The Supermodel
90’s and 80’s supermodel era, It’s not disputed that these eras in fashion and culture was the definitively the supermodel era but the word supermodel even the actual occupation is kind of disputed. You can say it started before the mid 80s, like in the 70’s with Lauren Hutton, Iman where we saw covergirls dominate especially with the latter Iman being in these fabulous runway shows and in print and with Lauren Hutton securing a nearly half a million dollar campaign with Revlon cosmetics.
The first well known model in the western world was, Lisa Fonassgrives who along with her husband photographer Irving Penn, has worked for vogue magazine and Harper’s Bazaar and was known for her elegance during the 50s when elegance was in.
Weirdly a film that comes to mind is Funny Face. Starring Audrey Hepburn, who herself was a former model. She worked with Givenchy on the costumes and even had the actual photo of her face, in the credit sequence taken by the famed fashion and advertising photographer Richard Avedon. One of the earliest narrative of modelling where it was a sort of Cinderella story and it was sandwiched in between the old world of upper middle class mannequins which the popular ones like Lisa, Dorian Leigh, made good money at that time to counter culture faces that became households names.
Lesley Lawson aka Twiggy who hailed from London really became the face of the 60’s, and the mod look of the time. She was probably one of the first model to be famous for her looks alone, especially globally! at that time being the western world and Japan and was on the cover of vogue and other covers like the British, You magazine which is featured in the mail on Sunday. whilst also having countless high profile shoots even had a doll with her likeness made of her. Her androgynous look was so pivotal of the decade and of Britain at that time, she seen as a British cultural icon that she was later in her career awarded with the title of dame.
The first black supermodel or supermodels if I can say. Was Donyale Luna and Iman. Iman notably was discovered in the jungle of Africa which basically a bone-faced lie, created by her team, she was discovered at university and later came to the US to start a modelling with Wilhelmina, she was a former muse of designers Gianni Versace, Halston, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Yves Saint Laurent who built a whole collection around her and she later ended up quitting modelling and launching a successful cosmetic line which you still buy a few of the products.
She is still cited as a inspiration and the blueprint for models of colour because she broke barriers for all of them due to her career. She negotiated 8,000 dollars for her first job and had her arrival to New York city be coveted. I mean imagine being so beautiful and statuesque that you are plucked from one part of the world and put on the world stage of the fashion industry and dominating.
Donyale Luna, who recently Zendaya has replicated her shoot from the 70s for essence magazine was a model that was probably of the first African American supermodels, ala Diana Ross in Mahogany. she starred in films like Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? and films made by Andy Warhol like his famous screen tests. She has worked with famous fashion photographers of the time like Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Charlotte March who shot her iconic profile.
Her illustration has appeared in Harpers Bazaar but due to racism and people unsubscribing which is gross but that didn’t stop, she moved to Europe for greener pastures. Salvador Dali has said she was the recreation of Nefertiti. She was noted in saying that she was from the moon, when asked where she was from. Sadly she had an accidental heroin overdose, Heroin being a drug that will keep coming back when it comes to fashion modelling. Her death also was after her career started waning due to her own mental health and battling demons but she is remembers as an iconic model in the era of the swinging sixties and of the beginnings of disco and studio. She was noted in saying that she was from the moon, when asked where she was from.
In the 70s, 80s there where so many proto supermodels like the uber successful queer icon Gina Carangi, who was big in the fashion industry. She is also a queer icon, be very open with her sexuality coming from the die hard David Bowie fandom where these queer kids found solace with the artist, she is noted for starting lesbian chic, A model that paved the way for many with having high salary, and beloved commercially with major campaigns along with success in the high fashion world especially being so popular in the late 70s and early 80s especially in print and was a favorite by almost all major fashion photographers of the time.
She was making 100k a year by the time she turned 18, which was the most a model got annually at the time. She signed to famed modelling agencies Wilhemina and had former model and founder Wilhemina mentor and befriend her, she was popularly known for being addicted to heroin and taking drugs frequently especially when her mentor Wilhemina died, she sadly also left the earth due to aids during a period of gradual decline in her modelling, she is however seen in popular culture as the first supermodel.
