Gender-bending model a runway sensation

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - With Fashion Week getting under way in New York, model Andrej Pejic is the man - or women - of the hour.

That's because The Bosnian-born 20-year-old is the only top-tier fashion model who can walk down the runway as either a man or a woman.

Pictures: Andrej Pejic
Special section: NY Fashion Week

His androgynous beauty has turned him into a trendsetter in an industry that's always seeking to push the envelope.

Pejic graced the covers of 14 magazines last year alone, including an ad campaign for a Dutch push-up bra. In 2011, he was the face for a fashion line by designer Marc Jacobs. He has walked the runways for heavyweight designers, including John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier.

French designer Gaultier was so enamored with Pejic that he used his gender-bending look as a source of inspiration for his 2011 men's and women's wear shows, both of which Pejic modeled in. In the Gaultier men's show, a pistol-packing, bare-chested Pejic wore a sleek black suit as "James Blonde."

Born with high cheekbones, plump lips and a flawless complexion, Pejic was discovered by a talent scout while working at a McDonald's as a teenager. He had spent much of his childhood in a refugee camp and fled with his family to Australia.