Super Power

Cindy’s in a major Omega campaign, Naomi’s back on the catwalk and Donatella broke the internet with her reunion of the ‘famous five’ for the Versace SS18 show. As the original supers stalk back into the spotlight, Autumn Whitefield-Madrano asks just what made them ‘supermodels’, and can the new-gen girls ever come close?

- Whitefield-Madrano

If you were old enough to reach a newsagent counter in 1990, you’ll remember that cover: Naomi, Linda, Tatjana, Christy and Cindy, high-glam action figures clustered together, gazing at us on the front of January Vogue. Even those of us who fancied ourselves too lofty for supermodel daydreams were entranced by Peter Lindbergh’s black and white photo, elevated from the realm of fashion and approaching something closer to cinema. It was the image that kicked off the era of supermodel mania. If you weren’t old enough the first time round, you’ll definitely remember a certain Instagram-breaking moment last September – a similarly Amazonian line-up of Cindy, Claudia, Naomi, Carla and Helena, reunited on the Versace SS18 catwalk. The ‘supermodel’ has come full circle – quite literally in the case of these returning stars, whose stock has never been higher than now.

The original gang, a bit like the Spice Girls, had someone for everyone. Naomi Campbell: assertive, playful yet exquisite, the obvious icon not only for young black women, but for those who coveted her haughty ‘I’m worth it’ chutzpah. Linda Evangelista: chameleon-like with her ever-changing hair colour, yet always unmistakable, and admired for the gumption of saying she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. Christy Turlington, with her calm doe-eyed gaze and impossibly perfect features that looked carved from soapstone. Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz, the smiling, can-do faces of athletic vigour on each side of the pond. That cover was shot more than a quarter of a century ago, yet ask most people to name a supermodel, and chances are at least one member of this quintet will roll instantly off the tongue.