New Book Tells the Story of How 53 Supermodels Launched Their Careers

LONDON — Supermodels have sold the world everything, from couture gowns and toothpaste to tomes featuring highlights from their modeling careers. But where did they ever come from?

In a new book from fashion journalist Caroline Leaper, “Supermodels Discovered” (Laurence King Publishing), which is set for release Jan. 2, traces the origin stories of 53 faces who have helped change fashion, starting from 1911 to the present day.

“It’s that magic at the start of someone’s career. Those stories are so fascinating and they’re all so different. I’ve gone through over 50 different women and no two people’s stories weigh in the same. They’ve all come from such different backgrounds and in most cases the beginning of someone’s career is a very exciting time, if not the most exciting time for them,” she said.

“People are always happy to revisit that moment their whole life changed.”

Leaper looks back on the careers of supermodels from China Machado, Veruschka von Lehndorff, Carla Bruni and Gisele Bündchen to Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.

She also interviewed nine of them, including Pat Cleveland, Beverly Johnson, Janice Dickinson, Claudia Schiffer, Karen Elson and Halima Aden in a Q&A format about what inspired their signature walks; key memories over the decades; first impressions of the fashion industry, and setting boundaries on their own terms.

Elson is candid about her journey into modeling and the difficulties she faced growing up in the north of England when the beauty ideal was either Pamela Anderson on “Baywatch” or Cindy Crawford.

“I didn’t have any friends. That time of my life was so difficult and painful that just to have something to look forward to during the summer holidays, I gave them a call again. They had an open house, and I got the train to Manchester and did the casting call,” she recalled.

“I wore a black satin dress that I’d saved my pocket money for from Topshop. I’d never done anything like it before, but I think inside I just knew that where I grew up was not where I was going to end up. In the room full of 40 or so people, I was the one she picked.”

Elson was on the verge of quitting modeling until she met photographer Steven Meisel, who launched her career by putting her on the cover of Vogue Italia with her eyebrows shaved off.

Another standout interview for Leaper was Schiffer, who she said still remembers every detail of how she was approached by scout Dominic Galas and the agent Michel Levaton. 

“I was wearing stonewashed Chipie jeans, a Fiorucci sweatshirt and blue eye shadow. It was the first time I had been to a nightclub in a big city. I remember that encounter so clearly: We were dancing to ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead or Alive. However, I took his card and discussed it with my parents the next day,” the German supermodel remembered.

There are tender moments in the book, such as Aden’s story in the fashion industry and setting out a contract on her own terms.

“I don’t know how many newbie models will walk into IMG and say, ‘Listen, I do want to model. But I’m going to live in Minnesota. I’m going to always travel with a female companion. And I want a hijab clause in my contract, that I won’t ever remove my headscarf.’ At that time, I was very strict — my neck always had to be covered and I was only wearing long dresses and long skirts,” said the Kenyan-born supermodel, who was born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp that fellow model Adut Akech was also born in.

Aden explained that she met Akech on a group cover shoot for British Vogue, where she became the first woman wearing a hijab in the magazine’s 102-year history. “We realized we were sharing this cover as two girls born in the same refugee camp, but who had grown up on two different continents. That, to me, was just amazing,” she remembered.

Leaper contended that the expectations of what makes a supermodel are always changing and the goal posts are getting more competitive as models are now up against actors and musicians for magazine covers.

She named Adwoa Aboah as one of the models who merged the traditional benchmarks of what makes a supermodel with qualities that endear her to today’s audiences, such as being an advocate for mental health.

Nowadays a supermodel’s status is measured by how many seminal Vogue covers they’ve had; their commercial beauty contracts; the fashion houses they’ve walked for and the campaign’s they’ve been the face of; making it onto Forbes’ world’s highest-paid model list, and their social media following.

Much has changed in the industry since Lisa Fonssagrives came onto the scene, who Leaper called the first supermodel — an accolade that’s been the topic of many debates.

“Lisa really was the first person who was consistently on the cover of American Vogue. She was married to Irving Penn, which cemented her status in the art and fashion world as a name, a celebrity and a socialite. She really lived that fabulous lifestyle of having cars take her here, there and everywhere,” she said.

“She was the first supermodel, even if they weren’t necessarily called supermodels as early as back then,” she added.

According to Leaper’s research, the first use of the term was in a Chicago Tribune article from 1942 written by Judith Cass with the title reading “Super Models Are Signed for Fashion Show.” She added that there were other mentions of the term dating back to the 1890s, but this was widely considered to be the first in context use.

Supermodels are an evolving species. The world has seen them take on careers beyond the runways while Carla Bruni became France’s first lady from 2008 to 2012.