Claudia Schiffer commented in 2007 that the age of the supermodel was over. As far as she was concerned, the supermodel generation of the 1990s, the veritable super-models: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Schiffer herself, were not being matched by the current generation. Instead upstart usurpers, namely singers, film stars and television actors were muscling in on high-fashion territory. Models had lost their media profile. The only model Schiffer honoured with the title in 2007 was Gisele Bündchen – a Brazilian beauty who maintains top-dog status in 2013, with headline earnings of $42m in 2013 – more than seven times second place Miranda Kerr.
Schiffer was in a sense right, at least in so much as that the editorial supermodel of 1999 was dead. Bündchen, arguably 2013’s only veritable high fashion supermodel, turned 33 this year and continues to go from strength-to-strength, currently acting as the face of David Yurman, fronting Chanel makeup range Les Beiges and leading Karl Lagerfield’s upcoming campaign. The issue with Schiffer’s diagnosis, seems rather that a supermodel in 2013, doesn’t necessarily have to see her strength in catwalk alone.
Today true super-models command alotgether broader portfolios. Kate Moss tripled her earnings last year, making £12M, off the back of her two successful beauty business ventures, star-billing in the Olympics Closing Ceremony, her cosmetics line for Rimmel and with only a minority from high profile fashion contracts with Salvatore Ferragamo, Mango, Rag & Bone and Dior Addict.
The media, for so long obsessed by supermodels for all the wrong reasons, is in 2013 a tool for career advancement. Tyra Banks launched the world-conquering Top Model franchise in 2003 and continues to present the flagship show America’s Next Top Model now in its twentieth cycle on the CW in the United States. She also presented an acclaimed chat show from 2005-10 and has seen several of her novels hit the New York Times bestseller list.
Elle MacPherson, famed as ‘the Body’ in the 1980s, has also carved out a successful television career, dazzling as the host of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model since 2013 and giving the show a high fashion image, over its previous cheap production qualities and undistinguished winners, with MacPherson’s cluster of winners going on to work with Jimmy Choo, Rimmel, front campaigns for Urban Outfitters and much more.
The models of today may lack the notoriety of their 1990s forebears, with the likes of Adriana Lima and Liu Wen perhaps less well recognised than their peers from the 1990s, but that doesn’t meant the supermodel altogether is dead. Rather, it is the case that the successful super-models have diversified from editorial fashion, and in 2013 many remain on top game, notably Kate Moss and Tyra Banks, who continue to see growing business empires expand without the need for a reliance upon income from editorial fashion or catwalk. Schiffer may have been right that the supermodel of 1999 was dead, but the super-model overall remains in rude health in 2013.