Editor’s note: This story has been edited and added to since it was first published in 2016.
These days, a model’s pedigree counts as much as, or more than, their pout. Blue blood is not a requirement, but lineage gives a model a narrative that taps into the powerful force that is nostalgia. At the same time that designers are mixing in references from decades past, model watchers can delight in finding glimpses of their favorite models of yore in today’s new faces. (Try looking at Kaia Gerber, for example, without seeing traces of Super Cindy.)
There are many more DOMs and SOMS (daughters and sons of models) in the business than you might suspect. For some, like Rachel “Ray” Roberts, a third-gen model who stepped in front of the camera in 2002, following in mom Esmé Marshall’s footsteps was “a nonissue.” But walking the same path as a model mom isn’t always easy: “It’s been both a huge gift and a struggle to always have had to compare myself to her,” says Ulrikke Toft Simonsen, daughter of five-time Vogue cover girl Renée, who has been modeling since she was a tot. “I’m finally in the right place,” Anansa Sims, daughter of Beverly Johnson, tells us, having carved out her own niche in the industry.
On Mother’s Day weekend, we celebrate the work-family bonds between model moms and the children following in their footsteps.
Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber
Kimora Lee Simons and Aoki Lee and Ming Lee Simmons
Jenny Howorth and Georgia Howorth
“I had pink hair. The agent told me, ‘Do something about that,’” model Jeny Howorth told New York Magazine in 1983. By that time, the much in-demand Brit lived in the Big Apple and had an androgynous blonde crop courtesy of then-neighbor Sam McKnight. Daughter Georgia has been modeling since 2015, when stylist extraordinaire Katie Grand tapped her for an assignment. The long-haired stunner, who studied art, has a face Edward Burne-Jones would have loved to have paint.
Helena Christensen and Mingus Reedus
Beverly Johnson and Anansa Sims
The first woman of color to appear on the cover of American Vogue, in 1974, Beverly Johnson has been called the “face of change.” When it came to daughter Anansa Sims following in her footsteps, Johnson put education first: “‘You can be a model to and from school.’”
“I’ve never had a superskinny, traditional model body,” says Anansa, who took a break from her studies during her sophomore year of college to pursue modeling, prepping in what she describes an “unhealthy” way. She got work, but felt unwell physically and mentally. “I realized the key is not getting down that small; it’s staying that small,” says Anansa, who continued with her studies, earning a master’s degree in business administration. Despite landing a corporate job, Anansa was still looking for something else, and found it while watching Tyra Banks’s America’s Next Top Model, where she witnessed curvy models in whom she saw herself. “It just kind of stuck with me and [I wondered]: ‘Can I do that?’ So I made a phone call to Wilhelmina—I didn’t tell my mom; I didn’t tell anyone—[and] they signed me on the spot. That was, like, the happiest day for me, and then, to top it off, the next day I booked my first job and it just totally took off from there.”
Kate Moss and Lila Moss
Estelle Lefébure and Ilona Smet
You can’t open an ’80s magazine without seeing a picture of Estelle Lefébure, the “superstar” model once described as “a sultry national symbol of French beauty and attitude.” (When she did her own calendar in 1993, the making of it was shown on French TV.) Lefébure appeared on the cover of American Vogue six times, was in the first Guess campaign, and had a role in George Michael’s “Too Funky” video. In 1989, she married David Hallyday, son of French music icons Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday. Today, while Estelle is busy promoting her well-being method, Orahe, which includes practicing Pilates and yoga on a paddleboard, her daughter Ilona Smet is spending an increasing amount of time in front of the camera. A portrait painter who studied at Central Saint Martins, Smet is also studying acting in California and heeding her grandmother Sylvie’s advice: “You were born an original—don’t become a copy.”
