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The Real Erika Linder: The Woman Behind the Supermodel in a Suit (Part One)

Erika Linder has boobs. This shouldn’t be so surprising, but the 24-year-old model says she gets shocked looks from photographers when they discover she’s not the flat-chested menswear star they’ve seen in fashion campaigns and gender-bending editorial for the last four years.

Discovered in Sweden, where she was born and lived up until a recent move to Los Angeles, Erika’s androgynous appeal has been her calling card. Her likeness to Leonardo DiCaprio inspired magazines and brands to put her in more masculine wear, and she excelled, kicking off a new trend in fashion that has Erika wanting to move away from the expected and try something new.

“It was cool for me in the beginning, because I was the only girl doing it. I feel like I started off doing that and I think you constantly need to change all the time,” Erika said. “I’m not saying that I’m done with shooting as a guy. Obviously if something cool comes up, I’m totally down for it. But it’s more like-I kind of want to break that circle a little bit. And now I want it to be more about me, not just ‘Erika’s a guy’ or whatever. I want people to see, like, me and not just me in a suit.”

The new movement to hire female models to do menswear has its share of critics, too, which Erika finds frustrating.

“You hear girls that are like ‘I’m just going to cut my hair and put a flannel on and OK, I’m just going to be a guy now,'” she said. “It’s just so transparent and for me, it’s like I can save my hair down to my fucking knees and I can still kind of like pull off the boy thing.”

Erika says she is trying to grow her hair out and hopes to do more “girlie” shoots, which is not only where most of the money in modeling is, but also where she finds the challenge.

“I’m ready for a new chapter. I like doing different stuff,” she said. “I don’t want people to see me as a guy because, at the end of the day, I’m a girl. I don’t want to be a guy. And I think it’s important to try and change because I can do girlie stuff and I’ve done more shoots as a girl than a guy but since-I mean I can do like 10 shoots as a girl and one shoot as a guy and the guy shoot will still stand out. It’s confusing. So if it’s a good opportunity, I’ll l do it but right now I want to shoot as me and yeah, be more feminine because that’s how I want people to kind of see me. Because I am a girl.”

For her every day, Erika is the kind of girl that prefers a white T-shirt and a pair of light jeans to a skirt, but she has no problem wearing as much (or as little) as the job calls for. And it’s not hard to see why she’s been called upon by brands like YSL, Louis Vuitton and Tom Ford: She’s stunningly good looking with her pale Swedish skin and chiseled cheekbones. Her most feminine of looks show she’s just as gorgeous with a colored lip and carefully constructed up-do as she is fresh-faced and donning a half-shaved head.

Erika credits modeling for helping her to come out, although she’s never really had to make a statement about it publicly. Her social media is very personal, and so photos with her girlfriend are included along videos of Erika playing her guitar or behind-the-scenes looks at her latest shoot.

“When I first started modeling, I wasn’t even out yet. Like I didn’t even know where my head was at,” Erika said. “The only thing I told my agency was ‘OK, if I’m going to do modeling, I’m going to do it my way and I’m going to be myself throughout the whole thing.’ And modeling actually, this industry, helped me come out because, I mean, everyone’s gay. And it was just kind of like-I just felt really comfortable. I just got so much-this is going to sound bad-but I got so much attention from girls so I was like ‘This is fucking nice!'” She laughed. “I was like, ‘This is great!’ So it just happened.”

Erika said she’s not as interested in engaging with gay rights activism as much as people want her to, though. She acknowledges that she’s a face for gay women in the modeling industry and it makes her a public figure, but she feels like she’d believe in equality just as much as if she were straight.

“I’m just here living, like if I love a guy or a girl, whatever,” she said. “Because I’ve been with guys before and so yeah it’s a weird question. People should be celebrating their lives, whatever way they choose to live it. That’s what I do. I don’t like walk around thinking like, ‘Oh I’m gay!’ or whatever. ‘Gay rights!’ I think it’s fucked up when people-when you hear stories in America like ‘this person doesn’t want to serve this person at a restaurant because he’s gay.’ That’s fucked up-but I would think that if I was straight, too. So I don’t really know-I’m just here living, loving girls.”

Erika has known she was not straight since she was a teenager and desperately wanted to watch The L Word, but was too worried her family and friends would know she was gay.

“I remember when that came out and I was like 14 and I was like, I can’t watch this because my parents are going to know that I’m gay and all my friends are gonna know so I’m like ‘I can’t watch this!’ I felt so weirded out about it because I wanted to watch it so bad but it was like ‘I can’t, they’re going to judge me!'” she said. “I was 14 and I was like ‘Oh fuck I love girls!’ but I felt weirded out about it. Like ‘Everyone’s not going to want to hang out with me’ sort of thing.'”

Now Erika is an inspiration for young androgynous queers like the one she used to be. Last month she launched her own Erika Linder brand, selling select items (so far a snapback, a beanie and a hoodie) and it’s been a huge success, prompting more items to be planned and released in the next few weeks. Erika often shares the photos of her fans touting their Erika Linder looks, and it’s clear that many of them are incarnations of the gender-bending icon they see in Erika.

“There are so many tomboys that are following me and they’re like ‘Oh she’s got her own brand! I want to wear that stuff!’ and then they can get inspiration from it,” Erika said. “And it’s unisex, super plain and really cool and then the new stuff that is gonna come out are really dope.”

One of the upcoming items will include a perfume, which will be the first scent Erika said she’ll have ever worn herself. She said she’s involved with everything, from her logo to her website design to modeling the items she sells. The only problem is other brands are hitting her up to collaborate, and she just doesn’t have the time.

“It’s flattering but also, it’s not really where I want to go right now,” Erika said. “I want to focus on my thing and it’s been a lot of bigger brands that want to collaborate but I’m like, not really. I love you stuff but I want to do this right now. I’m not really in it for the money. I’m going to put the money I make for it to make other stuff so it’s just like for fun and stuff I want to share with them so they get something else besides my pictures.”

*Slide show is NSFW

Check back next week for part two of our Erika Linder interview and photoshoot.

Photos by Lindsey Byrnes

Hair by Candice Birns

Make-Up by Amber D

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

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