Fernando Casablancas

Fernando Casablancas is a Brazilian model and performer from Rio de Janeiro whose career developed in New York across menswear and womenswear. He moved to the city at seventeen to study at Parsons School of Design, bringing an interest in performance into a family already closely connected with fashion and music.

His father, John Casablancas, founded Elite Model Management, while his half-brother Julian became the lead singer of the Strokes. In an interview with Highsnobiety, Fernando recalled sitting on the floor of his father’s office during meetings. Those childhood observations later helped him understand the business of working with agents. “Understanding how agents work obviously is a huge advantage for a model to not just be a pawn, but a player,” he said.

Fernando’s own approach centers on performance, with singing and dance accompanying his modeling work. Identifying as non-binary and using he/they pronouns, he described New York as a place to explore his identity and build a creative life. In 2022, that life became part of Freeform’s The Come Up, which followed a group of emerging creatives in downtown Manhattan.

Fernando appeared alongside his then-partner, Jordan Barrett, in spring-summer 2022 campaigns for Chrome Hearts and Balmain. Laurie Lynn Stark photographed the Chrome Hearts imagery in Paris, while Mert & Marcus shot the Balmain campaign.

Magazine work included a 2021 story for Man About Town, photographed by Alexi Lubomirski. Advertising brought further collaborations, including Dsquared2’s spring-summer 2023 campaign, photographed by Mario Sorrenti, and Versace’s spring-summer 2025 campaign, photographed by Zoë Ghertner.

His connection to Brazil has remained personal as well as professional. In a 2023 conversation with VMAN, Fernando spoke of missing Ipanema Beach while finding warmth in the friends and chosen family he had gathered in New York. “New York City is now my home,” he said. The city offered both a working base and a community as he expanded his practice beyond modeling into other forms of performance.