TEACH 'EM OR LOSE 'EM!
Born Andre Johnson in Newark, New Jersey, Andre J. was raised by a single mother in a housing project called Academy Spires[1]
For several years in the early 2000s, he lived in Los Angeles, California.[1][4] During those years, he worked at a boutique on Melrose Avenue and made three brief appearances on Jay Leno segments "devoted to human curiosities".[1] He typically wore a fur hat, a hole-covered beige fishnet shirt, and jeans so low that they revealed his pubic hair, though he changed before leaving for fear of being mistaken for a transsexual prostitute on his way home to the $60-a-night Sunset Strip hotel in which he lived.[1]
He later moved to New York City "for the liberation, the freedom, the action" and worked variously as a perfume salesperson at Lord & Taylor, as a publicist for Patricia Field's boutique, and as a party host for the clubs Lotus and Hiro.[1] While on the street one day in summer 2007, he was spotted by stylist Joe McKenna, who was then on the phone with fashion photographer Bruce Weber.[1] With McKenna's encouragement, Weber decided to shoot Andre J. for French Vogue, and Carine Roitfeld, the magazine's editor, deemed Andre J.'s photos the freshest of all Weber's images.[1] Roitfeld put a photo of the bearded Andre J., dressed in a women’s blue neoprene Burberry trench coat, ankle boots, and a cocktail ring, on the cover of her magazine.[1][2] "There is not a special message in the cover, I just loved it," she said later.[1]
For several years in the early 2000s, he lived in Los Angeles, California.[1][4] During those years, he worked at a boutique on Melrose Avenue and made three brief appearances on Jay Leno segments "devoted to human curiosities".[1] He typically wore a fur hat, a hole-covered beige fishnet shirt, and jeans so low that they revealed his pubic hair, though he changed before leaving for fear of being mistaken for a transsexual prostitute on his way home to the $60-a-night Sunset Strip hotel in which he lived.[1]
He later moved to New York City "for the liberation, the freedom, the action" and worked variously as a perfume salesperson at Lord & Taylor, as a publicist for Patricia Field's boutique, and as a party host for the clubs Lotus and Hiro.[1] While on the street one day in summer 2007, he was spotted by stylist Joe McKenna, who was then on the phone with fashion photographer Bruce Weber.[1] With McKenna's encouragement, Weber decided to shoot Andre J. for French Vogue, and Carine Roitfeld, the magazine's editor, deemed Andre J.'s photos the freshest of all Weber's images.[1] Roitfeld put a photo of the bearded Andre J., dressed in a women’s blue neoprene Burberry trench coat, ankle boots, and a cocktail ring, on the cover of her magazine.[1][2] "There is not a special message in the cover, I just loved it," she said later.[1]
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