TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/100791/1007200.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 11.8 KB | 239 lines

                                                                                BUSINESS, Page 38

MARKETING

Beauty and The Bucks


More glamorous than movie stars, the supermodels of the '90s
earn spectacular loot from their spectacular looks

By BARBARA RUDOLPH -- With reporting by Anne Constable/London,
Leonora Dodsworth/Milan and Edward M. Gomez/Paris


    They're beautiful, that's obvious. But they have
something else: presence, or maybe allure, fascination or magic.
Whatever it is, it hits the instant one sees Naomi Campbell in
a yellow totem gown, a Nefertiti of the '90s. Or Linda
Evangelista looking like a Scottish schoolgirl on the cover of
Vogue. Or Christy Turlington gazing serenely from an ad for
Calvin Klein's Eternity perfume. Naomi. Linda. Christy. They're
everywhere. Vogue, Elle, feature pages, ad pages, gossip pages.
Selling couture and catalogs, soap and sportswear. And during
the fall fashion shows these three have sashayed their
impossibly sleek, improbably long-legged frames down the runways
in New York City, Paris and Milan.

    They're the supermodels, and they're hotter than a curling
iron. Whenever Evangelista, 26, dyes her trademark bob -- and
that's often -- it's news. The fashion world quivers as her hair
goes from dark brown to platinum blond to Technicolor red.
Campbell's life and loves are chronicled as much as her face;
her reputed affair with Robert De Niro has become a staple of
the celebrity gossip pages.

    Today's pretty women represent a new breed: mannequins
with sex appeal, as glamorous as cinema legends, as visible as
the designers whose clothes they parade. They earn spectacular
loot from their spectacular looks. Because, more than ever,
modeling is about money. At a time when spending is down, top
mannequins can still make consumers buy, so they are paid
millions. The worldwide recession and tough times in the
advertising business have made the top models one of the few
reliable sales tools.

    The supermodels invest salesmanship with a class and
seductiveness no longer found in movie stars who dress down in
blue jeans and prefer environmental preservation to
nightclubbing. The top mannequins -- among them Cindy Crawford,
Elaine Irwin, Karen Mulder and Claudia Schiffer -- always seem
perfectly coiffed and coutured, manicured and made up. Says
Jerome Bonnouvrier, head of the Paris-based Glamour agency:
"Modeling has become the new Hollywood."

    The supermodels are something of a social anachronism: who
they are is how they look. Yet feminism of a sort has come to
modeling, at least behind the scenes. More and more top stars
have learned how to exploit themselves rather than be exploited
by someone else. If anyone is going to control the product and
the profits, they are. Says Turlington, 22: "We realize the
power we have. We're making tons and tons of money for these
companies, and we know it."

    No matter that everyone in the business still calls them
girls. These are women who involve themselves in every aspect
of their careers. They have a hand in directing the mechanics
of a photo shoot -- the lighting, the makeup, the poses and
postures -- whatever it takes to make their pictures perfect.
They decide which assignments to accept and reject, which
exclusive contracts are too binding and which are too rich to
pass up.


    THE MONEY

    Veteran New York City adman David Altman recalls paying
Lauren Bacall less than $25 to pose back in the 1940s. Ten years
ago, a top model in New York City earned about $5,000 for a
day's advertising or commercial work. Today the superstars can
make between $15,000 and $25,000 a day. Each of a tiny handful
of the most sought after is earning in the neighborhood of $2.5
million a year. Perhaps 30 of the next in line earn around
$500,000 a year. The managers reap a pretty harvest too. Agents
receive 15% or 20% of the model's fee, though top stars use
their clout to pay less.

    Fame may come from the fashion magazines, but it is the
big cosmetics contracts that bring in the serious cash. A top
model agrees to represent a line of makeup for Elizabeth Arden,
say, or Estee Lauder for a set time period. A major contract
would be worth $5 million and run three or four years.
Supermodel Crawford signed a four-year deal with Revlon in 1989
that is said to total around $4 million; Paulina Porizkova's
exclusive long-term contract with Estee Lauder is probably worth
more than $6 million.

    As the most famous black supermodel, though, Campbell does
not snare the same volume of advertising assignments as her
white counterparts, nor has she been signed by a cosmetics
company. "I may be considered one of the top models in the
world," she says, "but in no way do I make the same money as any
of them." Asian models find it especially difficult to get work,
according to Rosemarie Chalem at the Zoli agency in New York
City. "In every country," says Chris Owen, director of the
British agency ElitePremier, "blond hair and blue eyes sell."

    Advertisers pay the supermodels exorbitantly because they
believe these faces can move their merchandise wherever it is
sold. Says Noelle Duperrier-Simond, who works on the L'Oreal
account at McCann-Erickson's Paris office: "These girls have the
looks that work everywhere they're seen. That's what the client
is paying for." The face of Isabella Rossellini adorns Lancome
ads worldwide; Evangelista and Turlington push Chanel clothes in
23 countries.


    THE MANIPULATION

    "Sweetheart, I'm gonna make you a star." Models hear that
kind of promise all the time, usually over drinks in a dimly
lit room. But in a few rare instances, it actually happens. A
select group of photographers and magazine editors has the power
to turn a wallflower into a princess. New York photographer
Steven Meisel became instrumental in developing Evangelista's
chameleon-like ability to reinvent herself constantly as a
model. (Jose Fonseca, a partner of the British agency Models1,
calls her "the Madonna of the modeling world.") For example,
first Meisel shot her with a broad smile, then somber; each time
she looked different. Result: some 60 magazine covers for
Evangelista in the past three years.