Cherly Tiegs was a well known commercial model and was in Sports Illustrated multiple times becoming a household name.
Janis Dickenson, a popular model in the 80s where she worked with JVC cameras and Max Factor earning, 2000 dollars a day who is best known for to be honest her infamous reality show appearances like her dishing out problematic takes in America’s Next Top Model, or if your from Britain in a stint on Come Dine with me, which is just chaotic energy that is so comforting to me but in the 20th she coined the supermodel term for herself, which is wrong but it wasn’t really in the lexicon at the time and she wasn’t wrong because during her modelling career she was very successful.
I think when it comes to the zeitgeist who we deem supermodels and where it comes from most is the supermodel era that was during part of the 80s and just the entirety of 90s before ending at the grunge cycle in fashion which totally changed the face of fashion modelling.
Naomi Camphbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss and you can add Yasmeen Ghauri, maybe even Tyra Banks or Karen Mulder but when it came to that era those were big five. Even with those big names, there were plenty of supermodels throughout the whole period, it was really a time where many made a lot of money.
The supermodel era started with one simple black and white cover for British Vogue in 1990 by photographer Peter Lindberg who would come to dominate and cultivate fashion photographer during that time. The photograph had all the supermodels, the holy trinity Naomi, Linda and Christy along with Cindy and lessen known but still noteworthy tatjana patitz, in bodysuits with Levi jeans, outside, with very minimal makeup.
This cover though toned down, ironically a signaled of the the excess glamour to come.
Peter Lindberg also directed and created the documentary Model which followed the main group of supermodels again shot in black and white throughout their day in shoots and in their down time. With this moody artistic imagery that looks like a fashion story shoot come to life with the group dressed in suits looking very handsomely then you have Naomi Campbell lipsyncs to C’est si Bon. Even though their industry was one of vanity they dropped a lot of quotes about beauty, the industry and life in their 20s looking to the future. The movie felt like they were playing a character which is their famous selves, and the narrator was even posing question and statements surrounding the mystery and grandeur of the supermodel
Two major moments came after that. George Michael inspired by the cover wanted to bring in these models for his Freedom! 90 music video, which after being his own subject in his music video, he wanted to pivot for one where we have these ladies instead. The song is excellent and it has the model in this sort of abandoned house lip syncing to his song. The stylist for the shoot has said, when listening to this great podcast In-vogue 1990’s podcast, on the supermodel, claimed that budget went to Christy who wore nothing but this sheet which was 100 feet long and made out of Irish linen in white. The rest was just the stylist own clothes and borrowed pieces. Again the simplicity in the beginning of the 90s.
You can see it everywhere and there was a change coming, grunge! but before that the excess did continue but it was zoned in on the runway and in other spots but with young people it was all grunge and gangster rap after the bright, glitzy and hedonistic 80s.
The second major moment was a Gianni Versace show in fall 1991 where they with Gianni again lip synced to George Michael whilst fiercely walking down with these gorgeous bright sort of primary colored mini dresses. You could even say that It was Gianni and Donatella Versace that created the supermodel by bringing these higher fee earning, gorgeous print models that served face, where Models in the runway before were known for their bodies and their walk and being invisible and letting the clothes take centre stage.
Models before weren’t names but their to showcase the clothes.
Supermodels weren’t just working they were in the tabloids and really seen as celebrities and they were virtually everywhere on billboards, on covers and on runways and at the time people were tuning in on runways, this was pre-social media, the internet did exist but it wasn’t as vast and accessible as it is now. They even had a whole chain of restaurants called the fashion cafe with supermodel spokespeople, Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington
Multiple cultural stars like Ru-paul said that they brought back the glamour of old Hollywood when movie stars and musicians were becoming more real in their perception, still having that allure but much more toned down, we saw that with relatable stars like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and with Nirvana that spoke to the grunge scene. In Black America gritty music that spoke to the hardship faced with saw rap stars, like public enemy. And in reality TV we had Oprah that was being broadcast everywhere and where she got real with many starlet further pushing away this god like figure they stood for.
