October 16, 2025 |
What happens when you ask 10 trans women what they do? You get 20 completely different answers – some sharp, some soft, some funny, all alive with power and personality. From multi-hyphenate musicians and boundary-breaking models to designers, DJs and club kids, these are people who defy categorisation and refuse to be neatly summed up.
Each answer is a story: of transition, of reinvention, of building lives and careers in a world that hasn’t always made space for them, so they carved out their own. Meeting in South-east London at Peckham’s Sunset Studios, surrounded by cameras, clothes and a deep sense of kinship, these 10 creatives came together not to be defined, but to speak in their own words. The result? A collage of ambition, tenderness and sheer trans brilliance.
Emman Debattista
Call it archival glamour. Call it archaeological chic. Just don’t call Emman Debattista conventional. The creative director-slash-curator-slash-designer has one foot in the dustiest of museum drawers and the other in a dance-floor spiral. “If I wasn’t doing this, I’d probably be a mortician or archaeologist,” she says with a laugh, citing Galliano’s 2004 Egyptian Dior collection as pivotal inspiration. With a background in archiving and a love of cinematic storytelling, she has developed a practice that gives long-hidden queer histories the visibility they’ve always deserved. “Trans people have often been forced into hiding, whether in the underground or the archive,” she says. Her work unearths these stories with a bang: a contributor spot for Acne Paper, working on the The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence exhibition at the V&A and creative direction honouring the surrealist legacy of Salvador Dalí protégé and ‘queer mystic’ Steven F. Arnold, in collaboration with his archive. “I came into fashion as a geeky nerd,” says Debattista, “but maybe it’s masked with a bit of artifice.” Watch her soar.
Ebun Sodipo, 31
A London-based artist born in the city but raised between Nigeria and the UK, Ebun Sodipo builds portals into Black trans histories with sculpture, performance, film and sound. “I try to deal with our interior lives in my work,” she says, preferring tenderness over trauma. Formerly a writer (“I haven’t written in a while so I don’t know if I deserve that title”), Sodipo lives in research – digging into the archives and inventing new ones where needed. “That’s how I live, that’s how I meet people,” she says. History, reimagined in living colour.
Michele Fornera, 31
Michele Fornera refuses definition – and we wouldn’t dare to try. “I hate to define myself,” they say, “so hi, I’m Michele, and I am a multi-hyphenate.” Fashion consultant, model, extra, filmmaker, future podcaster: their work, like their identity, defies box-ticking. “Titles and definitions are not for me,” they say. “I feel like they have always been impulsive, so I’m trying to rebel against that.” This month, they’re launching The Uninvited, a podcast and platform rooted in the radical idea that every journey is unique. It all started when they crashed a party in Milan after walking in one of Stefano Pilati’s Random Identities shows. “I bumped into him [at the party] and just decided to be brave, as usual, and tell him what his work and how he uses it to push for change means to me.” From southern Switzerland to London life, Fornera shows up almost every time. “I’m never invited, but I go anyway.”
Elix Toci, 277 lunar phases old (i.e. 24)
Elix Toci, which she pronounces each letter of, as in E-L-I-X, after she says her name, is a biohacker in the boldest sense. “I was not satisfied with my genetics, my biology… so I was like, no. I can change it,” she says. To her, transitioning isn’t just transgressive, it’s transcendental. The self-professed “interdimensional alien” moves through fashion, social media, indie film (yes, she’s on IMDb, and yes, she stabbed someone in the eye on screen) and art. Her 4D installation Matcha Code 132, which can be found on her TikTok (@elix.ai), is, as expected, matcha-themed and slightly unhinged. “That’s why biohacking describes me a lot,” she says with a laugh. Formless, genreless, fabulous: Elix exists at the intersection of beauty and glitch.
Sakeema Crook, 31
Sakeema Crook is everything all at once: dancer, model, multidisciplinary artist and night-mover. “However you want to phrase it, I’m somebody who cares about positive change while I’m here on this Earth.” Last summer, the Londoner was dancing on Sam Smith’s tour. Her practice is a galaxy, spanning gallery shows, theatre, strip clubs, protest stages, ballroom and beyond. “I’ve been making work with my partner, collaborating on a short film, working with my trans sisters… chosen family is what feels most fulfilling.” Trained in ballet but raised in nightclubs, she has followed a journey through movement that has always been about truth. “[Ballet] wasn’t bringing me joy any more. I had to ask what actually feels good to me.” That question led to her whole world. “I owe so much to the ballroom scene,” she says. And we owe her for carrying it forward.
