Helena Christensen Reflects On Her Remarkable Life And Numerous Adventures

Original supermodel Helena Christensen reflects on her remarkable life and numerous adventures—in front of and behind the lens.

- Chloe Brinklow

Thrust into the “strange world” of modelling at 19, Helena Christensen had left her home country of Denmark for Paris to try her hand at the business on the assumption that the pursuit would be short-lived. “At first, I just thought it was an interesting opportunity [of] a couple of years if I could last that long mentally; and if the business wants to deal with me for that long,” she recounts with a laugh. “But it just kind of ended up being a different story.”

Christensen, who turns 53 this month, has a modelling career spanning decades. She’s a founding member of the original supermodel wave—Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, et al.—who, along with the legendary photographers of the time, redefined fashion photography forever. The work they produced initiated collaborative energy between photographer and subject and catapulted models to celebrity status for the first time.

“It was a lot to take in from a very young age because each job was an experience in itself and we used to shoot all over the world,” she says. “I'd find myself in temples in Thailand; at castles in Russia; at the top of Machu Picchu; on an elephant’s back; riding horses through deserts... There have been movies made [chronicling that particular time in the 1980s and ’90s], but I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to ever make a movie about what it was really like. That secret will stay with us girls and we always laugh about it. We all know how crazy and amazing it is that we were given that strange opportunity.”