Conchita Wurst Gets the Karl Lagerfeld Treatment

Photography by Karl Lagerfeld. Styling by Carine Roitfeld.

It's official: Conchita Wurst is the new darling of fashion designers.

At Paris Fashion Week, the Austrian drag queen closed the Jean Paul Gaultier couture show with a bang. Now, the "Rise Like a Phoenix" singer becomes Karl Lagerfeld's muse for the Fall issue of Carine Roitfeld's style bible, CR Fashion Book.

Wurst appears in the latest designer fashion styled by Roitfeld, along with then-pregnant model Ashleigh Good (who, for trivia, was one of the two "lesbian brides" who closed the Chanel couture show last year, and currently fronts Tom Ford's very LGBT-friendly new campaign).

As if the feature couldn't get any queerer, Wurst is also interviewed by the gender-bending model Casey Legler, the first female "male model" (read her Out100 profile here).

According to Karl Lagerfeld, Wurst was chosen as an emerging icon for giving new meaning to drag: "I like Conchita because not only does he really have a voice, but he has done something that's never been done before," said the designer.

The upcoming issue of CR Fashion Book, which hits newsstands on September 4, will be a celebration of past, of-the-moment, and future fashion icons. More pictures and quotes from the interview after the jump.

Click "Next" to see the images.

In a candid interview exclusively for CR Fashion Book, Conchita Wurst opens up to Casey Legler about her childhood and struggles to become the superstar she is today.

On creating Conchita:

Casey Legler: Can you tell me a little bit about your creation?

Conchita Wurst: I created Conchita as the goal of a very long... Well, actually, it's the story of my life. I grew up in a small Austrian village, a quite conservative one, and I was the weird little boy always dressing as a girl.

Conchita on burlesque:

Casey Legler: I'm curious about Conchita in relation to burlesque.

Conchita Wurst: I'd done drag since I was 14, for special occasions, and in 2010 a friend of mine with her own burlesque group was looking for a host. During a party I was just fooling around, taking the microphone, saying stupid, funny things, and she asked me afterward if I wanted to host her burlesque show every Saturday. That was the point when I started to do drag regularly. It was overwhelming for me, because besides having fun and dressing up every weekend, I got to learn from such great artists, people who are allowed to do whatever they want. It opened my eyes to a totally new world.

Carine Roitfeld on Conchita Wurst:
"It wasn't as easy as I had imagined... It was a sensitive subject, but Karl's talent in photographing with a classical style gave more strength to Conchita's character!"

Karl Lagerfeld on Conchita Wurst:

"We have all heard of "bearded ladies" but no one has ever seen a bearded man posing as a lady... This brings new meaning to the term "drag." I photographed [Conchita] for CR with my pregnant bride for the couture, Ashleigh. A skinny musician next to a pregnant top model, it was a game of volumes!"

See the full fashion editorial "The New Normal," shot by Karl Lagerfeld, at CRFashionBook.com