Trans model Riley Minford makes global runway debut: ‘Terrified but I ate it up’
Riley Minford walked the runway at Miami Swim Week (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Riley Minford walked the runway at Miami Swim Week (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Trans model Riley Minford made her global runway debut as she took to the stage at Miami Swim Week.
The Australian model, 28, walked in the Oh Polly show in some stunning swimwear, including a red cut-out one piece and a tiny white bikini.
“I was absolutely terrified but I got on that runway and ate it up,’ she told Daily Telegraph.
“It felt so special being flown across the world to walk and I hope I did my duty,” she added, saying she felt like an “an Aussie baddie”.
In an Instagram post following the fashion event, Minford wrote: “You can call me miss miami swim until further notice 💋.”
Minford, who is Sydney-based, previously opened up about growing up trans to Beauticate, saying her younger years were “rough”.
“I always felt so uncomfortable, particularly at every sports day or swimming carnival, or even those activities in class where the teacher would say something like ‘boys to the left, girls to the right’. I didn’t want to sit with the boys, but I wasn’t allowed to go with the girls, even though I knew that was the side I was meant to be on,” she told the outlet.
“It wasn’t even so much the response from the other kids, as it was how awful I felt within myself, and not being able to express my own identity.
“I didn’t experience significant bullying – the nasty kids usually just called me gay or a girl, and left me alone after that. Compared to the experience other trans kids have, I know I am lucky to have avoided that, but even still, my experience wasn’t easy.”
She went on to say that initially she shied away when people said she should be a model, but now she considers herself a “full-time baddie!”.
“So many opportunities come my way now,” Minford said. “The more open I am to what’s possible, the more good things come to me. As soon as I transitioned, everything came together – I am pretty, and I look pretty in clothes, and I was so ready for it all. There was no calming me down once I got here…”
She continued: “This industry is super competitive, but a great thing about that is now I am able to see really quickly who is in my life for the right reasons, whether it’s friends or guys.
“People show you their true colours so easily by whether or not they’re happy for your success, so now I don’t need to waste any time figuring out who the good ones are.”
Minford is not the only trans model who is making wave in the industry.
Last year, Alex Consani made history as the first first out trans woman to win Model of the Year at the 2024 Fashion Awards.
She made her runway debut in 2021, when she walked for Tom Ford, and said in her acceptance speech at the Royal Albert Hall that she could not accept the award “without thanking those who came before me, specifically the Black trans women who really fought for the space I’m in today”.
Change is more than possible; it’s needed,” she ended in her speech.
The Model of the Year award “recognises the global impact of a model who, over the [past] 12 months, has dominated the industry, with an influence that transcends the catwalk”, the BFC said.
