As one of the fashion industry’s increasing numbers of a transgender models, Yasmine Petty has reached great success. Her sprawling penthouse in Lower Manhattan, with a terrace so large it has a pool and cabana, is full of magazines like Elle, W and Hercules that feature multiple-page spreads on her wearing clothing by brands like Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.

Ms. Petty’s closet, too, is full of clothes she has modeled at international events like New York Fashion Week, fashion shows put on by Italian Vogue, and Life Ball, Europe’s prestigious charity gala to support people with H.I.V. She has walked the runway with stars like Naomi Campbell and Karolina Kurkova. The prominent makeup artist Pat McGrath used her as an “ambassador.”

At the beginning of her career Ms. Petty said she worked with several modeling agencies that found her work, but the experience left her feeling somewhat frustrated about the direction her career seemed to be taking.

Some agencies didn’t know whether to cast her as male or female, she said. Often she would walk into auditions not knowing which gender she was supposed to perform until she saw the other candidates waiting in the lobby. Other times she would be booked by clients, only to have them find out she was transgender later and refuse to use the photos. “The fashion industry didn’t know how to treat me,” she said.