Meghan Douglas and Landon Dalton
Yolanda, Gigi, and Bella Hadid
Pat Cleveland and Anna Cleveland
Lucie de la Falaise and Ella Richards
Christy Turlington Burns and Grace Burns
Susan Holmes, Grace and Mae McKagan
“I think my look is changeable. I’m able to look very girl next door to very, very exotic and sophisticated,” said Susan Holmes in a 1992 interview. The model, who was once voted the person “most desired as ‘deserted-island companion’ ” by her high school class, is now, appropriately, the designer of a line of swimwear, a TV personality married to sometimes Guns N’ Roses bass guitarist Duff McKagan, and a mother of two.
As the lead singer of the Pink Slips, Grace McKagan, Holmes’s oldest daughter, is most often compared to her dad, but she’s just as comfortable in front of a camera as she is onstage, as is evident in the photos rock-loving Hedi Slimane has taken of her. Signed to IMG Talent, Grace wears flea-market finds for her shows, because, she says, “I pour [fake] blood [from Party City] all over my dresses.” Offstage, she mixes vintage with high-end labels. “But I’m not a brand whore, or whatever,” she says. “I have a couple accessories that I’ll wear every day with different vintage pieces. Elegance is key.” More recently, Mae McKagan has hit the catwalk. Kim Shui cast mother and Mae for her spring 2024 show.
Vanessa Paradis and Lily-Rose Depp
Celia Forner and Allegra Venturi
The Valencia, Spain–born Celia Forner was the winner of Ford’s 1987 Super Model of the Year contest. The dark-haired beauty, once photographed by Helmut Newton and Andrea Blanch for Vogue, is now a London-based jewelry designer married to the Italian photographer, writer, and book publisher Francesco Venturi. Daisy Garnett described the pair as “an absurdly glamourous couple” in a 2010 article for the magazine featuring their Majorcan estate. Also pictured were their children Filippo and look-alike daughter Allegra Venturi, an art lover who has been spotted front row at Dolce Gabbana’s Alta Moda show.
Kristen McMenamy and Lily McMenamy
Esmé Marshall and Rachel Roberts
Named after the heroine of a J.D. Salinger story, Esmé Marshall was discovered selling socks in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a Mademoiselle editor. Dubbed “the energy girl” by that magazine, Esmé met Calvin Klein at Studio 54 and soon found herself starring in his denim campaign. Two American Vogue covers would follow, and four children, one of whom, Rachel Roberts, who goes by Ray, has chosen to follow her mother’s career path. (Rachel’s parents met at a Perry Ellis show after the designer scouted and cast John Roberts, a professional volleyball player, in an airport in Italy.) For Rachel, a career in front of the camera was “a nonissue.” “I feel like my mom kept in contact with Ford, and [when I was 12 or 13] I just started working,” explains Rachel. “I was really happy because I wanted to make money, and I was always really independent and I wanted to travel, so it worked out.” What did Rachel learn from her mother about modeling? How “to walk a runway with books on my head.”
Jerry Hall and Georgia May Jagger
Suzie Cave and Earl Cave
Renée Toft Simonsen and Ulrikke Toft Simonsen
The winner of Ford’s 1982 Face of the ’80s model contest, Renée Toft Simonsen, a blue-eyed Dane, became one of the most sought-after faces of the decade. She appeared on the cover of Roxy Music’s Atlantic Years album and landed five American Vogue covers. Duran Duran’s John Taylor saw one of these magazines and fell for her looks; the two soon met through a mutual friend and eventually became engaged, splitting around the time that Renée decided to quit modeling and return to Denmark, where she became a psychologist and author.
Renée’s parents were against her decision to model. “One was a communist at the time and the other one was an anarchist, and they thought that the modeling business was horrible and superficial and nothing good could come out of it,” she said in a 1999 interview. But she didn’t discourage her own daughter Ulrikke from following her lead. “It was kind of always in the cards for me to become a model,” Ulrikke tells Vogue from Denmark. “I have been working since I was 5 years old, and it’s been both a huge gift and a struggle to always have had to compare myself to her.” Struggle or not, Ulrikke is a natural, who looks comfortable and confident in front of a lens, having absorbed her mother’s advice. “The one thing that she always told me,” Ulrikke explains, “was to relax in front of the camera.”