I mean many artists where still god like but that old Hollywood world ended. Cue in the supermodels who filled in that void, and with the recession of the 80s and 90s brands wanted to be more, to be more desirable and get those clients and it was a safe bet.
During this time a show on E! aired showing the lives of the supermodel, as they opened fashion cafe, showed off their dolls, signed autographs and catwalk down the runway.
Naomi Camphbell
Naomi Campbell is an icon because of the work she has done in fashion, she was the first Black model to be featured in French Vogue and the first British black model to be featured on British Vogue. She has also featured on the Times where she she represented the supermodel and the change in culture. Of course having a ton of runway shows, and what’s also really cool is that she’s still a in demand runway model walking recently for Fendi, where she walked with her fellow supers and Demi Moore. Her iconic moments that have stood the test of time, the Versace 1998 Milan Menswear where she had the gun. The Vivienne Westwood’s fall 1993 show, in which she gracefully fell, gaining so much attention that other designers asked her to fall in their show. She has turned looks on the runway and is probably the most fashionista models in existence with a love of clothes and the craft being known for walk.
She featured in music videos for Michael Jackson Keep it in the closet (who is a problematic figure now) and Jay-Z’s change clothes, Naomi also sold a million copies of her album called baby woman and had a stand out song which I truly love Love and Tears. She’s probably remembered as the leader of the rat pack of models and it’s great to see her still notable if not the most notable.
Naomi Camphbell never got the same treatment as her white peers, whilst Christy got a maybelline campaign ranging in the millions and similarly Cindy Crawford for Revlon. Even in the high fashion world, we saw Kate Moss having fragrance campaigns for Calvin Klein and Christy Turlington who also did a fragrance campaign for Calvins aswell. Her fellow supermodels or working models as they wanted to go by, did fight for her and told clients that if she was out or not used then they are out.
Naomi Campbell she has to be the OG diva model, some of it was the racism she faced. It was well known that she was kicked out by Elite model management founder John Casablanca who we’ll talk about later for problematic behavior, he exhibited himself. He branded her hard to work with; and has said she made bookers and agents come to tears with her behaviour, saying that no amount of prestige can warrant that behaviour.
If you look at the people who knew her best and clips from the past she was very much like her peers, they all grew up together and it feels weird that her behavior is the one they brand diva like, how about the rest of these women. They were also very young women and if she was difficult, designers wouldn’t credit her work ethic to this day. A lot of these ideas came from her then agency and the tabloids. Even though she has had documented problematic behaviour (who hasn’t made mistakes especially when their young).
Realistically she was getting less campaigns, only have a major, recognized cosmetic campaign much later in 2020 with Pat Mcgrath, becoming the global face.
Cindy Crawford who is probably one of the most lucrative and economically successful models of the 90s appearing in her own Pepsi ad, a a few times and was seen by the greater public as the all American girl, who grew up in her words on meat and potato.
The high fashion and commercial world, were in her orbit where most models, had one or the other. The masses, truly loved her and they had a love and hate relationship with most models and celebrities in general. She was on posters from everyone from car mechanics to young girls and boys and probably some young non binary kids too. She had of course massive contracts with Revlon and hair care brands to appear in their ads. Omega watches to even a home workout series that sold millions of copies bringing to people’s home her fitness routine. She proven to be very successful that MTV gave her a presenter job for their House of Style TV show where we learn abut fashion, the models, and what designer had the best music on the runway (epilsey and flash warning for the show’s intro though)
Linda Evangelista
One of the major supermodels Linda Evangelista, who said she doesn't’ get out of bed for at least 10,000 dollars a day and even though she said it as a joke, and didn’t actually mean it. Giving that they didn’t really set their fees in the beginning, it was something that it stuck, not only to her but to her other supermodel peers.
