?
I think it made me extremely political. When I was a teenager I was very inquisitive about life in general, I did a lot of researches to find out why it happened, what happened. I wasn’t so traumatised about it but I saw my mother suffered the consequences; she struggled with depression and anxiety, and obviously my family has been torn apart, so I just went to find out about the facts.
After being uprooted from Europe, what was your first impression when you came to Australia?
It was funny when we moved out from the refugee camp in Serbia; my brother and I were kids and we knew that when we move to Australia he would get a PlayStation and I would get my own room. I really wanted my own room. When we got there we thought we were going to a city because all the postcards were full of skyscrapers, but when you come to Australia it is actually a little bush! In Melbourne there are only skyscrapers in the city but most people live in the suburbs; I remember mum was so disappointed because she is so European, she had always lived in the city and we had to adapt to suburban life. Australian culture is so different from European culture; people are much more private. In Europe people value their terraces and their front yards, the neighbours come and having coffee with each other, whereas in Australia, people look to their back yards, to the privacy, to the fences. It was definitely a culture shock. You are an immigrant and no matter how multicultural Australia is, there is still a level of racism there, so we had to conform and fit in.
Today, where is home for you?
It’s Melbourne where my family is. I live in New York at the moment though, it is my twenties home.
Have you always been attracted to the fashion world?
We’ve heard that for a model your culture about fashion is quite impressive.
I definitely have studied the industry I’m in, I wanted to know about it and to be able to make the right decisions about my career, but I don’t think it is an industry I would have ended up in if I weren’t a model. Also, being a model wasn’t my life goal; growing up with a single mother who was also an academic, we weren’t living in the best circumstances. The biggest opportunity she could give us was to educate us; education was a way for us to go up. So I was very much constraint at school, it was a bit like “if it is not a law or medical degree, don’t come home with a degree”. Modelling, acting and stuff like that wouldn’t seem sensible, it was something for people with rich parents who could afford it.
Was modelling a dream for you?
I think it is something everybody thinks about when they are younger. As a child I wasn’t living the life that I felt comfortable in. Before I decided to let go and be myself, I would just lean on my bed and would dream about situations; it wasn’t necessarily about being famous, it was more about being able to be myself. So modelling was definitely one of those things I would think about, but at the time when I was discovered I didn’t think that I could physically.
Who do you look up to? Writers, artists, models…
I am a big fan of Russian literature; I love Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg,… When it comes to my style, people like David Bowie, Boy George, Amanda Lear,… My favourite model today is Kristen McMenamy.
How do other models react when you show up?
I like to think everyone is pretty okay with it. But it is a very competitive industry; a cut through field where so few models can actually make a career and a living out of it. There is a lot less money than people think. I have definitely experienced some negativity from both sides, because I do both and some people think that it is unfair. It is a bitchy industry, you can’t please everybody.
What attracts you?
Confidence, humour, a kind of wildly outlook, creativity and intelligence.
What is beautiful for you?
Linda Evangelista… I think it has definitely changed. I grew up with my mum who was extremely beautiful but her standards of beauty are very high; she saw Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, those classic beauties, as ultimate beauties. I think she passed this onto me. Not that I think that beauty is so important but I assess. Being in this industry you start finding size zero beautiful too and you start taking on a more modern idea of beauty; you start finding things that are weird beautiful too. For instance, Kristen McMenamy, Gemma Ward, Saskia de Brauw… Not so classic beauty but there is something interesting in their look. It is interesting to see that people that in a normal social situation wouldn’t be considered beautiful in Fashion they are!
Modelling aside, what are your plans?
I don’t know. I definitely want to keep doing this for as long as I can and to try my hand in acting; I’ve just done short film in New York. I am kind of throwing myself in at the deep end to see if I have anything that would point me to that direction, because I don’t want to do anything I’m really shit at. I’m also promoting myself, trying to build the brand and the name to create longevity beyond just high fashion. Maybe I’ll go back to school, who knows, or I’ll end up in a farm.
We’ve heard about a reality show.
We’ve been trying to push that option for a while now and at the moment they are considering it in Europe, actually. I will only do it if it fits with my personality, I would not like to become that crazy person on TV.
We ask this question to everyone interviewed at La Monda. We give you the beginning of the sentence and you have to complete it.
“Artistic expression as a way of defending…”
…questioning the world and exposing the truth about life. INTERVIEW: Guillaume Thomas