Meet Caitlyn Jenner, The Woman Who Did Break the Internet
On Monday, the US edition of Vanity Fair revealed the July cover of their 22-page groundbreaking story about Bruce Jenner’s transition from male to female: Caitlyn Jenner was born. After much speculation and rumours bandied about concerning the former Olympic Gold winner’s identity struggle, the truth was finally told in an exclusive two-hour interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s channel back in April. Since then, the world has been eagerly awaiting the appearance and liberation of his female identity. The former athlete and step-dad to the most famous family on TV, the Kardashians, explains how he has struggled with gender issue all of his life, even at the time of the Olympic Games.
Jenner said, “Bruce was always telling lies.” He describes doing public speeches after winning the games where “underneath my suit I have a bra and panty hose and this and that and thinking to myself, they know nothing about me...Little did they know I was totally empty inside.”
Caitlyn Jenner on the July Cover of Vanity Fair, shot by Annie Leibovitz.
The revealing of Caitlyn Jenner, beautifully shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz and styled by Vanity Fair’s own fashion and style director, Jessica Diehl, has been a real deliverance for Jenner: “As soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I’m free,” said Caitlyn on a behind-the-scene sneek peak video. She even created a Twitter account (@Caitlyn_Jenner) simultaneous to the Vanity Fair pre-release and racked up over 1 million followers in the first four hours of creation, beating President Barack Obama and setting a world record. It seems that whether as a man or as a woman, Ms Jenner is pre-destined to break world records; she gently quipped to her now nearly 2,155,000-strong followers: “Another Jenner world record, and at 65? Who'da thought! Humbled and honored to have reached 1 million followers in 4 hrs. Thank you for your support.”
The fashion world was quick to embrace Caitlyn Jenner, applauding her sense of style as well as innate grace and elegance on the Annie Leibovitz shoot. Donning a sultry, Marilyn Monroe-esque beige corset on the cover, Caitlyn’s natural confidence oozes out of her powerful gaze and demure posture; the words “Call me Caitlyn” in bold-faced letters are emblazoned across her feminine waist, while the reminders of Bruce the athlete are present in her toned frame. Inside the shoot, Jenner is dressed only in high-fashion, wearing designers Badgley Mischka, Zac Posen, Hervé Leger, Donna Karan and racier brand Agent Provocateur, for a more seductive yet still tasteful photograph.
Caitlyn Jenner shooting for Vanity Fair, styled by Jessica Diehl
Old-Hollywood glamour and timeless elegance is the key mood of the shoot, whether Vanity Fair’s own direction—as the magazine’s signature sense of fashion—or Caitlyn’s nascent sartorial path, we cannot be certain. It must be difficult for Jenner, coming from a family best known for its fashion choices than intellectual prowess, to find her own style identity among such publicised and picked-apart figures. Nevertheless, putting together a shoot where fashion was to be such a core aspect of it all cannot have been easy for Jenner, whose character and 65 years of repressed femininity were to finally shine forth and set just the right tone for her future as a newly-born woman.
It remains to be seen how Caitlyn will fare upon media scrutiny of her red-carpet outfits, something that every female celebrity in Hollywood has to endure, although it is not to be doubted that the Kardashian side of the family has prepared her for the challenge.
Jenner, who always had a way with words—she has been a motivational speaker for the past decade—said in Vanity Fair, “This shoot was about my life and who I am as a person. It’s not about the fanfare, it’s not about people cheering in the stadium, it’s not about going down the street and everybody giving you ‘that a boy, Bruce,’ pat on the back, O.K. This is about your life.”
Caitlyn’s international recognition came with huge support from a number of celebrities, friends and family members and it cannot be denied that regardless of the public’s opinion of the Kardashian clan, their fame has undeniably helped Bruce’s acceptance as a woman, and pushed the boundaries of social change a little bit further.
To hear Caitlyn in her own words at the Vanity Fair shoot, click here.
