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Today's models 'lack attitude'
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May 20, 2009
By Harriet Walker
From shopgirl to international tycoon as at-home on the catwalk as she is in the gossip columns; the role of the model has changed dramatically.
This was highlighted by the coverage of last week's rumour that Naomi Campbell would hang up her platforms and step down from the catwalk, after 25 years in the modelling business.
Not the retiring type, Campbell denied it.
So it's a timely opening for the Model As Muse exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum, which casts its gaze over a century of fashion models and their relationships with photographers, designers and the public.
Perhaps they'll look around the gallery and take tips from some of the world's most beautiful women: simple clothes horses they ain't.
Couture:
The first fashion model is said to have been Parisian shopgirl Maria Vernet Worth who, in 1852, became a "mannequin" to help her husband, the couturier Charles Frederick Worth.
Customers became used to viewing clothes in the couture houses, where they were modelled by salesgirls who did their own hair and make-up, and were normally of a similar age to the clients (late 20s and 30s).
With the end of World War II came Dior's New Look and a resurgence of glamour. Some of the biggest personalities to emerge were former housewife Dovima, Dorian Leigh and her sister Suzy Parker (the first model to earn more than $100 an hour).
There was also Lisa Fonssagrives, who described herself as a "good clothes hanger" and married photographer Irving Penn, whose work encapsulates the 40s and 50s model, wrapped in hand-worked, full-skirted taffeta, silk and striking a regal pose.
Youthquake:
As clothes - and society - became more democratic, the modelling world expanded in the 60s and 70s, too.
The sophistication of the earlier models seemed at odds with the vibrancy and defiance of new designers, such as Paco Rabanne, Andre Courrèges and Mary Quant, so younger and more athletic girls took centre-stage.
Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton and Penelope Tree embodied the spirit of 60s London and the generation's "Youthquake", with their coltish and gamine sense of fun.
Stateside, Lauren Hutton ushered in a preppy air and all-American Jerry Hall brought back sophistication when she modelled Grecian drapery in the late 70s for New York designer, and whirling socialite, Halston.
German model Veruschka played out the exoticism of the new trends, often posing in little more than body paint and famously shot on location in one of Yves Saint Laurent's ground-breaking safari looks.
"A good model can advance fashion 10 years," he once said, and it seems true when comparing these new faces to their predecessors.
Supers
By the 1980s, models were much more than "clothes hangers"; they had become brand endorsers and, therefore, lifestyle arbiters of what was cool, tasteful or a must-have.
These Amazonian women - all known by their first names - were the epitome of glamour and consumerism, working across catwalks, magazines and ad campaigns and forming a globally recognisable band: Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington were the "Trinity" who, according to Evangelista, didn't "wake up for less than $10 000 a day".
They were tall, healthy looking, fresh faced and "uptown", perfect for the power-dressing trend and pared-down minimalism of the late 80s and early 90s.
But the recession years of the mid-90s heralded a new trend in modelling, often known as "heroin chic". Photographers favoured slimmer, more girlish models in grungy settings - it was at this time Kate Moss arrived, and was known as an anti-supermodel.
There have been other movements within the industry, with Gisele Bündchen and Ana-Cláudia Michels famous for their Brazilian curves and the Lilies Cole and Donaldson flying the flag for English roses.
And there's been a vogue among brands and designers for persuading the original supers to return to the runway.
"Today there are beautiful girls, but they don't have that attitude," said Stefano Pilati, creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, of his decision last season to use Campbell.
No chance of retiring any time soon then, Naomi. - The Independent
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