Credits for all images in this article: Model: Cris Castrillón (@cris__castrillon) Photography: Jon Kdna (@jon.kdna @fashioncreators__) Styling: Ela Casati (@elacasati) Make Up Artist: Cris Castrillón (@cris__castrillon) All clothing by: Ricardo Castro (@byricardocastro). This was an original photoshoot to accompany the following article.
Cris Castrillón has been many things throughout his life, but “invisible” has never been one of them. With an statuesque height, a face that combines female and male features in an unique way, a nearly perfect photographic record and a body language mastery rarely seen in the Latin American modeling industry, he is one of the few androgynous models in the continent and he is on his way to become a global household name in this category.
Born in Salgar, Antioquia, Colombia, most of his family members are coffee farmers, and his childhood was pleasant and calm until the moment that would change the following years of his life: an accident that left him with third-degree burns on the left side of his body at 7 years old. His next couple of years were spent in hospitals, between reconstructive surgeries and multiple treatments, bearing a psychological burden that, while emotionally heavy, gave Cris the strenght and resilience that would become a core part of his personality.
After finishing high school, he moved to the nearby city of Medellín looking for opportunities. Just like magic, modeling came to his life without looking for it. “One day I asked my brother to take a picture of me because I felt really good with the clothes I was wearing that day and I wanted to upload it to Facebook. Oddly enough, among those candid pictures, one of them came out incredible and I looked like a real model in it, so I posted it. Then someone in the industry DM’d me, asking me if I wanted to become a model because they saw huge potential in me. That’s how it all started.”
While his top notch looks became a source of income and social recognition for him, Cris still had some insecurities that came from the accident he has as a child. “I still had some self esteem issues due to the scars that I had left from the accident, I didn’t like to show them off, but one day we were shooting at a graveyard and the team asked me to take off some of my clothes for the pictures”, he reminisces about that day. “When I did so and the team was just staring at my scars in silence, I was mortified, but they said they loved them and that they fit the concept for the shooting perfectly, they took many shots based on my scars. It felt like a liberation for me, and it made me understand how the marks that something painful left in me also gave me strength and beauty.”
Steadily, his name grew in the industry as an up-and-coming model with an unique androgynous flair, and his reputation increased with his first gigs at Colombiamoda, Colombia’s biggest fashion week, in 2021. About this career highlight, Cris says that “I never thought I would get so much attention when I first went. That made me realize my career was just getting started and that I had a lot of work to do.” That moment gave Cris a new sense of ambition and bigger dreams he is turning into a reality, one by one. “My biggest goal right now is to model globally and become an international staple. I know I have what it takes to get there.”
One of the reasons why Cris Castrillón is one of the Latin American models with the highest international potential is his exploration of body language and his fluidity while striking poses, that along with his male and female features in a perfect balance, form a lethal weapon. Among his biggest influences in posing is Lady Gaga, who in Cris’ own words, “her originality, confidence and theatrality made me think that I shouldn’t be like other models. I am fluid and sensuous like a serpent, and I can change my colors like a chameleon depending on each situation. That’s just part of who I am.”
As one among very few androgynous models in Latin America, Cris feels there is still a long way to go, and that along with the huge potential of local talents there are equally big challenges to overcome. “Many brands still see us as freaks, and not many of them have changed their minds about us.” But, with his quintessential optimism, he doesn’t think everything is lost, mostly because of his own hard work. “I want to be that model who opened the doors for those who came after him. I hope that models can feel confident and secure in themselves because there was someone named Cris Castrillón who in the past gave his best efforts to make it possible.”
And, beyond modeling, Cris reveals his mindset about obstacles in life and how to overcome them, a subject he knows very well: “We don’t need to be surrounded by darkness to shine, we just need to believe and exist.”
