A tribute to the original supermodels

Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington,Tatjana Patitz and Naomi Campbell by Herb Ritts

Naomi, Linda, Tatjana, Christy and Cindy. British Vogue, january 1990

Helena, Claudia, Naomi, Christy and Stephanie


Cindy & Claudia: my all times favourite tops

Versace on his show's backstage surrounded by Naomi, Stephanie, Nadja, Claudia and Shalom

Stephanie, Karen, Helena, Linda, Cindy and Claudia: the 90s phenomenon fell as fast as it rose

Big hair, big smile, and long toned legs in a curvaceous body. That's how models used to be when the "supermodels" term was first created in the 1990s: They looked healthy. The birth of the supermodels was the decade's phenomenon, as the girls achieved celebrity status and were insanely highly-paid. I'm quite sure it was the first time ever that women were far better paid than men working in the same business, and that's how things still are these days. Some claims that the phenomen gave its first signs when canadian Linda Evangelista stated in 1991: "Christy and i wouldn't get out of bed for less than 10.000 dollars".

Others say that italian designer Gianni Versace was the great sponsor of the rise of the supermodels, as he wanted not only one amazon girl, he wanted all of them for himself. And to achieve this, he promised to pay each model a bonus fee if they agreed to work exclusively for him during Milan Fashion Week. And they did. And then there was Claudia, Christy, Naomi, Cindy, Linda and many others on a single catwalk, and nevertheless, the catwalk fees soon achieved $20.000 for a 30-minute show.

Versace was willing to pay this fee and i doubt he ever regreted. The same thing followed his season campaigns, and not later, cosmetic companies started doing the same. It's hard to forget Christy Turlington's ads for Calvin Klein's perfumes, as well as those of Cindy Crawford for Revlon. Women all over the world were inspired to be just like them, and I think it was perfectly acceptable, unlike these days where young girls starve to death willing to look like what's stated to be "beauty" in fashion.

According to Charlotte Seeling, the supermodels helped to hide the fact that at those times fashion were in crisis, keeping its glamour alive. She says: "It was not only the designers who supported them in this. Photographers like Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh, and the editors and stylists of international fashion magazines, contributed heavily to the transformation of models into icons of the outgoing millennium". But fashion people had created a monster, and that already mentioned Linda's quote was just the beggining of the arrogance attacks that was about to come. Naomi Campbell was the one who was most likely to infuriate photographers and magazine editors, with her bad moods and perpetual tardiness. Besides, designers were sick of how ridiculous high were the girls' fees and the fact that most of the times they called more attention than their creations.

As being celebrities, journalists were far more interested in their personal life than in reviewing the outfit they were wearing in the catwalk. Cindy Crawford married actor Richard Gere, in a short union marked by the fact they both payed 25.000 british pounds to a newspaper in order to attest the sincerity of their union and to clear up the rumours that they were both gay. Naomi Campbell had affairs with actor Robert De Niro and boxer Mike Tyson, and Stephanie Seymour dated the Guns 'n' Roses singer Axl Rose, just to name a few examples. In most of the cases, it was said that the guy was the girl's boyfriend, and not the contrary, as "models became the rock stars, and their rock stars boyfriends mere hangers-on".

The fall of the supermodels didn't take long to happen. In the second half of the 1990s, things were already quite changed. Grunge was in the scene and fashion embraced the heroin chic look enthusiastically, as well as fashion's new darling, Kate Moss. Fortunately, this awful trend didn't last so long, but Kate would reign forever in a business where many girls can't work more than a single season. I remember how badly people first reacted to Kate's skinny body, pretty understandable, as compared to those times' models, Kate looked like a child.

But how can I find Kate Moss unhealthy-looking in times of russian model Vlada? Designers say they stopped hiring amazong-looking girls because they called more attention than the outfit. Then they decided to hire smaller and smaller girls. The fashion magazines did the same. But it must be something seriously wrong with these people to think the clothes are gaining more attention in a starving-looking body. Some models today are so sick looking it's impossible not to pay attention to them, instead of the outfit.

For a short second the healthy model look returned to the scene. It was during 1999-2000, with the rise of brazilian model Gisele Bundchen. Right after it, the weird looking girls, lacking curves and sensuality, took the scene, and shortly after, it was the rise of the eastern european models. Then there was the times of the porcelain doll-faced girls and the alien look, followed by Gemma Ward. Right now I'm not really sure what's going on. I think things are not as bad as a couple of years ago. I see different kind of girls working in the business, which is quite fair. And even better, I see many of the original supermodels working. Claudia Schiffer graced french Vogue's cover this month, and shared current german Vogue's cover with fellow supermodel Nadja Auermann and the not as old Julia Stegner.

I'd like to feature many 1990s models here on my blog from now on, I don't promise it will be a weekly post, but let's see. I don't pay much attention to today's models with a few exceptions, and the fact that many of them look like skeletons doesn't make it any better. And besides, they don't have the same appeal from nearly two decades ago, some of them are mere dolls for the designer's outfit. But yes, of course there are exceptions, though neither of them reached the iconic status the original supermodels did.