lifestyle
Sculpting the Supers
Italian Fashion and the Golden Age of the Supermodel
THE CONCEPT of the supermodel has become a mainstay in popular culture. The term, first coined in the 1940s, seems to be banded around liberally these days. In contrast, during the late ’80s and early ’90s the moniker was reserved for a much more select group of ‘it’ girls. Still today, when you hear ‘supermodel’, it is iconic shots of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington that spring to mind.
The so-called Big Five, were characterised by their ability to transcend their role as clothes horse, wielding immense personal popularity and unprecedented star power. For the first time fashion was just as much about the girl on the catwalk as about the clothes she was wearing. These girls, and those who would follow them, became emblematic of their generations, dictating the physical and cultural ideal of the decade.
Italian fashion played a pivotal role in the creation of the supermodel phenomenon. The late editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue, Franca Sozzani, who ran the magazine from 1988 until her death in 2016, ensured the pages were filled with the famous faces. Her close collaboration with photographer Steven Meisel, who shot every cover of Vogue Italia during her time as editor, guaranteed that the models had constant editorial exposure.
At a time when models were traditionally confined to either print or catwalk, it was Sozzani’s close relationship with designer Gianni Versace that cemented the supermodels’ meteoritic rise. As Sozzani explains in the biographic documentary ‘Franca: Chaos and Creation’ directed by her son Francesco Carrozzini: ‘‘When I started at Vogue I hired all these girls that then became supermodels
IMAGE SOURCE: LEO TYLER