I first saw this hashtag being used by Cindy Crawford when she posts about her career, idols and colleagues in her social-media accounts. It has since caught on, becoming the modeling equivalent of the general population’s #throwbackthursday.
So today, I decided to pay tribute to two of my favorite subjects: models and books. This list, though, are rich in pictures and profiles. If you want the dirt on the modeling industry, read instead Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia (1993) by Stephen Fried and Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (1995) by Michael Gross.
‘MODEL AS MUSE: EMBODYING
FASHION’ (2009)
This coffeetable book was published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to coincide with its exhibit in 2009 exploring “fashion’s reciprocal relationship with those iconic beauties who represent the evolution and changing face of the feminine ideal.” It was written by Harold Koda, curator in charge of The Costume Institute, and Kohle Yohannan, an art historian.
Every model, aspiring or established, should own this seminal book. It profiles the greats, starting with Lee Miller in the 1930s to Kate Moss in the 1990s, with only mere mentions of those who came after. Linda Evangelista, considered the model’s model, graces the cover in a photograph by her mentor Steven Meisel for a Dolce & Gabbana 1991 advertisement. Kate got the back cover, photographed by Peter Lindbergh for Harper’s Bazaar’s December 1994.
What I love about this publication is that it contains every iconic image, campaign and editorial of all my favorites coming from the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle. Marc Jacobs, quoting Yves Saint Laurent, writes in his Sponsor’s Statement: “A good model can advance fashion 10 years.”
‘HARPER’S BAZAAR MODELS’ (2015)
Gisele Bundchen, the German-Brazilian bombshell that led the Brazilian Wave in modeling, covers this book with a photograph by Patrick Demarchelier in the magazine’s September 1999 issue. Jean Shrimpton graces the back in a 1965 photograph by Richard Avedon. Besides the legends, like Dovima, Suzy Parker and Dorian Leigh, this beautiful tome gives space to contemporary greats, such as Hilary Rhoda, Daria Werbowy, Lily Donaldson and Lara Stone. But what make this a keepsake are the images from the Liz Tilberis era, from 1992 to 1999.
“You can become a good model with a perfect body, but to become a great model you need a unique face, a face not seen before—it does not even have to be perfect, a face that everybody can identify instantly, a face that helps to shape the idea of and the evolution of beauty in a given period,” Karl Lagerfeld writes in the foreword.
‘MODELS OF INFLUENCE: 50 WOMEN WHO RESET THE COURSE OF FASHION’ (2015)
Celebrity photographer Nigel Barker creates a collectible anthology out of the body of works of great photographers, such as Avedon, Penn, Bailey, Scavullo, Ritts and Testino. He chose as his cover a “Marlon Brando-meets-Madonna” Lindbergh photograph for the September 1991 issue of Vogue featuring the reigning supermodels of the time: Cindy, Tatjana, Helena, Linda, Claudia, Naomi, Karen and Stephanie. (Up until the 1990s, supermodels—like God, Cher and, of course, Madonna—needed no last names.) All models are profiled in the book, except for Karen, the most successful Dutch model until Doutzen Kroes came along. Of the 50 essays Barker wrote of influential models, two of Asian descent made the list: China Machado and Liu Wen. He also deemed Naomi Sims (embodiment of the Black is Beautiful movement in the 1960s) more influential than Beverly Johnson (the first black model on the cover of American Vogue). Curiously, he only allows a small photo of Tyra Banks, who arguably gave him his biggest break as a judge and photographer in America’s Next Top Model. “What is considered beautiful evolves, but it’s very often through models and fashion that we come to understand beauty in the context of our time and, by extension, within ourselves,” Barker writes in the introduction.
‘HEAVEN: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
SWIMSUIT’ (2010)
More often than not, when a model scores a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover, she is assured of longevity in the industry. What more if it’s a book? Petra Nemcova got this, photographed by author/sports photographer Walter Iooss in Vietnam. Brooklyn Decker is featured at the back, shot in Maldives. Christie and Cheryl lead the heavenly bodies in this compilation of “sun, sand and supermodels.” But it’s Paulina who Iooss finds unforgettable: “[She] is one of the great natural posers of all time. Every time she moved or sat or stood, it was perfect. There was no point in attempting to pose her, because whatever I said would never be as good as what she could think to do next on her own. All her movements were natural to begin.”
‘VOGUE MODEL: THE FACES OF FASHION’ (2010)
More specifically, this is a British Vogue publication, so the names on the list could be unfamiliar to non-fashion insiders, such as Anne Gunning, Annie Morton, Della Oake, Fiona Campbell-Walter, Iya Abdy, Liberty Ross, Lud, Toto Koopman and Wenda Parkinson. It pays tribute to the British Supers, like Agyness Deyn, Cecilia Chancellor, Celia Hammond, Jill Kennington, Lily Cole, Paula Gellibrand, Stella Tennant and, of course, Grace Coddington.
The coffeetable book is by Robin Derrick and Robin Muir, with Kate Moss draping her torso on the cover shot by Nick Knight in April 2007. In the introduction, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman writes: “A successful model has to be of [her] time, and to be able to embody something about the era that people respond to positively. That may be how they look naturally, or it may be in their ability to be transformed and become whatever they need to be—a scrubbed-clean beauty, a sultry vamp, a techno babe.”