Andrej Pejic: Stylemaker of the Year

The model Andrej Pejic is the embodiment of intersections. Australian and Serbo-Croatian, he walks in both men's and women's shows (famously closing Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2011 couture show in a fur-trimmed dress). "The truth is I have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously," Pejic says, although he's stomped in high heels all over the narrow parameters of the chiseled male model. "Most male models have girlfriends, but backstage, when no one is looking, they like to pinch me," he says. In October, he met with the Queen of England as one of the most influential Australians of the year. Pejic wore a vintage leather Versace pencil skirt. "Let's face it, we all love a good queen," he says. "I went for a '90s Sharon Stone look. The palace was beautiful; I felt right at home."

READ A FULL INTERVIEW WITH PEJIC AND WATCH A VIDEO INTERVIEW.

Photographed in New York City by Gavin Bond, September 10, 2011