What Makes a Supermodel?

[LucaNatashaFan]

Exactly Michela!!! On twitter Christy hasn't 100k yet while Kate Upton is almost at 900k
People follow the trends not who you are, not everyone of course and i'm sure if you ask them what do you know about Kate Upton's career they don't even know how to answer, only about SI maybe, so i don't care about twitter or other things.
Look at Carolyn Murphy, she's a 90's supermodel with 10k of followers and Carmen Kass with neither 1k and she's on twitter from many months

 

[anlabe32]

In my opinion Natasha is a supermodel, not because i'm her fan but because she had/has a great career in over a decade. I think she can be considered a supermodel in the fashion industry but outside she's not unfortunately. Natasha had 4 only girls campaigns for Gucci and this is MAJOR, 6 Only Girl Vogue Paris covers and many others big deals, plus from one year she got L'Oreal and it's another big deal. I feel there are supermodels considered in the fashion industry (Daria W, Natalia, Raquel, Karen, Natasha, Isabeli, Angela, Amber, Mariacarla, Lara etc) all with differents career/age etc but all very respectable because they're known from EVERYONE in the industry but unfortunately not outside the industry, maybe from the celebrities world but not for general public. Then there are the supermodel for the general public which some of them are real supermodels and some others just because of their fame (Naomi, Gisele, Kate, Adriana, Bar, Irina, Heidi, Kate Upton etc). I think the only supermodels in an objective way (talking about fashion industry and also outside) for me are Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Eva Herzigova.
I consider also Linda, Christy, Helena, Nadja and few others real supermodels but here in Italy in my case they aren't that famous, not everyone know them while the others mentioned are known from everyone at every age, when you need an example of beauty i've heard many times the name Naomi, Gisele, Kate or Claudia but never Christy or Linda, but maybe in other countries things are different.

Amber Valletta actually is known outside of fashion. She has a respectable career as an actress, and as a model she's done everything, from Gucci to Prada, and from 16 US Vogue covers to hosting HoS.

 

[michelabella]

^ Christy also said she gets unfollowed when people realize she mostly uses her twitter for advocacy issues.

Fame and popularity is a factor but shouldn't be the only one. Bar Refaeli is a perfect example of that. She has popularity but a very weak modeling career and gets called a supermodel all the time which I dont think is right to put her in the same category of Linda,Naomi and co.

 

[Clipse]

Amber Valletta actually is known outside of fashion. She has a respectable career as an actress, and as a model she's done everything, from Gucci to Prada, and from 16 US Vogue covers to hosting HoS.

Amber is definitely a supermodel to me. And having a role on Revenge has helped raised her profile. I'm not sure why Amber and Eva are on the Icons list when they are both supermodels.

As for Heidi, she got her fame before Project Runway so I consider her to be a supermodel. Just not in the conquering all fashion worlds like the other supers and certainly not in the way that Models.com describe in that list.

Experience the supermodels ranking: celebrity models with public recognition in and out of fashion. The mononymous beauties who currently hold dominion over the best in covers, campaigns, and headline-making fashion moments.

When was the last time any of that applied to Heidi?

 

[LucaNatashaFan]

Amber Valletta actually is known outside of fashion. She has a respectable career as an actress, and as a model she's done everything, from Gucci to Prada, and from 16 US Vogue covers to hosting HoS.

You know how i love Amber but in my life i've never heard her name from other people, when i saw Revenge with my sister she told me: "Who's she"? For sure she's more well known than the others mentioned but i doubt she has this big fame unfortunately, i'm pretty sure all the celebrities know her but i doubt general public from every states know her name or who she's.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

Interesting point you made there, what do you mean by larger than life personalities- does this mean when models are all singing, dancing, pulling silly faces behind the scene or backstage shoots/ shows?

There's that which many people here may think is annoying but what makes people remember the model. Remember when Gisele or Tyra did the VS show and the theatrics they did backstage. Also being able to confidently sit through a backstage or talkshow interview and make people laugh and remember you is a quality of a potential supermodel. As for twitter and facebook followers I think they do matter in this age. In the days of Christy and Cindy the internet wasnt as prominent as it is today but in this age where your twitter followers guage your popularity it does matter.

 

[Sweet rus]

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/members/michelabella-71337.html

Luca: Linda and Christy were always the fashion darlings. They were HUGE in the 90s but never the sex symbols ala Cindy and Claudia were. Christy has even stated her biggest fanbase were females. "the men loved Cindy."

