Lea T first caught designer for Givenchy,Riccardo  Tisci's eye, when he was still a design student at Central St. Martin’s in London.

He noticed her for her "innate elegance", and then when he went on to work for the design house, he casted her for the label's 2010 Haute Couture show.

But Lea was born Leandro Cerezo, son of Brazillian soccer star, Tonino Cerezo.

In Italian Vanity Fair, she told of how she grappled with her sexual identity, and how she always felt feminine.  And then she told French Vogue how she knew she was different.

In this excerpt, she said: "When papa came home he would look at me and say there was something wrong with me. In the years to come, everyone started to pray that I was gay. It would have been the lesser evil for a religious family used to rules and type of colonial, rigid way of life."

As a teen, she was attracted to both boys and girls. She later said how she first felt curious, then terrified with the idea of transsexuality.

But when Richard Tisci encouraged her to explore her feminine identity, she knew then what her choice would be.

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