How George Michael helped spark the supermodel phenomenon with bags of cash and round-trip Concorde tickets
FOR decades models had their looks, careers and private lives tightly controlled – but all that changed with the arrival of the supermodel in 1990.
The “big bang” came when Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista famously took to a Versace catwalk together to the sound of George Michael’s song Freedom! ’90.
The track’s seminal video, which they had shot days earlier, famously featured the fab four lip-synching the lyrics in a variety of sexy poses.
But in a sign that women would be calling more of the shots, it was George’s fellow Brit Naomi who drove a hard bargain with the chart star to get them all signed up.
She recalls: “We get this phone call that George Michael wants us in his video. So we all talk . . . who’s going to tell George?
“Basically I’m in a nightclub in Los Angeles . . . and George is there and he comes up to me and he says, ‘So what is it you guys want?’
‘It all came together’
“I said, ‘We want this much money and round-trip Concorde tickets’ and he says, ‘And that’s it?’ and I went, ‘That’s it’
“We were not knowing the impact that that video had at all — we didn’t have time to know because honestly we were just jumping from one country to the next.”
Naomi, speaking in new four-part Apple TV+ documentary, The Supermodels, agrees that the Freedom! ’90 video, and the subsequent Versace fashion show, was the start of the phenomenon.
But they only realised what a pop culture moment it was when they took to the Versace catwalk shortly afterwards.
Christy added: “You could feel that moment.
“That is a moment where you kinda knew — it is iconic, actually.”
Cindy said: “It was an incredible song and an incredible designer, the moment of the women singing the song . . . it was like it all came together.
“It was like, ‘OK, that’s what a supermodel is.’
“We looked powerful — and then we started believing that.”
After working their way up in the Eighties, over the next ten years the fab four, together with a growing band of up-and-coming supermodels, started to command huge fees for photoshoots, adverts and catwalk shows — and did it on their terms.
As one fashionista in the documentary says: “If you didn’t have those four girls in your show, you were nothing.”
Along with their peers, who included Helena Christensen, Claudia Schiffer and Elle “The Body” Macpherson, they became celebrities in their own right.
Linda, who was known for her short haircut, said: “People got to know our names because we were everywhere.
“It was insane. It’s like, ‘We’re not The Beatles.’
“But I was so in demand because I can move a product.”
Linda famously said at one point that she would not “get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day” which is something she now regrets — but she also defends the remark.
In the show she says: “I shouldn’t have said that.
“That quote makes me crazy.
“I don’t even know how to address it any more. . . If a man said it, it’s acceptable to be proud of what you command.”
Naomi, who helped blaze a trail for black models despite blatant racism in the industry, would always demand the going rate for a supermodel and wasn’t afraid to walk if she didn’t get it.
That then saw her branded a diva — but she saw it for what it was.
She said: “I was called difficult because I opened my mouth. Period.
“Some people call people bitches when they’re hard-working, opinionated and in control of their own career.”
Naomi’s attitude was that she was worth the big bucks because she was the woman who would get maximum exposure for designers’ products.
She says in the documentary: “I know my value.
“If you want me to walk for you, you’re gonna get your pictures, I’m gonna get you Press.”
Nothing could have been more true than the famous moment when, in 1993, she fell over during a Vivienne Westwood fashion show, while wearing giant heels.
‘Embodiment of power’
It could have spelt the end of many models’ careers, but it only brought more attention to Naomi and the designer — and afterwards other fashion bosses even asked if she would deliberately fall again during their shows, just to get the publicity.
Cindy, who was unusual for her trademark “beauty spot” which she declined to cover up, took it all to another level.
She said: “Fashion was the arena that made you famous, then your celebrity took over.
“We looked powerful and then we were like, ‘Ooh, maybe we are powerful!’ And we started owning that power.”
She released books, make-up, made movies and was a regular on chat shows — and then her fame went stratospheric when she was married to Pretty Woman actor Richard Gere from 1991 to 1995.
That saw her move in slightly different celebrity circles to the other three supermodels, but it also meant she took greater control of her own destiny.
She said: “I veered away from the high fashion elite and took more charge of my career.”
Christy started to take greater charge too.
After her restrictive contract with Calvin Klein ended, she never signed another contract.
But now she didn’t need the money, she enjoyed her freedom.
She said: “I got to choose who I wanted to work with.
“I wouldn’t just be happy that I was booked for the week or the month or the year.
“It was like, ‘What do I want to do most?’ and ‘No, I don’t just want to hold my time because it’s Vogue . . . Who is the photographer? Who is the team?
“That does make you think that you can be an active participant in your life.”
They all starred in more pop videos too, with Naomi dancing alongside Michael Jackson in his 1992 video for In The Closet, and Christy, Naomi, Cindy and Linda appearing in George Michael’s Too Funky video in the same year.
But by 1997 the tide started to turn against them, with some designers resenting the fact that their clothes were taking second billing to the women modelling them.
Grunge culture and hip-hop started to spread, which was the antithesis of their glamorous look, and suddenly new models came up the ranks, including Kate Moss, who had more of the “waif” look.
Perfection, it seemed, was no longer in fashion.
Cindy said: “We were the female embodiment of power, but the implication is that if some people don’t fit that, they’re made to feel less beautiful.”
But by the turn of the Millennium most supermodels were already rich beyond their wildest dreams, had married and are now all mothers.
Their recent Vogue front cover also showed that even though they are showing signs of aging — they are still a group of stunning- looking women, and they are all still close friends.
The fact that they were so successful in an area where women had previously made money at the behest of men is their greatest legacy.
Linda said: “I think our generation of models made people’s perceptions of what beauty is change.
“Beauty doesn’t have to have an ending or an expiry date.
“They used to say beauty is not sustainable.
“Youth is not sustainable but beauty is, there’s a difference.”
- The Supermodels launches on Apple TV+ on September 20.
Linda’s chemo battle
LINDA Evangalista was rarely seen without the world’s best make-up, hair and designer clothes.
But in the new Apple TV+ documentary we see her lying in a hospital bed covered in towels, her face stripped bare and wearing a “cold cap” designed to limit hair loss as she undergoes chemotherapy.
She discusses how she is battling cancer for the second time, this time in her chest after an earlier breast cancer diagnosis.
Linda says: “The decision was very easy to make to have a double mastectomy, but it came back.”
Talking to staff inside a specialist cancer centre in New York City, she says: “Let’s go get that poison shot in me.”
Bravely, she then adds: “I keep saying I’m not suffering, I’m just a little inconvenienced.”
The new bombshell comes after Linda was left disfigured by a fat removal procedure that went horribly wrong and she piled on pounds of hard fat, destroying her career.
Linda’s doctor, Richard Shapiro, actually credits the fact she is a supermodel for detecting the lump early and getting treatment.
He is seen telling her: “So right now the treatment seems to be going as planned.
“It was really good that you brought it to everyone’s attention because it was a finding that could have been very easily overlooked.
“You’re very attuned to your body.
“That’s what you did to make your living and so it all comes together that someone with your life experience would be attuned to something going on.”