Iconic Supermodels

- Linda Evangelista

The term "supermodel" has lost its relevance these days. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, supermodels were goddesses! They were legends and super-beings of the fashion world. Featured on every magazine cover with Amazon-like athletic bodies, it was the peak time for supermodels, and they used the limelight to build their brands. With their striking beauty, remarkable intellect, & exceptional silhouettes, these former muses put the word "super" in supermodels. They commanded the spotlight and cameras, and left their mark on the fashion world forever.

Grace Jones was born and raised in Jamaica then New York. After completing her primary schooling, Jones studied Spanish and theater. However, her rebellious streak gradually developed and led to her drop out. She moved to New York City the following year and signed with Wilhelmina Modeling Agency but found limited success. So, in 1970, she traveled to Paris to pursue her modeling career. In Paris, Jones’ striking, exotic appearance was greeted much more favorably than it had been in New York, and she soon found herself working as a model with some of the top names in fashion, including Yves Saint Laurent and Helmut Newton. She also made the covers of ELLE and Vogue magazines.

During those years, she befriended the likes of Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld. Jones’ success as a model soon opened new doors for her, landing her a small role in the little-known film Gordon’s War. In 1977, Jones transitioned into the music world when she was signed to Island Records. Working with disco producer Tom Moulter, over the next few years she released three albums—Portfolio, Fame, and Muse.

Although none of these offerings found any significant commercial success, Jones’ risqué performances at such notable New York nightclubs as Studio 54—where she was often seen with her friend Andy Warhol—won her a devoted following in the city’s gay and art scenes. When popular music began to change at the dawn of the 1980s, Jones transformed with it.

She abandoned disco for a new-wave–influenced sound and adopted a more androgynous look to accompany it. Produced by Jamaican duo Sly and Robbie, the next two albums that Jones released are arguably her best known.

Iman, the most sought-after fashion model of the 1970s and 1980s, also became a successful business executive in the 90s with her own line of cosmetics. She helped transform fashion into entertainment and models into personalities.

Iman’s mother, a gynecologist, gave her daughter the name Iman (which translates from Arabic as “faith’) with the hope that this would better prepare her for the challenges she would face as a female in Muslim East Africa. Her parents agreed that their daughter should be sent to a private Catholic school for girls, which was considered more progressive than the standard Islamic education available to young females in the 1960s.

There, Iman thrived. “I was a very nerdy child,” she told husband David Bowie when he interviewed her for Interview in 1994. “I never fit in, so I became laboriously studious.” She later married rock star David Bowie and became a mother for the second time at the age of 44 in the summer of 2000. The enigmatic entrepreneur and social activist has broken many boundaries in her lifetime. She broadened the definition of beauty with her stunning, exotic looks. She made earthiness sensual.

In 1973, Iman was 18 and a student of political science at the University of Nairobi. She held three jobs and also worked as a translator to help pay her tuition costs. Photographer Peter Beard, a well-known figure in the fashion world, saw her one day on the street and was captivated by her long neck, high forehead, and gamine grace.

He began following her, and finally approached her to ask if she had ever been photographed. “The first thing I thought was he wanted me for prostitution of naked pictures,” Iman recalled laughingly about that day. “I had never seen Vogue. I didn’t read fashion magazines, I read Time and Newsweek.” But, when Beard offered to pay her, she reconsidered, and asked for the amount due to the college for her tuition–$8,000. Beard agreed. Beard shot rolls of film of Iman that day and took them back to New York with him. He then spent four months trying to convince his ‘discovery’ to move to New York and begin modeling professionally.

The rest of Iman's profile is in the full issue, as are profiles on the epic lives of the supermodels pictured below.