Sometimes they come back – Style – Kommersant

In recent months, the fashion industry has been experiencing a veritable supermodel boom of the past, with everyone from Cindy Crawford to Linda Evangelista seemingly back. “Kommersant Style” finds out the reasons.

At the recent New York Fashion Week finale of the Fendi show, the entire audience received a standing ovation, including front row seated Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Moss. And it’s not that the show was a landmark, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Baguette bag. After six years of seclusion, 57-year-old Linda Evangelista appeared on the podium – radiant, elegant, in a tiffany-colored raincoat and with that same silver “baguette” bag. This is her first public appearance since the botched CoolSculpting incident left her disfigured for several years. Now Linda has miraculously recovered and is not going to leave the modeling business.

And not just Linda. Under the motto “Later we are greater” this year, the supermodels of the 1990s again shine on the catwalks: in the spring at Paris Fashion Week, Arizona Muse was noticed, having left her modeling career for five years already (she appeared on the Prada catwalk), and Marc Jacobs’ muse Jessica Stam (he dedicated the Stam IT bag to her) became the main figure of the MaxMara show. Stars of the 2000s Natasha Poly, Malgosia Bela, Isabeli Fontana, Carmen Pedaru also delighted fans with their return.

And in early March, as we remember, there was a grand reunion of Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, Amber Valletta and Naomi Campbell. They stepped out at the Off-White AW22 show to pay tribute to Virgil Abloh, the brand’s founder and creative director of the Louis Vuitton menswear line, who passed away last November. The last time such a large-scale reunion took place five years ago at the Versace show: supermodels came out to a standing ovation and George Michael’s song “Freedom”. Donatella Versace wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the legendary 1991 show, when they also walked down the catwalk together, and in the front row they were applauded by the singer himself.

Three years ago, the Versace show was closed by 50-year-old Jennifer Lopez in the iconic “tropical” The Dress. Versace continues to surprise: in September, the Milan Fashion Week show ended with the appearance of Paris Hilton in a retro Barbie look and pink stilettos. At the September Tod`S show as part of Milan Fashion Week, young models were replaced by 52-year-old Naomi Campbell and 54-year-old Carla Bruni. For Naomi, this day turned out to be busy in general: a few hours earlier, she paraded at the Boss show. Kate Moss at the Bottega Veneta show showed that she is in great shape and can compete with her model daughter Lila Moss. But most of all gave the heat 76-year-old Cher, who went to the Balmain show in a tight-fitting latex jumpsuit. We are waiting for Madonna’s fashion show at the Jean Paul Gaultier shows, as once in the 1990s: the return of iconic celebrities to the public field is also one of the brightest trends of recent times.

Supermodels are again involved not only on the catwalks, but also on the covers of glossy magazines and in advertising shoots. In February of this year, Shalom Harlow, a Canadian supermodel of the 1990s, took part in the Victoria’s Secret campaign. And the well-known modeling agency The Lions, having parted with Irina Shayk, signed a contract with Kristen McMena, a famous American androgynous model in the past. She has appeared on the covers of British Vogue and Perfect Magazine and in an advertising campaign for Gucci – not bad for a 57-year-old star. And 67-year-old Iman this year posed for the cover of the anniversary issue of W Magazine.

What is the supermodel renaissance about? Natalya Dolgopolova, founder of the Baza Model modeling agency, is sure that this is largely a marketing ploy. “I think this is a way in our difficult time to draw attention to high fashion. Everyone is interested in how supermodels look now, what form they are in, how many operations and injections they have done, whether they have grown old. Their appearance on the podium creates a certain hype that the industry needs right now.” At the same time, Dolgopolova believes that the “revival” of Russian supermodels of the 1990s – Olga Pantyushenkova, Lyudmila Isaeva and others – is unlikely. The context for this is now clearly inappropriate.

But maybe it’s not just about hype and marketing. Personal stylist Ekaterina Solerova, who worked for Maybelline New York advertising campaigns with blogger Natalya Osmann and singer Rita Dakota, is sure that in difficult times people especially need support, and the concept of eternal beauty is one of them. “When the audience sees the great models of the 1990s on the catwalk and covers, they understand that history is cyclical, and women who were considered beautiful 30 years ago are still beautiful and full of strength, they will give odds to the models of the new generation. It inspires and gives hope.”

Cindy Crawford herself in a recent interview with W Magazine formulated it this way: “Being a model is like being an athlete. It’s a skill that only gets better with age. I know very well that I don’t look like I did at 25, but now I have experience and self-confidence that I didn’t have then. And most importantly, I really enjoy what I do.”

Natalya Inshakova