The dawn of my fashion consciousness coincided with the dawn of the Supermodels, the ones that get to be a proper noun. I credit this happy timing with my enduring obsession with the industry as a whole, as had I come to it just a few years later, I'm not sure that the alien features of those who succeeded the Supers; Karen Elson, Erin O'Connor et al, would have sparked a fascination sufficient to provoke quite so enduring a hold.
I read my first issue of Vogue when I was eleven, around about the time all this was happening, so this post is basically a self-indulgent trip down memory lane. The cover below was UK Vogue's first of the 1990s, and heralded a golden age of fashion in which powerful and unashamed beauty was to be celebrated. Peter Lindbergh's image, along with that of the Supers prancing down Vesace's runway singing along to George Michael's Freedom, the video for which featured all four of them plus Tatjana Patitz, is the most iconic of the period.
Within a few short years of it being taken the global economy had crashed, ushering in the grunge era. Suddenly the Supers and all the glamorous excess they represented seemed completely out of touch. I forgot them then too, and threw myself into full-on Kate Moss worship, ardent Nirvana listening, and the wearing of plaid flannel and Doc Martens. But they've always been there in the back of my mind, inextricably linked to my own memories of that time, smiling away at just how rich and beautiful they were. I'm happy to have them back.
I read my first issue of Vogue when I was eleven, around about the time all this was happening, so this post is basically a self-indulgent trip down memory lane. The cover below was UK Vogue's first of the 1990s, and heralded a golden age of fashion in which powerful and unashamed beauty was to be celebrated. Peter Lindbergh's image, along with that of the Supers prancing down Vesace's runway singing along to George Michael's Freedom, the video for which featured all four of them plus Tatjana Patitz, is the most iconic of the period.
Within a few short years of it being taken the global economy had crashed, ushering in the grunge era. Suddenly the Supers and all the glamorous excess they represented seemed completely out of touch. I forgot them then too, and threw myself into full-on Kate Moss worship, ardent Nirvana listening, and the wearing of plaid flannel and Doc Martens. But they've always been there in the back of my mind, inextricably linked to my own memories of that time, smiling away at just how rich and beautiful they were. I'm happy to have them back.
"I don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day"
Linda Evangelista
