When he talks about those years, the great photographer of “Elle” Gilles Bensimon evokes moments of grace that disappeared with the century. “There was such carelessness! When we went to Saint-Barth to take photos, I told the girls that we weren’t there to work, not obsessed with the shoot. We weren’t in a hurry. They had to be rested, comfortable, happy, not stressed. » He was the boyfriend of the “Body”: Elle Macpherson, whose glory he somewhat woven. With the others, Cindy, Christy, Linda and Naomi, the Frenchman had the same joyful relaxation. Not the type to get up at 4 a.m. to get the right light… “I wanted them to be able to drink their coffee in peace, so that they wouldn’t have itchy eyes…”
Usually it was up early, stay up late. They were not 20 years old and were living the life of CEOs. Eighteen-hour days, business trips to the four corners of the planet for fashion shows and photoshoots, stays in palaces for a few hours of sleep because, most often – fashion shows, editorial pages, advertising campaigns -, we had to wake up at dawn. Unlike a CEO, they carried their capital with them: their plastic was their most precious asset. They maintained it like an in
With creators Victor Anate and Edvin Thompson, on September 5 in New York, Naomi Campbell presents her capsule collection for the PrettyLittleThing brand. Evan Agostini/AP/SIPA / © Evan Agostini/AP/SIPA
estimable mechanically. They loved going out, laughing, partying but, serious and disciplined, they would never cancel a photo shoot.
Much has been said about Claudia Schiffer’s austerity. But if her elders were going wild at Studio 54, at the Area or at Danceteria in New York, in the morning, hangover or not, they were in makeup at 7 o’clock. And when Linda sealed her celebrity by saying that she didn’t get up “for less than 10,000 dollars”, she was joking, let’s see! We remember, in those crazy 1980s, the prices of top models and photographers reached stratospheric levels, especially in advertising. Plethora of assistants, crazy sets, star demands, Avedon, Newton, Leibovitz, Testino, Toscani, Demarchelier, Weber, Von Unwerth, Sims, Meisel… Everything took on the appearance of an extreme expedition.
Peter Lindbergh, girls’ favorite photographer
The photo was not digital, so we had to “shoot” as many views as possible, feel that “this is it, we have it” and wait for development. Then, the possibilities for retouching were limited and they were done with a brush. Today, these fashion photos sell for between 30,000 and 1 million euros depending on the top model and the photographer. Treasures.
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Cindy Crawford on the catwalk of the Off-White fashion show in Paris, February 28, 2022. Valerio Mezzanotti//SIPA / © Valerio Mezzanotti//SIPA
Almost forty years later, many of these artists have disappeared, the adorable Peter Lindbergh, the girls’ favorite, the hieratic Richard Avedon and the daring Newton… But the top artists are still there. We have seen them mature, professionalize, rise to the level of the biggest names in show business… and business. And continue, in their fifties, their career as a “super model”. Proof that it is not only their beauty that has taken them to the firmament, it is their personality. “They had dogs,” summarizes Jean Paul Gaultier. Determined, confident, powerful.
They remained friends because unbreakable bonds were formed between these post-teens who grew up together. They now have children who are past the age of their own beginnings.
Linda Evangelista star of the Fendi show, September 9, 2022 in New York, with, from l. on the right, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Silvia Venturi Fendi, Linda and Marc Jacobs. Getty Images / © 2022 Taylor Hill
Cindy Crawford, for example, the richest of the four, now poses for major brands with her daughter, Kaia, 22 years old, 1.77 meters! She made her name a label: cosmetics, furniture, real estate investments… When her ex-husband, Richard Gere, found her “too balanced, too organized to[lui]», did he suspect that, twenty years later, the “little one” would become ten times richer and famous than him? With Rande Gerber, her second husband, a “success story” in the restaurant business, friend of George Clooney, for sure, she found a better partner: “With Rande, we have the same values,” summarizes the CEO. The perfect family.
Linda Evangelista in sick
In contrast, life was less generous with Linda Evangelista, the Canadian. She was the most passionate about her job as a model, a cat-eyed chameleon who knew how to transform into any style. It seems that since she revealed her double breast cancer – which required her to have a bilateral mastectomy – and her cryolipolysis accidents, the market value of her photos has increased fourfold. Morbid triumph.
