Chelsea Manning, who this week walked freely out of a male military prison in Kansas, is reportedly set to appear in the pages of the world's fashion bible, Vogue.
WWD has learned that the 29-year-old, who spent nearly seven years in prison for disclosing archives of secret files to WikiLeaks, will be in an upcoming issue of Vogue.
Although a spokeswoman for the top fashion glossy would not confirm or deny the news, telling WWD, "we do not comment on rumours of future editorial," reportedly editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is asking designers to submit looks for the fashion spread.
On Thursday, Vogue writer Kathryn Branch wrote a piece for the website entitled, "Chelsea Manning Reveals Her Bold New Look on Instagram." The post examines a recent Instagram post from Manning, who had been sentenced to a 35-year prison term and was freed 28 years early after President Obama commuted the bulk of her sentence before leaving office. In it, she debuts a new short pixie cut and light red lip.
"Okay, so here I am everyone!! #HelloWorld," Manning, who was known as Pvt. Bradley Manning, captioned the image.
After being convicted in 2010 on suspicion of having sent 700,000 secret military and diplomatic files from a classified computer network to WikiLeaks, Manning announced she was a transgender woman and changed her name to Chelsea.
The rumoured Vogue spread won't be Chelsea's first magazine feature, however. As WWD notes, in September of 2015, she gave an interview to Paper Magazine on the constraints of government, technology and gender. And in April, she appeared in Interview's “New Progressives” issue, which featured activists leading the charge on issues ranging from gender and racial equality, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, among other things.
As her Instagram shows, there is a sense of confidence in Chelsea now that we're sure Vogue finds infectious. Her story on the pages of the magazine alone will be a bold move for Wintour and her team, and we can't wait to see how Manning's story is told and photographed.
As Branch wrote in her article which hints at Chelsea's feature, "There is no better way to turn a new page on life than with an inspiring new look."
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