BLONDE AMBITION

On and off the runway, model Alex Consani is proving that an undeniable personality is always a good look. DEREK C. BLASBERG meets the girl of the moment

DEREK C. BLASBERG

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Alex Consani is on the move. Literally. The 22-year-old model is packing all her worldly possessions—mostly clothes—in her Bushwick, Brooklyn, apartment as she prepares to relocate to a town house in Fort Greene. "I have a fucking kitchen island," she declares, clicking her fingers between syllables for emphasis. "We're leveling up!"

Since making history as the first transgender model to win the Model of the Year award at the Fashion Awards in 2024, Consani has done just that. She walked an impressive 19 spring-summer 2026 shows this season, including Courreges, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, and Schiaparelli; graced the covers of Allure, Vogue Japan, and Harper's Bazaar; and appeared in campaigns for designers like McQueen, Coperni, and Zara. "I've had moments where I literally come home for 40 minutes, and I have to repack for a month," she says from her sofa.

What's delaying her today is math and science. "I've actually been watching TikTok's STEM For You page," she says, pulling a face that could launch a thousand GIFs. Last season, Tory Burch's backstage video of the nerd turned supermodel surprising her interviewer by spontaneously reciting the correct number of pi went viral. "I've had three days to pack before I leave the country—and here I am sitting doing math problems," she says. "Very highbrow, no?"

What we may think is the most interesting thing about fashion's newest star often turns out not to be. Yes, she's trans, but she's more of a sample-size comedian and meme machine than anything else, and she doesn't want her gender journey to define her. Consani believes that the best way to advocate for trans rights is to do what she does best: runways, photo shoots, nonstop content creation. "When it comes to the imagery that I believe is going to further my community the most, it's just about me being a human and me being a woman and not anything else," she says.

Jacobs cast her in his fashion show this summer and asked her to take over the brand's social media channels backstage. "I responded [immediately] to her presence and how she looked, how she acted, her queer jargon. I thought everything about her was so cool, " he says. "It's been a long time since a model has come in, and their personality fills the room."

Consani grew up in the Bay Area and can pinpoint the exact moment the world ofhigh fashion seduced her. In 2012 her grandmother took her to "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier" exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. "I remember being so enamored. " She was nine years old.

Later, at summer camp, she decided fashion was her calling. "I remember coming home and telling my mom I didn't see any trans models, and I wanted to do that," she says. Her parents found an agency that represented trans models when she was still a tween. She worked on and off throughout school and made her official debut at a Fashion Week in 2021.

"I'd taken the time to perfect my craft. I got to find out what I enjoy about walking, what I enjoy about imagery," she says. The homework paid off: "Alex is the kind of person who can deliver a razor-sharp one-liner while simultaneously clocking the lighting, the lens, and the trending audio of the day," says renowned makeup artist Pat McGrath. "Her humor hits instantly, and her digital instincts are almost frightening in the best way. She's always on but never performative: It's just who she is."

Before breaking out as a top model, she was already a Gen Z fashion personality. "The stuff that I was posting was very antimystery," she says. "Iwas an open book." Her online persona remains theater kid in a Balenciaga coat, a captivating mix of supermodel stomp on the runway and Red Bull energy with a selfie stick.

The ultimate seal of approval came when she appeared in Charlixcx's "360" music video in 2024, a defining artifact of that year's Brat summer. "Alex was right for the video because she is the moment," says Charli, who slid into Consani's DMs and later included the model in her Grammys performance. She steals a line from her own song to describe Consani: "She's your favorite reference, baby."

However, when Consani was starting in the business, she wondered whether or not to lean into being so over-the-top. "People told me I should delete everything," she says about her then existent social media. "They'd say, 'You should be quiet about your trans identity. You should just be the most mysterious blank hanger bitch you can be.' " But she remembered the little girl at summer camp. "I couldn't do it. I've built a community and a voice for myself. And it reached a point where people now value it. If I had stopped and taken that platform away from myself, I don't know if I would've been in the same place."

As hundreds of anti-trans bills are being pushed through statehouses, many designed explicitly to dismantle existing legal protections and redefine trans people out of public life, life outside of the fashion industry isn't always a catwalk. "My identity is politicized in a way that it doesn't need to be. I think a person living a life that makes them feel happy, whole, and content shouldn't affect anybody else," she says. "You hear about transness, you hear about protests, you hear about fights. But what I find to be most beautiful and touching and essential and prevalent in our community is the love."

Occasionally, between her gags and goofs, Consani's sensitivity sneaks out. "My sense of self was definitely formed around comedy because I use it as armor," she says. "I used it to take the piss out of serious situations because no one likes a serious situation, but it's important to have them in a manner that isn't too on the nose sometimes."

That's the side Charli says makes Consani a muse. "She's so unbelievably ambitious, and she works so hard, and I love hearing her talk about what she plans on doing next because there's always another thing," she says. "We always make time for a heart-to-heart, even if it's just fleeting in the corner at a party. But then we also like being dumb in the car, dancing on the way to the after-party and making TikToks. It's truly the best of both worlds with her."