Linda Evangelista is herself a supermodel’s model, she wanted and sought out modelling first as a teen going to Japan but grossly they told her to do nude at her young age, she wanted to end her career there and then but later after schooling she went back, getting steady work, as a nameless model until she got her haircut which was a short pixie and showed it in a 1989 cover of Vogue and ended up being a star to the point that every hairstyle she got, every colour was trending and her hairstyles changing was frequent. Being a muse to Gianni Versace and other designers and working with Steven Meisel constantly even starting a professional lifelong realtionship with him. She had over 700 vogue covers across different iterations of vogue around the world.
They were interviewed by late night hosts further making them accessible, Can I say looking back at those shows it’s kinda cringey cos they would ask these creepy questions and the supermodels would brush them off, but it was very sexist, they would play it up for laugh which solidified the gross objectification, which was what the rest of society was doing with these vey young women but they just marketed so that they were enriched.
They came about during a pivotal time where the excess of the 80s spilled over to the 90s and also the start of globalization and the mass consumption of celebrity which we all know to the disgusting tabloid complex of the early 2000s which is sadly still alive and well in Britain.
They were there to replace Hollywood starlets and were strategically place there by various big wigs. Their every move was publicized. They were dating Mike Tyson, Richard Gere and other famous people. Kate Moss was seen as the wild party girl that was taking party favors and drugs, people connected her petite size to her taking drugs alone, leading to the trend in fashion called heroin chic, which we will later explore.
Kate Moss
Near the end of the supermodel era we got names like Jamie King and Of course Kate Moss who was the bridge between Supermodel excess and grunge minimalism. Her thin body type was all the rage in the fashion world ushering in a new aestethic of mostly white models, who were pale and waif thin but it brought a lot of backlash, trigger warning as I will be talking about drug use.
It’s very well known that Kate Moss battled public perception of her partying and drug use, even her friend and fellow model Naomi, dealt with addiction too. The tabloids, like The Sun, had this cover which talked about how she did drugs in world leader Nelson Mandela’s house allegedly. Then in 2013 was on the tabloids again where a hidden video footage was sent to the daily mail of her doing multiple lines of coke aka cocaine in 40 minutes, with ex Peter Doherty of the band Baby Shambles. It’s something that has followed her career always, the idea of heavy drug use
At the time, the 90s, there was a cultural change happening, which was heroin chic, in the trendy circles and in the fashion world the use of heroin and cocaine was frequent and readily available. The modelling world has always had drugs follow it. since the heady 70’s in places such as studio 54 such and on shoots where people did it openly, of course there was famous deaths from it. But the drug use started to spill over to fashion editiorials and when a young upcoming photograper David Sorrenti was found dead from an overdose of heroin it really came to the forefront. Even though he wasn’t a fashion photographer, he shot models such as Kate Moss and Jaime King then the it girls of the grunge and heroin chic trend, his work inspiried the gritty realism that step into fashion.
When Bill Clinton then president called out the heroin chic aestethic in fashion he called it ugly and glorifying death.
Even in the early 90s the end of the supermodel was being touted simultaneously with grunge. Designers aside from Gianni Versace, didn’t want to take away from the clothes and didn’t particulary like the extravagant fees they wanted and earned previously, especially when a very infamous quote came from supermodel commanding 10,000 dollars a day.
And speaking about Linda, She was noted in saying that she praised the women that came forward with their stories of harrowing sexual abuse at the hands of her ex, then model agency head, Gerald Marie. Trigger warning as I will talk about sexual abuse and predators
The gross Gerald Marie who married a very young Linda Evangelista and was the head of the European branch of Elite Model Management. Really typified the other ugly side of modelling, sexual predator culture.
Gerald Marie, sexually assaulted models and had these crimes go on from 1980 to 1998. There was the allegation of rape by then a 15 year old model, who was working with the agency
There was a BBC doc in the late 90s about him and it really exposed what he did making the found of Elite distance himself from him but not completely.
