Amanda Lepore
Amanda Lepore (born December 5, 1967 in Cedar Grove (New Jersey) ) is an American fashion icon, lives openly as a trans woman and works as a photo model , nightlife hostess, musician and author. Lepore has been working as a model for photographer David LaChapelle since the late 1980s . She also models for the fashion company Heatherette .
life and work
Amanda Lepore was born Armand Lepore in Cedar Grove, New Jersey . Her father worked as a chemical engineer . Since the age of eleven, Lepore had had a need for "sex reassignment" (see gender reassignment measure ) after watching a television program on the subject. She went to school in girls' clothes, after which she was expelled from school and homeschooled. Her mother suffered from schizophrenia during Lepore's childhood .
At the age of 15, Lepore was already designing and producing costumes for transsexual dancers at a local strip club. She exchanged these for hormones. With that she started her transition. Her head of house recommended that she see a psychiatrist , who diagnosed transsexuality and prescribed hormones to help her continue her transition. On the recommendation of her father, Lepore began training in the beauty sector as a beautician and hairdresser.
A short time later, Lepore got together with her first boyfriend, who initially knew nothing about her transsexuality. When she revealed this to him, both he and his parents accepted Lepore as a trans woman. Her boyfriend and in-laws tried to get Lepore to undergo and finance a gender reassignment surgery. As a minor under the age of 21, this was not possible for her for the time being, as she did not get her parents' consent. Her father-in-law then adopted Lepore so she received her sex reassignment surgery at the age of seventeen. She later married her boyfriend and lived with him in his family home. During this time Lepore sewed clothes and costumes at home, her style role models were the bomb shells of the 1950s such as Marilyn Monroe , Zsa Zsa Gabor , Jayne Mansfield and Anita Ekberg . She had other cosmetic surgeries performed on her body.
Arguing that she wanted to keep her transsexuality a secret, her husband forced Lepore not to work and mostly to stay at home. She decided to flee this situation and spent seven months saving money for her escape. After her escape, Lepore remained in contact with her father-in-law, who, although understanding for her escape, had also done her sexualized violence .
Lepore then moved to New York City in the late 1980s , where she initially worked as a nail model and later as a dominatrix . The latter enabled her to live independently with her own apartment. Lepore later frequented Michael Alig's underground conceptual party series Disco 2000 , Jackie 60 and Beige clubs , where she received a lot of attention for her appearance as an It Girl . Since then she has worked as a make-up artist for the costume and fashion designer Patricia Field during the day and as a bartender in clubs in the evening. Her transsexuality was valued as a specialty in both spheres.
While working in a bar on the Bowery , she met the photographer and director David LaChapelle . She started her career as a photo model by working for him. He played with her z. B. the Marilyn Monroe screen prints by Andy Warhol as photographs with the use of massive mask and staffage . With Lepore, LaChapelle staged queer themes with associations with transsexuality , BDSM and the 1950s revival . She participated in the Artists and Prostitutes 1985-2005 exhibition in New York, where she "lived" in a voyeuristic life-size set. Photos with her appeared in the photo book of the same name by LaChapelle Artists and Prostitutes (Cologne: Taschen, 2006, ISBN 3822816175 ).
Since 2005 Lepore has been a musician and produces disco with a hip-hop twist.
Lepore models for the companies Heatherette , for Dsquared2 by Dean and Dan Caten , MAC (cosmetics), Mego Jeans, Swatch , CAMP Cosmetics. Lepore represented the fashion company Heatherette several times at New York Fashion Week .
In addition to her transition, Lepore had a number of other plastic surgery operations performed on her body. She had a rhinoplasty performed . Lepore has had three breast augmentations so far , two times her eyes were slanted, her forehead was lifted, her hairline was pulled down and her browbone was reduced. She also had her forehead, buttocks and hips enlarged with liquid silicone injections. Most noticeable are her, in the same way, enlarged lips, which were subsequently made smaller. She also had her lower rib broken and pushed inward to create a waist.
Amanda Lepore published her autobiography Doll Parts in 2016 .
Lepore lives in New York City.
Discography
Albums and EPs
- 2005: Introducing ... Amanda Lepore , EP, mp3
- 2007: My Pussy , EP, mp3
- 2008: Fierce Pussy (The Remix Album) , Remix Album, mp3
- 2010: Cazwell and Amanda , EP, mp3, in collaboration with Luke Caswell,
- 2011: I ... Amanda Lepore , CD album (with single releases Cotton Candy and My Hair Looks Fierce)
- 2012: Doin 'It My Way , EP, mp3
Compilations
- 2006: I Know What Boys Like on the soundtrack of Another Gay Movie
Videos
- 2001: Sunglasses At Night by Tiga & Zyntherius
- 2009: Cotton Candy by Bec Stupak
- 2011: Turn me over and Doin It My Way by Marco Ovando
- 2012: Doin It My Way , remix video by Sid Licious
literature
- David LaChapelle: Artists and Prostitutes . Cologne: Taschen, 2006, ISBN 3822816175
- Amanda Lepore: Doll Parts . New York 2016
Web links
- Amanda Lepore in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Amanda Lepore at Discogs (English)
- Amanda Lepore's official MySpace
- Amanda Lepore on Last FM
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Amanda's Story from Mao Mag. ( Memento from July 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Online in seven pages).
- ^ A b Exclusive Julien Sauvalle: First Look: Amanda Lepore to Publish Memoir. In: Out Magazin, March 25, 2016
- ↑ Jacqeline Silberbush: The world of the transgender icon Amanda Lepore. In: VICE , April 7, 2015
- ↑ David LaChapelle website, subpage with photos by Amanda Lepore
- ^ Official site of David LaChapelle
- ↑ Gina Vivinetto: Amanda Lepore's New Album Remixes Her Greatest Hits. In: the Advocate, July 31, 2015
- ↑ Dsquared2 fashion show with Busenblitzer, in: Krone.at, May 25, 2011 ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ YouTube: Amanda Lepore for the Heatherette Runway Show
- ↑ Sadie Whitelocks: 'I've got the most expensive body on earth': Celebrated transsexual party-goer speaks out about her 'painful' transformation- including breaking her lower ribs to look thinner. In: MailOnline, January 22, 2014
- ↑ Amanda Lepore on The Insider 2006 (interview in the US TV magazine "The Insider"), in: grinder99er's YouTube channel, uploaded on July 9, 2006
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lepore, Amanda |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American transsexual, model, nightlife hostess, fashion icon and actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th December 1967 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cedar Grove (New Jersey) , New Jersey , United States |