Meet Casey Legler, a male model who's actually a woman

She's just signed a contract with one of the world's most prestigious modelling agencies and will appear in shows in Paris and New York.

Nothing out of the ordinary there, but look at her contract and you'll see the twist: she’ll be modelling men's fashion.

Legler is the first woman to work exclusively as a male model, and her unlikely career is as much as a surprise to her as it is to fashion watchers.

It began when a photographer friend asked her to model some men's clothing for magazine shoot.

The 35-year-old artist told TIME magazine her friend said: "You're perfect for this. Are you in?" She was: "I wasn't doing anything on that particular Friday, and so I said yes!"

The next day the photos were shared with an agent at Ford models, and Legler was signed immediately.

Ford Models portfolio: Casey Legler

Legler's boyish physique, her short quiffed hair and chiselled cheekbones lend themselves to men's fashion.

"Is it a stretch for me to get styled wearing men's clothes? Anyone can look at me for two seconds and know that that part is not so complicated," she told TIME.

"I think the part that can feel complicated sometimes is that I also look really fierce in a dress, and I've been taught by the best queens how to rock some heels!"

Legler follows in the footsteps of Andrej Pejic, the Bosnian-born, Australian-raised male model who has enjoyed huge success modelling women's fashion.

"Andrej is gorgeous," she said. "In many ways, I come ushered in by that."

She says that androgyny is the way forward in fashion.

"We have very specific ways in which we identify ourselves as man or woman and I think that sometimes those can be limiting.

"Seeing me on the men's board... speaks to the notion of freedom, you know. There's something really bold about that, and that it really is saying look, there is also this other way, and it's really rad."