The Transgender Model Who Became The Star Of Ideal Home Show's lingerie Catwalk

Taking to the stage in front of hundreds of people in a sheer negligee would be a nerve-wracking experience for most people, but on Wednesday model Nicole Gibson had added reason to feel wary as she stepped out onto the catwalk at the Ideal Home Show.

The statuesque blonde was part of the event's celebrated Models of Diversity fashion show, where she too was celebrating her first professional modelling job since undergoing full gender reassignment surgery.

Nicole, 32, was born a boy and lived her life as Glen until two years ago when Glen confessed to his mother that he was suffering from gender dysmorphia, or gender identity disorder. This condition is one where a person instinctively knows there is a mismatch between their biological sex and the actual gender they feel themselves to be.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Glen' was accepted for NHS funding for a sex change, a procedure which costs between £12,000 and £14,000, and after living as a woman for one year as well as completing a course of HRT Glen, who had become Glenny, became Nicole.Her mother Jan Gallaghan, a retired retail assistant, explained how the name choice came about: ‘We were sitting one day and she opened a magazine and there was an article with Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Kidman and Nicole Richie and she said, “That’s it.”



  Now Nicole is living her dream of modelling as a full woman after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in February. 

Now fully recovered from the two-and-a-half hour operation Nicole took to the catwalk on Wednesday for Russian lingerie designer Sonata Rapalyte in a variety of luxury lingerie designs. She was selected from a huge number of potential models to star in the Models of Diversity show, an annual catwalk event at the Ideal Home Show that attracts thousands of spectators.

Models of Diversity is a charity championing beauty regardless of age, size, race, ability or shape founded by former model Angel Sinclair after she appeared on Gok's Miss Naked Beauty in 2008.

James Lyon, director at the company decsribes Nicole as 'a joy to be around, positive, upbeat and confident as well as beautiful the kind of model that clients love.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Posted by Emanto Ngaloru Nov 14, 2013