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It’s best when they walk in unison. Shoulders back, eyes fixed on the end of the catwalk. Here are four women—Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Linda Evangelista—whose born-with-it magnetism lifted fashion from the cloistered salons of Paris to become a cornerstone of mainstream culture. The crucible? Peter Lindbergh’s now iconic British Vogue cover from January 1990, the models a pantheonic statement of what the new woman of the ’90s would look like. “Did anyone here think it would have the reaction that it did?” Evangelista asks her fellow supers in a conversation filmed on the set of Vogue’s September cover. “I didn’t think George Michael would be calling us from it!” Campbell replies.
These models have been enshrined in countless campaigns, but their personal lives (and style) inspired just as much attention as their billboard and runway appearances. Consider the work of the late, great Roxanne Lowit, whose photography gave fans unprecedented access to fashion’s beau monde. For decades, she would venture backstage at blockbuster fashion shows, capturing the supers with cigarettes dangling from their lips and champagne flutes in hand. These women were rockstars, and their legacies continue to mesmerize culture three decades later. Below, we travel back to fashion’s “golden era”, as the supers school us in what authentic supermodel glamour means today.
Don’t try too hard…
In Peter Lindbergh’s iconic cover shoot, each model was wearing their own jeans – Levi’s to be precise. “We weren’t photographed with a tonne of hair and make-up,” said Crawford in 2016. “We were quite undone. Coming out of the ’80s, which was all big hair and boobs pushed up, it felt refreshing and new.” Of course, the ’90s will forever be remembered as the wellspring of double denim but it’s this “off-duty” attitude that has entrenched itself in style. Crawford was perhaps the biggest proponent of the fabric (who could forget her 1992 Pepsi ad?), and she was photographed on countless occasions in what is perhaps the most timeless outfit combination of all: jeans and a white vest.
Commit to the look…
There is nothing more stylish than having conviction in what you wear. Like Naomi Campbell in her monochromatic Chanel sets. Or like Naomi Campbell in a traffic-stopping column embellished with thousands of Swarovski crystals. Or like Naomi Campbell seen here attending “an event”. It is about harboring a stealth-like confidence and fostering an intense relationship with clothing. I often think of Linda Evangelista, who morphed into an androgyne for David Sims post-grunge: chest bare beneath blazers. “Linda was one of the girls who had a glamorous era and then became kind of boyish in a men’s suit, carving initials on a bench,” as Marc Jacobs recounts in British Vogue’s September 2023 issue.
But it also takes more than looks…
These models’ looks made them famous, but their careers have endured because of their charisma and presence and charm. Beamed into the spotlight as teens, these were hard-won attributes born out of an unshakeable work ethic. “They weren’t born into this,” said the filmmaker behind George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” music video. “They came into the industry from various backgrounds, normal girls. And they surpassed the world they entered into.” After all, a clothes hanger cannot hold a conversation on a late-night talk show, and so perhaps it’s worth flicking through a book.
Friendship is a glamorous pursuit…
“There was a sisterhood there, defined by caring and loyalty: when one is down you pick the other one up,” Campbell says in the September 2023 issue. And it was this cast-iron bond that saw the supermodels positioned as a kind of fashion girl group within the public eye. It was Christy who convinced Cindy to walk twice for Marc Jacobs. Naomi was green-lit for her first Michael Kors show after her friends persuaded him to let her fill in for a late cancellation. And when Linda’s marriage began to disintegrate in 1993, it was Christy who came to her rescue.
Be playful…
To return to photographer Roxanne Lowit, one of her most memorable images—now seared into fashion folklore—is of Naomi, Linda and Christy bundled into Donatella Versace’s bathtub at the Ritz. They are all cackling while balancing glasses of what is likely vintage Bollinger. “There was definitely more of a playfulness back then,” Lowit said in 2014. “The models really had big personalities, and great charm. Today, I find that the girls are all kind of the same… the supermodels really got it.” In the behind-the-scenes interview for September 2023, Crawford seems to agree. “When you look back there is this sense of joyfulness and playfulness,” she says. “I’m blessed that I came at that time, I wouldn’t have wanted to come at another time.” Naomi adds: “I love our era.”