Model Frances Coombe exits the Marco De Vincenzo show in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 27, 2015. (Melodie Jeng / Getty Images)

Female Model Who Began Identifying as Male Sues Former Agency Over Lack of Men's Fashion Work

By Johnathan Jones January 2, 2024 at 3:33pm

A formerly successful New York City model is suing the agency that formerly represented her after she began identifying as transgender and demanded that the agency market her as male.

The woman claims that the agency’s standards for male models, which she was told she did not meet, cost her substantial income, and now she’s asking a jury to award her a settlement for lost wages and damages for “emotional distress,” the New York Post reported.

She is also seeking for the company to cover her legal fees.

In a civil lawsuit that was filed in Manhattan on Dec. 19, Frances Coombe alleged Muse Model Management refused to adequately market her as a masculine model.

Coombe claimed that when she began to change her appearance and gender identity beginning in October 2021, Muse CEO Conor Kennedy did not accommodate her.

She said in her lawsuit that when she informed Kennedy she then identified as “non-binary,” she was told by him that no such category exists in the kind of work the company offers.

When she began to dress even more masculine and underwent procedures and hormone treatments to transition to male, Kennedy told her she was “insufficiently masculine” and eventually removed photos of her from his agency’s website, she claimed.

From October 2021 until early 2023, she alleged, Kennedy treated her “inappropriately” by not accepting her “male gender identity.”

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She claimed that she was discriminated against in one instance when she asked to wear boxers instead of a bikini and was told she could not.

An Instagram account that belongs to the Coombe, according to a website called Gay City News, shows the once-feminine model ditching her look over a series of years to appear more masculine.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frances Coombe (@the_prying_eye)

Coombe now sports a shaved head and in one post appears to have received a double mastectomy.

WARNING: The following post contains an image unsuitable for some readers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frances Coombe (@the_prying_eye)

The model is seeking $300,000 from Muse in what she claims is lost income, as well as other damages.

Coombe first went to work for Muse in 2011 at age 18 but saw a “rapid decline” in working opportunities after claiming to be male and after a number of tense conversations with Muse management, her 22-page lawsuit alleges.

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