In February 2015, Andreja Pejic sashayed down the ramp for the first time at London Fashion Week. But Andreja is no stranger to the modelling world. Then why did we say that she walked the ramp for the first time at the London Fashion Week? Well, until last year, Andreja Pejic was Andrej Pejic, the famous androgynous male model and Jean Paul Gaultier’s muse. The fashion week appearance was her debut as a fully transformed woman. Pejic became quite the hottie internationally, making it to prominent fashion headlines.
Back home in India, two of the biggest fashion shows happening in the country – the Lakme Fashion Week and Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (now Amazon India Fashion Week) – have never had any transgender model walk their ramps till date, representatives from both fashion shows shared with The Quint.
Meet Sandra Nandeibam, 17, a transgender model from Manipur who wants to walk the ramp at a prominent fashion show in India. But will she be able to?
Nandeibam has a strong profile – a striking bone structure, combined with a sinewy frame. Sandra also stands tall at 5 feet 10 inches.
In an interview with The Quint, Nandeibam says how she is often taken to be a woman by strangers.
Once at a fashion show, other transgender models failed to recognise me, and said I looked like a woman.
– Sandra Nandeibam
After participating in local fashion shows in Imphal, Sandra’s school teacher – who’d graduated from Mumbai and became close to her over the years – told her to move to Mumbai to try her luck in the fashion industry.
I want to model at big fashion shows... on a national level. I don’t want to keep on modelling in Manipur. The money is really less.
–Sandra Nandeibam
Though modelling in Manipur is less lucrative, the interesting fact is that transgender models earn at par with men and women, making about 5000 rupees per show, says Sandra.
Nandeibam plans to pursue a masters degree in Mumbai, and take up modelling offers on the side. When asked if she knows of any transgender models who can guide her in Mumbai, she pleaded ignorance. “No one I know of, no one famous in the media too.”
This year, Sandra has perhaps also become the first transgender woman in the whole of the seven Northeastern states to be given admission to a college under the third gender category. She has enrolled in DM College of Arts, pursuing an honours in sociology. Bur classes are yet to begin owing to the curfew in Manipur.
School wasn’t particularly great for me – the boys used to mock me, tease me, and the teachers mentally harassed me. I mostly hung out with the other two transgenders in my class.
– Sandra Nandeibam
But Nandeibam has now started to make friends with more girls – “Girls are nicer”, she laughs.
Her parents are supportive of her now, but they were livid when Sandra was undergoing gender dysphoria – the stage when a person feels discontent with the gender they are born in.
My father threatened me to not behave like a girl.
– Sandra Nandeibam
But now the father, a BJP worker and farmer, along with the whole family, has embraced her identity. Sandra lives with her family and has a healthy bond with her siblings – an older brother who’s in college and a younger one who studies in junior school – although they do fight maniacally like most siblings do.
Sandra plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy next year from a hospital in Lucknow, right after she turns 18, and starts earning money.
The 1000-odd transgender community in Manipur, or nupi maanbi as they are locally called, encounter less hardships than the rest of the country, according to Nandeibam. There’s Shumang Khumhei, an open air theatre and a big part of Manipuri culture, where transgenders have always performed the role of women; they also run popular beauty parlours in Manipur, and also hotels, exclusively in the border town of Moreh, according to The Hindu.
Like all models, Nandeibam is also religiously devoted to fitness. Every morning she does yoga for 30 minutes; eats only boiled food, and stays away from oily and junk food. Sandra’s favourite dish is iromba.
You will know about the dish iromba if you’ve seen the movie Mary Kom!
–– Sandra Nandeibam
Still, her detractors say she will gain nothing from modelling,and her dream of becoming a top fashion model will never be realised. She has been discouraged by fellow Manipuri transgender models too – “They too tried, but could never make it big,” she quips.
Will Sandra Nadeibam get an opportunity to walk the ramps of a top Indian fashion show?
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)