    But a photographer can take a model only so far. She must
still impress the fashion-magazine editors, who make and break
careers. Though the magazines offer next to no money -- models
get less than $300 for a Vogue cover -- they provide cachet and
prestige. Among the dozens of fashion publications, Vogue (U.S.
circ. more than 1.2 million) is the most powerful. The magazine
maintains its hold on the market, says Grace Coddington, fashion
director of the U.S. edition (there are nine Vogues around the
world), in part because its top photographers do not work for
competitors of Conde Nast, Vogue's parent company.

    Everyone in the modeling world may call everyone else
"darling," but it is a bitterly competitive business. Take the
battle between the Elite Model Management agency and the
long-reigning giant, Ford Models Inc. Back in 1977, John
Casablancas, Elite's owner, opened an office in New York, having
previously confined himself to Paris, and lured a number of top
models away from rival agencies. Six months ago, the Fords --
Eileen runs the business with her husband Jerry -- opened an
office in Paris, headed by their daughter Katie. The Fords
scored a major coup in July when they announced that Naomi
Campbell would be represented by Ford for all her Paris work;
Elite will continue to handle her New York assignments.

    When Elite learned that Ford France had booked Campbell
for a coveted SPORTS ILLUSTRATED assignment, though, the battle
raged anew. Casablancas and New York president Monique Pillard
contend that Elite was entitled to handle the job since the
agency represents Campbell in New York. At one point they even
fired their star model, but soon reconciled. "I'm going to get
to the bottom of this," fumes Pillard. "I spent three years
trying to shove Naomi down S.I.'s throat." The Fords insist that
since the photo shoot was in Europe, Ford France was entitled to
handle the assignment.


    THE MODELS

    Some things don't change. Any fresh-faced 16-year-old who
hopes to blossom into a supermodel must meet certain minimum
requirements. Elite's Pillard reels them off: she must be at
least 5 ft. 9 in., bone thin, have full lips, high cheekbones,
large eyes, long legs and a straight, not too prominent nose.
Models today are taller and fitter than those of previous
generations, with fuller lips and bigger breasts. "The models
are still skinny," comments Susan Moncur, 41, a semiretired
Paris model, "but with big tits -- real or false."

    Everyone tells the models they're gorgeous, but as long as
they work they must guard against imperfection -- the bloodshot
eye, the puffy face. They diet rigorously, and smoke to keep
the weight off. Even on good days, models fret that they are
not perfect enough. "A girl comes to a shoot with a pimple, and
everyone's mumbling about her," says Kevyn Aucoin, a New York
makeup artist. "She feels like she should commit suicide."

    Curiously, great beauties do not always make great models.
Connection to the camera is key. When photographer Arthur Elgort
meets a young model for the first time, he wonders if she will
"transfer" onto a photograph. "She's cute in her little jeans,"
he explains, "but when we pile the Givenchy and Ungaro on this
20-year-old, the girl could disappear before our eyes."

    Whatever the type, many supermodels behave like prima
donnas. Though the leading photographers and editors praise
Evangelista's professionalism, there are those who say she can
be the most difficult of all. A member of her hair-and-makeup
brigade is asked if she is as much of a prima donna as people
say. "She's worse," he replies. "You've seen the movie All About
Eve? Enough said. It's Eve Harrington all over again." Says
Susan Quillim of the Wilhelmina Models agency in New York:
"Linda has been lavished with everything, and now she thinks
she's fabulous." Mulder is also getting a "little bit too big
for her boots," says Vogue's Coddington.

    As supermodels assert themselves, many resent the
industry's lingering sexism. "I hate it when they call us
girls," says Crawford. "Most of us are not girly, and we don't
run our careers like girls. When I walk away from this, I'll
have the luxury of doing what I like."

    That luxury could come after all too short a time since
there are few models over 28, and the industry is always hungry
for a new face. Says model Gabrielle Reece: "The younger,
hotter, fresher girls are always coming along." Campbell must
keep an eye on Beverly Peele, 16, who some are calling the "next
Naomi." Crawford, 25, is said to have not one but two rivals
nipping at her heels: Shana, 21, the Guess? jeans model who is
starring in Calvin Klein's ads for his new Escape perfume; and
Niki Taylor, 16, who has a mole on her face just like Cindy's.
Says Crawford: "People think I'm jealous of Niki Taylor. But I
got my 15 minutes of fame, and when you get it you realize it's
not what it's cracked up to be." But quitting has never been
easy for these coddled darlings. Says ex-model Moncur: "You
exist through others' eyes. When they stop looking at you,
there's nothing left."

    Now listen to Niki Taylor, the lovely Florida blond, the
model many say could represent the next generation of
superstars. She has had 42 magazine covers since she started
working two years ago, and is the youngest model ever to snare
a big cosmetics contract. "I'm just playing it day by day and
seeing how it goes," Taylor says. Does she want to be modeling
at 25? "No," she says, and then her voice drifts off. "I don't
know . . ." What she is probably thinking is, Twenty-five!
That's so old! Who can think so far ahead?