Fashion Watch loves models. Who wouldn’t? They simultaneously make us feel sick with envy and yet marvel in wonderment at such physical beauty. But the fashion world has a fickle relationship with the elite of the model crop, one time basking in the glory of the ‘Supers’: Cindy Crawford et al, and then swinging wildly in favour of androgynous, instantly forgetful ‘alien’ girls who all looked identical and whose names no-one knew.
When supermodels are out of fashion (quite literally) then it doesn’t matter, as fashion has The Celebrity, and finds the time to play a sycophantic role in their lives and careers. At one point I swear that, other than in Victoria’s Secret shows, supermodels were basically living under the metaphorical rock (other than Kate Moss, and even she spent more time on the front covers of gossip magazines than fashion ones) and celebrities were firmly in the spotlight. Our muses were celebs: Alexa Chung or Sienna Miller, our perfumes were borne of celebrity fame, be it from JLo or Sarah Jessica Parker, and glossy page adverts featured the a-listers instead of the models: Madonna for Louis Vuitton, Jennifer Connelly for Balenciaga and Lily Allen for Chanel. Whilst these uber-celebs often rocked their times at the forefront of the fashion houses, the puritanical fashion streak in me couldn’t help but think that they should stick to their day jobs – and get the models back to do theirs.
But literally in the space of this year I have noticed a shift: the Super, it seems, is back. Modernised and under new guises yes, but Super nonetheless. On the blogs celebrities are always a fashion focus, but recently the chatter has been all model. We are still girl-crushing on Gisele, recent yummy mummy as well as being named as the highest earning model in the world, taking home $25 million last year. A glance at the top spots are all recognisable model names, no more are our models nameless, faceless canvases. Heidi Klum (a Super still going strong) is in second, and Kate Moss in third. Also in the top 10 are Doutzen Kroes, Natalia Vodianova, Adriana Lima, Miranda Kerr and Daria Weborwy – all the names that I am now associating with ‘the New Super’. We’re all interested in Kerr’s latest ID magazine cover, and most tabloids, fashion websites and blogs were covering Lara Stone’s weekend wedding to David Walliams. Models are our new celebs, which puts the latter down in second place.
Stone is seemingly this season’s model du jour, the face and body of many campaigns, magazine covers and fashion features this season. In a trumping of model over a-lister, Stone replaced Madonna late last year as the face of Louis Vuitton, starring in the spring/summer 2010 adverts and next season’s as well. Vuitton’s communications director said at the time: ‘after two seasons working with a huge star, Marc Jacobs decided to take a breather and work with a model…it’s the choice of a new supermodel.’
The summer campaign images for high street giant H&M also feature Lara Stone amongst a stellar model line-up including Daria Werbowy, Erin Wasson and Sasha Pivovarova in a bikini campaign shot, walking straight to camera, all toned limbs and petite curves. The images were even shot by a Super photographer, the acclaimed Patrick Demarchelier, who wanted to capture a ‘glamorous, jet-set lifestyle’. The image is everywhere at the moment, in the shop windows, on billboards at bus stops and in magazines – a constant presence of New Supers in fashion.
Over on the cover of German Vogue, we have a Super of past and present, the fabulous (and very pregnant) Claudia Schiffer, posing a la Demi Moore for a shot that will surely go down in model cover history. Once again, the photographer matched the Super level of the muse: it was the legendary Karl Lagerfeld. Speaking of him, Karl is reminiscing once again, with the choice of Vanessa Paradis as the face of Chanel’s Coco Cocoon bag line, after a previous love-in with the Celeb in the shape of Lily Allen. Paradis has collaborated with Chanel twice before on the handbag campaigns, and Mr Lagerfeld gushed: ‘she is the most divine person to work with, so why change?’ Well it seems in the fashion world, change is happening, but it’s the Supers that are back.
