Black transgender model, actress and activist, Jari Jones, fronts Calvin Kelin’s 2020 Pride campaign #PROUDINMYCALVINS
Jari Jones is making history.
The Black transgender model, actress and activist celebrated a huge accomplishment this week when she saw herself on a larger-than-life Calvin Klein billboard in Manhattan, New York as apart of the fashion brand’s 2020 Pride campaign #PROUDINMYCALVINS.
Calvin Klein’s Pride campaign features nine LGBTQ models including 13 Reasons Why actor Tommy Dorfman, artist Gia Woods, trans activist Chella Man, drag queen and singer Pabllo Vittar, and Jones, who identifies as a transqueer lesbian—just to name a few.
Taking to Instagram to share her excitement, Jones wrote, “There are moments that I heard about, that help you forget when the world told you ‘Never.’ There are these moments I heard about about that help you heal when the society has tried to beat you down, over and over again. There are these very real moments that I heard about that help you feel affirmed even when you don’t see yourself.”
The model also shared a series of photos of herself with friends in front of the billboard celebrating with a bottle of champagne.
“I’ve been searching my whole life for those moments, I got tired of looking for those moments,” Jones continued. “So I decided to create them. Not for me but for the next dreamer, outcast, queer, trans, disabled, fat, beautiful black, piece of starlight waiting for their moment to shine.”
ones also expressed that it has been “such an honor and pleasure to sit in my most authentic self and present imagery of a body that far too often has been demonized, harassed, made to feel ugly and unworthy and even killed.”
“I present this image, myself and all that my body stands for to my community and chosen family, in hope that they see themselves more clearly than ever and further realize that they are worthy of celebration, of compassion, of love and gratitude,” she wrote.
The model concluded her Instagram caption by thanking the Calvin Klein team for a collaboration that will “hopefully be a symbol of hope and love during these moments. BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER!!”
The fashion brand’s #PROUDINMYCALVINS is a celebration of self-expression and the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ identities, according to a press release.
Photographer Ryan McGinley shot all nine LGBTQ+ movers and shakers and each person was chosen for their “unique story, expresses their most authentic self and offers perspective on the shared experience of the LGBTQ+ community.”
“The theme of the campaign is taking pride in everything that makes you unique. Using a cast and crew that spans the full LGBTQ+ spectrum, we wanted to make sure that the entire community feels represented, included and celebrated,” said McGinley. “My goal is always to create honest photos that connect to the viewer on a human level and show the subject’s power and vulnerability as human beings. This mix is perhaps my most core value as an artist.”
Through Calvin Klein’s press release, Jones explained the importance of her involvement in the campaign as a chance to be there for the LGBTQ+ community and how she and her wife forged their own paths.
“With no blueprint set out for us,” she said, “we had to make it our own.”
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