In New york, one day you are out, and the next day you are in!

A handsome black man who can also look an awful lot like a beautiful black woman, except with better legs than most and a beard, happened to end up on the November cover of French Vogue Magazine last summer.  The man, Andre J., and who was born Andre Johnson 28 years ago in Newark, who is a sometime party promoter, former perfume salesclerk at Lord & Taylor, former publicist at Patricia Field’s boutique and current downtown personage (an “It” person, as he was termed in Paper magazine). Hey, if you are hanging with Amanda LePore and the boys from Heatherette, you're running with a good crowd!

Then,  if Bruce Weber photographs you, you have arrived darling! While on the street one day in summer 2007, Andre J.  was spotted by stylist Joe McKenna, who was then on the phone with fashion photographer Bruce Weber. With McKenna's encouragement, Weber decided to shoot Andre J. for French Vogue, and Carine Roitfeld, the magazine's editor, deemed Andre J.'s photos the freshest of all Weber's images. Roitfeld put a photo of the bearded Andre J., dressed in a women’s blue neoprene Burberry trench coat, ankle boots, and a cocktail ring, on the cover of her magazine. 

These days you can catch his Diana Ross performance on YouTube for designer Mal Sirrah's spring/summer 2008 line - Andre J. sports a big white Marilyn Monroe wig.

"As the designer that orchestrated this amazing video with Andre J, I can honestly tell you all that he is truly an amazing being. Andre J is pure love and sunshine. There are days when I don't feel my best and I will honestly come to this YouTube video to cheer myself up. I can actually go back to the day that this video was shot and absorb the magnificence that encompassed the studio. After watching this video I am ready to face the world!"

Though Andre J. often wears women's clothing, he does not consider himself a crossdresser. Rather, he sees himself as unconfined by gender and social conventions."Most people are conditioned to think of a black man looking a certain way," he told the New York Times. "They only think of the ethnic man in XXX jeans and Timberlands, and here Andre J. comes along with a pair of hot shorts and a caftan or maybe flip-flops or cowboy boots or a high, high heel." Most recently, Andre J.'s style inspirations have included Cher and model Donyale Luna. He describes his aesthetic as a "60s, not mod, but mod-ish, and hippie look" that is also influenced by the style of 1970s blaxploitation films.

Called a "cheerful muse" by New York Magazine, Andre J. says his positive outlook on life has influenced his style: "I want people to look at me and feel inspired, to feel hope, to smile. I want to surge positive energy in your body, confirm that you too can be yourself." He says he has been affirmed by strangers telling him that they were glad he was alive, and he believes that he was put on the earth "to be a bodhisattva, to just glow, emanate love, respect, peace, pizzazz".

You might catch him hosting swank and fun parties at clubs like Lotus and Hiro some evenings! Stop by his MySpace page for all his doings!


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