Christy Turlington during the Marc Jacobs fashion show, February 13, 2019 in New York FilmMagic / © 2019 J. Lee
This beautiful girl didn’t deserve this hell. Applied to the body and neck, Cool Sculpting, instead of slimming it, created large rolls of hard, irremovable fat. Although her face seems to have regained its oval shape thanks to corrective surgery, her silhouette remains misshapen. “Who will want to make me wear clothes? » laments, in tears, the one who holed up at home for four years in the grip of deep depression. Then cancer…
The confessions of Naomi Campbell
But the courageous Linda, mother of a 16-year-old son (with François-Henri Pinault), managed to bounce back. The fashion that had made him famous came to his aid. With a providential spirit of relevance, luxury knows how to show its big heart: Fendi “signed” her for its leather goods advertising campaign in 2022. An excellent “inclusive” marketing operation. Paradoxically, Linda seems more destroyed by her rolls than by her cancers: “The scars on my chest, I wear them like trophies. I’m alive ! Being disfigured is worse, it’s the opposite of a trophy. It made me lose this job that I loved. My heart is broken. » Yes, when your life is built around your perfect appearance, you’d rather die… Fortunately she has her son, a gift, “a rock,” she says, “a constant support.” Come on, Linda…
Naomi Campbell did not endure these misfortunes, yet behind her incomparable charisma, the British of Jamaican ancestry hides “a sadness and a loneliness; a terrible feeling of abandonment. She never knew her father. Hence, undoubtedly, an inextinguishable lack. Some understood it: Azzedine Alaïa, whom she called “daddy”, and Flavio Briatore, twenty years older, her ex-fiance with whom she remained close. She had to celebrate her 52nd birthday to reveal her mistakes and her addictions.
Linda, Cindy, Naomi and Claudia entered the legend together, on the podium of the Versace fashion show, in Milan, in December 1991. Apple Tv+ via Bestimage / © Apple Tv+ via Bestimage
We knew that she had discreetly helped Marc Jacobs then John Galliano when it was necessary to exfiltrate them for “rehab”. In detox. She herself knew the terrain well. “Alcohol did not heal my wounds,” confides the statuesque Englishwoman in a rare access of sincerity. Self-pity is not his style. Naomi is a warrior. Renowned for her angry outbursts, phones sent in the faces of those who annoy her, her phenomenal lateness… she says she has calmed down. We ask to see, but his generosity in the community never seems to be faulted. She had promised Mandela to commit to Africa, she keeps her word and shows for the continent’s designers. Today, she is the mother of two young children, “my suns”, she describes without further explanation.
Christy Turlington is certainly the brightest supermodel of the quartet. Of her, Jean Paul Gaultier remembers: “Sweet, well-mannered, she seemed to put things into perspective, to have another, more intense life elsewhere. » At a very young age, she discovered yoga and meditation. Her distinction, her finesse, her elegance propel this daughter of a pilot and a Salvadoran air hostess, at 15, to the top. She goes through the stages, helped by the photographer Arthur Elgort, who educates her on the lens.
When will we see a series on our top models: Inès, Estelle, Farida, Khadija…?
After about twenty years, she could have continued but she “needed to [s]“enrich intellectually,” she recalls. The joy of going to take literature, architecture and psychology courses at university! “It was the most important part of my life,” admits the model, 54, still intact and without Botox or hyaluronic acid injections.
When her father died of lung cancer, she took action against tobacco. After her first birth, which caused her to suffer a serious hemorrhage, she launched the Every Mother Counts foundation. And discreetly demonstrates his business skills: Nuala, his sports and yoga clothing brand, sells very well. She is the mother of Grace, 20, and Finn, 17, and still with their father, actor Edward Burns. With her gentleness and her kind gaze, she is by far the most serene and impressive of the four.
We wonder what French producers are waiting for to launch a series about our top stars: Inès, Estelle, Farida, Khadija… Their lives are also novels!
2023-09-25 06:09:32
#Linda #Christy #Naomi #Cindy #timeless #supermodels
