The 90s supermodels: a guide to fashion's most famous decade

Few decades in fashion have a cast as famous as the 1990s. A small group of models became household names, known around the world by their first names, and their influence still runs through campaigns, castings and runway shows today. This is a quick guide to who they were and how it happened.

The cover that started it

The January 1990 issue of British Vogue carried a black-and-white cover by the German photographer Peter Lindbergh. On it were five models: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford. It has been described as the image that defined the supermodel era. When George Michael saw it, he asked the same five to star in the video for his single "Freedom! '90", directed by David Fincher and released that October. Michael did not appear in the video himself: the models lip-synced the song for him.

The Big Six

By the early 1990s, six names were used almost as a single phrase: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and the newcomer Kate Moss. Campbell, Evangelista and Turlington were so often booked together that they became known as "the Trinity".

How they were discovered

Almost every one has a discovery story, and none of them involved a professional photoshoot.

Naomi Campbell was scouted in 1986 while window-shopping in Covent Garden, still a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Just before her 16th birthday, she was on the cover of British Elle.
Christy Turlington was spotted by a local photographer while riding a horse in Miami.
Claudia Schiffer was scouted at 17, in October 1987, in a nightclub in Düsseldorf, by the head of the Paris agency Metropolitan Models.
Kate Moss was 14 when Sarah Doukas, founder of the London agency Storm, spotted her at JFK Airport in New York in 1988, on the way home from a holiday in the Bahamas.
Linda Evangelista moved from Canada to New York and signed with Elite Model Management in 1984.
Cindy Crawford, from DeKalb, Illinois, became one of the most recognisable faces of the era, and from 1989 to 1995 hosted MTV's fashion show House of Style.

What made the era different

The supermodels became as famous as the clothes they wore. They moved easily between magazine covers, the runway, advertising and music videos, and audiences followed them from one to the next. In March 1991, Campbell, Turlington, Evangelista and Crawford walked Gianni Versace's show arm in arm, lip-syncing to "Freedom! '90". Helena Christensen starred in Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" video. Crawford's Pepsi advert ran during the 1992 Super Bowl.

They were also remarkably versatile. Evangelista became known as fashion's "chameleon" for changing her look so often; in 1988, at Lindbergh's suggestion, she had her hair cut short by the French hairstylist Julien d'Ys, and the cut became one of the most copied of its time. Schiffer, who became the face of Chanel in 1990, is listed by Guinness World Records as the model with the most magazine covers.

Where they are now

The 90s supermodels have never really left. In September 2017, Campbell, Crawford, Schiffer, Christensen and Carla Bruni closed Versace's spring 2018 show in gold gowns as a tribute to Gianni Versace. Turlington founded Every Mother Counts, a charity working to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother. In September 2023, Apple TV+ released The Super Models, a documentary series following Campbell, Crawford, Evangelista and Turlington, and in June 2024 the V&A in London opened an exhibition devoted to Campbell's career, NAOMI: In Fashion.

Why it still matters

For anyone starting out today, the lesson of the 90s is not about height or a particular look. It is that personality, professionalism and a willingness to work with great teams turned models into names. Most of those careers began exactly the way many still do: someone noticed them, and they said yes. If that could be you, our guide to becoming a model in Scotland explains the first steps.