Petaluma grad is first openly transgender person named ‘Model of the Year’ at prestigious London fashion awards show

In a photo snapped at her 2021 graduation from Petaluma High School, Alex Consani is smiling, having just received her diploma, and striding across the football field in a pair of black boots with 4-inch heels.

Those chunky boots could not keep Consani from soaring to unprecedented heights in her chosen career as a fashion model.

On Monday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the 21-year-old was named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Council’s annual awards gala — the first openly transgender person to win that accolade.

In accepting the award, she paid homage to the Black transgender pioneers who blazed a trail before her. Models like Dominique Jackson, Connie Fleming and Aaron Rose Philip, Consani said, “really fought for the space I’m in today.”

While thanking her parents, Consani recalled sharing with them, when she was 12, that she “wanted to join this industry. And they met me with support.”

She encouraged other parents to follow their example of acceptance.

“Because change is more than possible. It’s needed.”

In recognizing Consani’s own pioneering accomplishments, the British Fashion Council praised “the global impact of a model who over the last 12 months has dominated the industry.” Consani’s influence, said the council, “transcends the catwalk.”

Consani, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, signed with the IMG Models agency in 2019, when she was just 15.

Her rise to fame was accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when her spontaneous, unfiltered TikTok videos, filmed to battle the boredom of quarantine, attracted an enormous following. She now has 4 million followers on her page, @captincroook.

“This Rising Model is the Master of Gen-Z Humor on TikTok,” declared a 2022 Vogue.com headline, above a profile of Consani describing her as “a new star on the catwalks” who’d recently walked for such labels as Alexander McQueen and Versace.

In October, Consani became the first openly trans model to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, along with Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio.

In that Vogue story, she expressed her excitement over sharing glimpses of her career with her followers.

“I was always interested in (modeling,)” said Consani. “Especially as a young trans girl, I always saw the lack of representation. I wanted to fill the void and show other trans and nonbinary people that it was beautiful to be trans — not something to be ashamed of.”

With those words, Consani was returning to a theme she’s been articulating, with remarkable poise, since adolescence.

“Models don’t need to be female, they don’t need to be male,” she states in one undated interview. “They can be whatever gender they want.

“Anyone can be beautiful. You don’t need a specific gender to be beautiful.”

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.