Danielle St James, 33
If community joy had a face, it would probably look like Danielle St James’s. She’s the force behind Not a Phase, an advocacy organisation, and Zoah, the world’s first trans/non-binary-inclusive underwear brand. “I was just sick of the options available for trans people,” she says of Zoah. What began with a single, well-cut pair of pants has now blossomed into a full-blown undergarment universe for trans women, trans men, non-binary and gender-non-confirming people – binders, packing gear and swimwear included. But it’s Not a Phase, the charity she co-founded in 2020 in response to a flurry of terrifying government proposals, that’s her beating heart. “It’s our responsibility to make people feel better,” she says simply. Raised in Barry, just outside Cardiff, St James now lives in Margate with two dogs (one three-legged, both spoiled) in a “beautiful” studio flat. “I’ve never felt so independent and strong,” she says, fresh out of a marriage and knee-deep in her new era.
Elouiza France, 28
Equal parts velvet rope and velvet voice, Elouiza France is the most scene-stealing doll in the room, even when that room is a smoke-filled members’ club and the dance floor is giving everything. From Pxssy Palace to House of Koko, she’s held court across London’s queer nightlife scene for years. “I’ve been performing for a hot minute,” she says with a smirk. Most recently? CoOc – The Mandrake hotel’s new, dreamy, decadent, central London haunt. “Again, it’s just a place for queer people to feel free, and it’s a little bit bougie, to be honest,” she adds. Spoken like a true scene queen.
Stylist HARPER CELESTE
Alejandra Muñoz, 30
For the avant-garde designer Alejandra Muñoz, fashion is fantasy. And fantasy, like femininity, is political. “You become obsessed with this character in your head,” she says of her early sartorial obsessions, which were born from not being allowed dolls or dresses. Now a Central Saint Martins-educated couture specialist with a penchant for latex, corsetry and “very stage-ready” silhouettes, she dreams of scaling her brand eventually. For now, she prefers the touch of the tailor, splitting time between commissions and freelancing for houses like McQueen. Her event series, Sober T, is her activism outlet, connecting trans people in a social setting free from drugs and alcohol. “In times like this you need to do a lot,” she says. And she does.
Bel Priestley, 22
Bel doesn’t do slow. The actress-slash-model-slash-social media sensation transitioned at 13, began posting online at 16 and, by 19, had landed her first major acting job, a featured role in hit Netflix show Heartstopper no less. “I haven’t had a normal life since,” she says with a shrug. Growing up in Leighton Buzzard, a small town in Bedfordshire, before relocating to London, Priestley followed an escape route that came via YouTube’s make-up girlies and the seductive chaos of early TikTok. Her rise was meteoric: 100,000 followers in two months after she joined the platform in July 2019, a million before the first lockdown ended. Still, it’s acting that’s the real dream. That first big role came with a side of risk – she turned down a lucrative brand deal to film the audition. “I remember thinking, if I don’t get this, I’ve just wasted so much money,” she says with a laugh. She got the role. Of course she did.
Theo Papoui, 25
“I really am just trying to get my finger in every single hole… ew, that sounds gross! You get what I mean!” says Theo Papoui. The British-Cypriot triple threat and West End starlet is doing it all. After debuting on stage in The Devil Wears Prada, she’s now crafting an original EP with a trans collaborator. “I just feel like, with the girls, we get each other’s vision.” The songs? About love, heartbreak and transition. “Testosterone was sex and quick satisfaction… now, on oestrogen, I just wanna fall in love,” she says. A former musical-theatre student turned model, Papoui wasn’t granted an easy rise. Rejected for being “too feminine”, then dropped for being non-binary, they persisted. “I’m a bit more passing now and life’s easier – sad, but true,” she says. Now acting, singing and shooting trans-coded films with friends, Papoui is making space for joy, artistry and full trans brilliance.
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 75 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
IN ALL THEIR GLORY
Photographer DEREK RIDGERS
Talent DANIELLE ST JAMES, BEL PRIESTLEY, EBUN SODIPO, THEO PAPOUI, ELOUIZA FRANCE, ELIX TOCI, MICHELE FORNERA, EMMAN DEBATTISTA, SAKEEMA CROOK and ALEJANDRA MUNOZ
Text EMILY PHILLIPS
Hair TAKUMI HORIWAKI using ORIBE Hair Care
Make-up MARI KUNO at Saint Luke Artists using GLOSSIER
Photographer’s assistant VLADY VALA
Fashion assistants TALIA PANAYI and BEA ALLISON
Hair assistant LEE PATRICK
Casting JACK BATCHELOR
Production ZAC APOSTOLOU and SONYA MAZURYK
Special thanks to SARAH APPELHANS
