Christy, Cindy, Linda, Naomi: The Ultimate Guide to the Original Supers on the Runway

August 14, 2023

the original supermodels walking the runway

Christy, Cindy, Linda, Naomi—the greatest of all time, the original supermodels. There were models christened “super” before them (Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, Donyale Luna) and some after (Gisele Bündchen, Natasha Poly, Bella Hadid). There were even some who got the superlative treatment during Christy et al’s peak: Kristen McMenamy, Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen, and Nadja Auermann, among them. But there will never be anyone like the OGs. Together with the late Tatjana Patitz, they were known as the Big Five, a name given to the group featured on British Vogue’s era-defining January 1990 cover photographed by Peter Lindbergh.

Each of them had gradually come to prominence in the mid-to-late ’80s, but the ’90s were their prime, and no one could resist their charms. Not Gianni Versace, who brought them together on his fall 1991 runway to lip sync “Freedom! ’90” after their appearance in George Michael’s sensational music video. And not Miuccia Prada or Rei Kawakubo either, both of whom hired them throughout the decade. And certainly not Vogue: The four models have graced the magazine’s covers across all editions over 200 times. How could anyone resist? Their magnetic allure came not just from their looks but from their unique sensibilities: Cindy was the bombshell, Christy the all-American beauty, Naomi the runway maven, and Linda the ultimate chameleon.

Linda Cindy Naomi and Christy walking Gianni Versace
s fall 1991 runway.

With Apple TV+’s The Super Models documentary premiering on September 20, Vogue reunited them for our September 2023 issue, which dropped online today. Here at Runway, we did some reconnaissance of our own, scrubbing our digital archive to find each and every time the original supermodels graced a runway from 1990 to 2000. While it should be said that this doesn’t include all of their appearances, it’s as exhaustive a list as can be done in 2023. As an added bonus, we sprinkled in their runway comebacks: Christy for Kim Jones’s Fendi couture debut, Cindy for Off-White’s tribute show to Virgil Abloh, and Linda closing the Fendi x Marc Jacobs show last September. Naomi never really left the runways, so we’ve curated some of her most acclaimed recent turns.

By the late ’90s the Supers’ runway appearances started to become more sporadic. Cindy walked away first after Chanel’s spring 1996 show, moving on to building a wide range of successful beauty and home businesses. Christy Turlington’s last show of the era was Calvin Klein spring 1996. She went on to study at NYU and founded the non-profit “Every Mother Counts.” Linda’s last show of the ’90s was Chanel spring 1998, though she returned to modeling in the 2001 September issue of Vogue and walked a few shows throughout that decade, including John Galliano’s fall 2007 couture show for Christian Dior. Naomi never stopped working; her mission today is to make fashion more diverse on all fronts.

This image may contain Clothing Apparel Doll Toy Human Person Robe Evening Dress Fashion Gown and Amber Holcomb

The intermittency of their runway appearances after the mid ’90s meant only one thing: the Supers had reached a level that made their every showing an event. They weren’t just models anymore, they were stars. They permeated culture and merged celebrity and fashion for good. Forever and always, the greatest of all time. Scroll through for the many times the original supermodels graced the runway, as seen on the Vogue Runway archives.