Transgender Model Stars On French Vogue Cover For The First Time Ever

Vogue Paris has featured a transgender model on its cover for the first time in history.

Starring Valentina Sampaio, the cover features a portrait shot by photographer duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot and is accompanied by the text ‘Transgender beauty: How they’re shaking up the world’.

“This month we are proud to celebrate transgender beauty and how models like Valentina Sampaio, who is posing for her first ever Vogue cover, are changing the face of fashion and deconstructing prejudice,” the magazine wrote on Instagram.

Brazilian-born Sampaio is an actress and top model, previously starring in campaigns for L’Oréal Paris and walking the runway for Saint Laurent.

In her editor’s letter in the issue, Vogue Paris editor Emmanuelle Alt writes that when Sampaio turned up at a studio in London for the photoshoot, she looked “exactly like her idea of a typical French Vogue beauty”.