The founder of Elite model managaement John Casablanca who himself dated and even married young supermodels like a young Stephanie Seymour and such, was himself insturmental during the 70’s in bring in cis straight men into the fashion world creating a snowball effect, and sadly it made the world of modelling much more dangerous even elite managment, which had the competition look of the year worked with Donald Trump and had parties with him and others in the agency along wit a host of underage girls and aspiring models, where they were basically in a room full of predators
Giselle Bundchen did however thrive in this environment and made the most any model has made all through the 2000’s, she’s probably the last real supermodel of that era before social media exploded and made modelling more achieveable which isn’t a bad thing per say as publicised, even looking down in comments people are nostaligc for that era but having one beauty standard shouldn’t really be typified
Victoria Secret became one of the biggest fashion shows on the planet, broadcasting first online to millions and then on TV to the same and more viewers around the world. Where they mixed commercial fashions, the advertisement of their underwears with elaborate styling, music and thin leggy models that stamped a place in pop culture. They had all the major supermodels walk for them like Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Giselle Bundchen, Adrianna Lima and later Gigi and Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Jasmine Tookes the list goes on.
They even had a million dollar bra every runway.
It was probably one of the last renmants of the supermodel era, and it became less about celebrity and more about the spectacle of the show. The world of modelling changed with high fashion along with brands hiring more models from second world countries like the former soviet powers and developing countries such as Brazila and latin america, it was hard to market these women outside of their looks they couldn’t be celebrities in these english speaking worlds sadly because english wasn’t their first language along with the constant turnover of models, Victoria secret literally became the only vehicle for a platform.
Now Victoria Secret has become bankrupt, closing down physical stores and ending their once coveted show and due in part to the gross thinking of their Ed Razek, the former chief marketing officer of VS’s who said that trans women and plus size women will never be in the shows because they aren’t the fantasy. Forgetting that those women also buy their products but all women have been slowly turning away from the brand because they don’t fit the ideal body type and standard of beauty advertised. Ed Razek is also a serial, and I mean a serial sexual predator, who made models uncomfortable at best wit comments and innapprprioately touching and propersitioning them to the point of ending contracts if they didn’t reciporate.
And even though the brand got a new person for the position and eventually had a fashion model of trans experience Valentina Sampiro and plus size model Paloma Elsesser. Victoria Secret signalled changed with a new roster of amadassor model with athlete Megan Rapino and eactress Priyanka Chopra . Victoria Secret couldn’t stop the inevitable, they were no longer in the zeitgeist even with their new ethos of all women welcome wasn’t welcomed.
And It’s like the show is advertised towards cis men like I remember vivdily my young uncles watching it and It’s not surprising Ed Razek was the man behind the show, so here you have a cishet man making content for straight men which there’s nothing wrong with that but it sold those same underwear set to women. And With brands such as Savage x fenty, actually broadcasting on amazon and centreing all these different types of women and femmes, where we had sex appeal, fun and threatrics that didn’t centre the male gaze. And other fast fashion/high street stores that sell dupes and basic underwear and lingerie sets. Plus there underwears are seen as comfortable there are a great many brands that are available today that they refuse to make.
If you go on instagram or pinterest you’ll find a dedicated community of fashion archives and archives of beautiful people and fandoms around supermodel era, you can see that in a way their is a resurgence but unlike before people want to take inspiriation, giving themselves the mic and styling vintage pieces and past trends for themselves and we see this all the time on tik tok and instagram. They are becoming the supermodels themselves and brands know this because we only get excited about fashion and beauty and seeing it on our favourie influencer and to be influencer now in 2021 is more diverse, so it’s a good thing.
Modelling itself has in a way; (outside of a very select few) gone back to the old mannequin days, the pagentry and sex appeal, even the grunge appeal is gone, we only see the clothes now to the point that during 2020 we had virtual fashion shows which some had human models and other had clothes walking by themselves. The supermodel era was just that an era.