, oh yeah, it's true! I know Christy was huge in the 90s but as far as I can remember these 2 ladies were the biggest models back in the day at least in my country

theplace.ru

 

[LabelWhore4]

Exactly Michela!!! On twitter Christy hasn't 100k yet while Kate Upton is almost at 900k
People follow the trends not who you are, not everyone of course and i'm sure if you ask them what do you know about Kate Upton's career they don't even know how to answer, only about SI maybe, so i don't care about twitter or other things.
Look at Carolyn Murphy, she's a 90's supermodel with 10k of followers and Carmen Kass with neither 1k and she's on twitter from many months

Now we all know that if Twitter, FB, etc. existed back then when Naomi and the gang were at their peak, they would have had 1 million+ followers easily. Its just different times. Models today have a MUCH bigger platform but also have less of a chance to become a star. Times change.

 

[Deleted member 130879]

Here in Portugal it was all about Cindy, Claudia and Naomi. I only got to know Christy later! But here man preferred Claudia (and I think she was the most famous one here), since Cindy looks a bit like a portuguese girl.

 

[Mariann]

What about models who use their life styles to reach out to the public, do you think that can lead to progress in their careers and a supermodel title?

I know Claudia and Cindy both brought out their fitness work outs, they opened a cafe along with Naomi too and was Christy part of it?

Just saying bringing out a healthy lifestyle will increase their status and they may be viewed upon as more inspiring and can reach out to the public.

What do you guys think about the whole life style in connection with being a part of a supermodel?

 

[obsession1990]

a Supermodel is a model who becomes a celebrity. Not only in her own country but also many others. A supermodel is a model who trascends the fashion industry (the whole media begins to worry and talk about her personal life and not only specialized fashion magazines). A supermodel is frequently interviewee on tv shows, etc. Often receive proposals for work in TV and films. They make commercials and advertisings for brands that do not belong to fashion industry.

 

[obsession1990]

back in the day Guess and Versace were two brands that made a star out of models, but now the only brand with that power is Victoria's Secret.

 

[obsession1990]

" The supermodels were an elite and exclusive group. Key figures included Americans Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington, Brit Naomi Campbell, Canadian-born Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer from Germany. This grouping is not definitive and the term was applied to other high-profile models of this generation including Australia’s own Elle “The Body” Macpherson and later notably English model Kate Moss. A list of very specific characteristics secured the pedigree of the original supermodels."

"a supermodel was a supermodel simply by virtue of her market value"

"Finally, real supermodels managed to transcend the world of fashion that had borne them and registered simply as celebrities with all that that entailed, including dating movie stars, hosting TV shows and becoming fodder for gossip magazines"

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/poste...29/how-the-idea-of-the-supermodel-came-to-be/

 

[khyrk]

Sean O'Pry really is a legit male Supermodel today. He has that extensive High-Fashion and Commercial portfolio to back it up plus the amount of name recognition he now has thanks to Taylor Swift's Blank Page video. I mean, even the non-fashion crowd now knows him. He's already transcended that border. Girls and gays alike just don't know him as that hot guy or pretty face from that video but know his name, know him as Sean O'Pry. I even see some bringing up and finding out him being on Madonna's Girl Gone Wild video not giving any f**ks to the other Top Male Models he's with there.

 

[Wintergreen]

If a model doesn't have a proper background in high fashion (and I mean Karolina Kurkova proper, not a couple of things like Adriana Lima) then she's not a real supermodel. I actually had to change Heidi Klum's photo for Carmen Kass's in Wikipedia's "Supermodel" article because it's borderline offensive for fashion.

Exactly Michela!!! On twitter Christy hasn't 100k yet while Kate Upton is almost at 900k
People follow the trends not who you are, not everyone of course and i'm sure if you ask them what do you know about Kate Upton's career they don't even know how to answer, only about SI maybe, so i don't care about twitter or other things.
Look at Carolyn Murphy, she's a 90's supermodel with 10k of followers and Carmen Kass with neither 1k and she's on twitter from many months

Carmen doesn't have a Twitter, it's just a bunch of fake accounts. She's on Facebook and Instagram though.

 

[obsession1990]

The Year in Fashion: We Overuse the Term Supermodel, but Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid Really Are Worthy of the Title

December 8, 2015
by Janelle Okwodu

As 2015’s reigning model MVPs, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner have become an inescapable part of the fashion conversation. With their reality-television backgrounds and mammoth social media presence, they are the most visible representatives of the new generation of top models. But are they supermodels?

The word itself conjures images of George Michael videos and leggy beauties strutting the catwalk for Versace, but its definition is largely abstract. It’s easy to recall the women who’ve earned the term over the years—particularly the ’90s glamazons who popularized its usage—but lately it feels as though the title has been handed out to nearly every person who’s ever walked a runway. A quick Google search showcases the way in which supermodel and model have become synonymous: Everyone from pink-haired rookie Fernanda Ly to former Instagram star Essena O’Neill has been called a supermodel in recent months. The designation feels premature.

In previous years the grounds for supermodel were relatively clear: Magazine covers, ads, and space in the pop culture consciousness earned a model the title after years of hard work. You couldn’t be labeled super unless you accomplished a series of set career goals, namely the kinds of high-profile jobs that rendered a woman (or man) capable of becoming known in and out of the industry. Serving as both designer muses and brand representatives via campaigns was a must, as was snagging a coveted beauty or fragrance contract. Appearing on the front page of a major publication served to take models to the next level in the years before actresses and celebrities replaced catwalkers as the de facto cover stars. Though the nuts and bolts of climbing the modeling ladder remain largely unchanged—excepting that covers are harder than ever to attain—what truly pushed the supermodels over the edge was their mastery of media beyond fashion.

Quintessential ’90s stars like Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss, and Cindy Crawford require no introduction in part because their body of work extended well beyond posing. Whether they were making movies (Campbell), dating Hollywood royalty (Moss), appearing in soda commercials (Crawford), or simply garnering the kind of media infamy that launched a million headlines (Evangelista), the supers had a presence that impacted, or at least captivated, culture as a whole. Looking back, the reign of the supers wasn’t confined to fashion month; it was a multimedia experience that included everything from talk shows to theme restaurants—Fashion Cafe, anyone? What propelled the ’90s supermodels beyond their respective niche was the exposure garnered by their outside endeavors, personal and professional. Their powerful mystique has outlasted countless trends.

If any contemporary models come close, it’s Hadid and Jenner. Though their careers are still relatively new, they’ve managed to tick several of the necessary boxes. When it comes to designers, they’ve got everyone from Riccardo Tisci to Karl Lagerfeld in their corner, and collectively they’ve racked up runway work with a slew of luxury houses. Collaborations with legendary photographers—Steven Meisel, Peter Lindbergh, and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, to name a few—have come their way, as have covers and campaigns. Hadid is currently front and center on prestige glossies like Italian Vogue and Numéro, while Jenner landed one of four French Vogue 95th anniversary covers alongside Turlington, Moss, and Gisele Bündchen. Jenner and Hadid also have beauty deals with Estée Lauder and Maybelline, respectively, as well as a place on the rumored Victoria’s Secret Angel shortlist.

But what truly makes Kendall and Gigi super material is the interest they generate off-duty. Bombshells next door, they are even better known for their selfie skills than for their work with the pros. Within the industry, the pair have garnered criticism and praise in equal measure. In a fashion landscape that still struggles to acclimate itself to the Internet’s focus on clicks and likes, their brand of success is often derided as antithetical to that of the original supermodel lineup—would Naomi or Linda value user engagement stats as much as a Meisel-lensed editorial? Well, now maybe, but definitely not then.

Outside the industry, it’s a different story. Hadid danced coyly in DJ Calvin Harris’s sultry clip for “How Deep Is Your Love,” while Jenner made a brief foray into cohosting for Canada’s Much Music Video Awards. Magazines and websites document each move the girls make with the kind of fervor typically reserved for movie stars and musicians, with every outfit and rumored new relationship dissected with alacrity.

Their celebrity is unquestionable, and that makes them contenders for the supermodel title —even Karlie Kloss doesn’t have as much name recognition. Whether the heat that surrounds them now will result in the decades-spanning success enjoyed by the likes of Moss and Campbell remains to be seen, but for the moment Hadid and Jenner are the supermodel heirs apparent.

Source: vogue.com/13376463/kendall-jenner-gigi-hadid-supermodels/

This is what I tried to say all the time! This article explains perfectly what a SUPERMODEL is.

 

[Aizanara]

The article is good but they forget to say that K & G are famous because of their families not because they're models...
And Vogue could say anything just to get attention and to sell more...

 

[congacon]

when i think about supermodel i think about model who has modeled for big and blue chip brands, who appears on pretigious magazines, who has been working for a long period of time. i think about their whole body of work first before their fame.

what happens to cara? her 5 mins of fame is over. is she still consider a supermodel? im fed up with all these hype generated by social media

 

[marsnoop2]

The kicker is in the last sentence, "Whether the heat that surrounds them now will result in the decades-spanning success enjoyed by the likes of Moss and Campbell remains to be seen"

True supermodels have longevity, they are always relevant and current. This is why unfortunately the list of 90s supermodels doesn't really include Tatjana P, Helena Christenson, etc.

There's no way to know where Kendall and Gigi will be in 5 years, but are they on track? Yes they are.

 

[Fernini]

Successful in the high fashion industry, successful in commercial modeling, recognized by the average Joe... I was a little kid when I knew who Claudia Schiffer was, before even knowing about fashion.