Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell proved they’re still queens of the runway when they attended a screening of their new Apple TV series The Super Models on Monday.
The four-part documentary, which aired in March 2023, charted the rise of four of the biggest supermodels of the ’90s who came to dominate the modeling world.
We’re going to the screening and Q&A at The West Hollywood EDITION, Naomi, 53, Cindy, 58, Christy, 55, and Linda, 58, came together to discuss the phenomenon in depth.
The legendary models looked as glamorous as ever as they posed side by side before taking the stage to answer questions.
Naomi looked elegant in a sheer black shirt and matching skirt, with her dark locks in her signature poker-straight style.
Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell attended a screening of their new Apple TV series The Super Models on Monday
The four-part documentary, which aired in March 2023, charted the rise of four of the biggest supermodels of the ’90s who came to dominate the modeling world (pictured in 1991)
Cindy was also seen wearing a navy blue satin off-the-shoulder dress with silver strappy heels and her auburn locks in luscious waves.
Linda also opted for a satin one, wearing a bronze high-neck top and wide-leg trousers.
Meanwhile, Christy smiled and kept her outfit simple, wearing a sleek black blazer with a sheer top underneath.
While the Apple TV+ series basked in the women’s exceptional beauty, it didn’t shy away from the uglier issues they faced, such as addiction, domestic violence and racial inequality.
As Naomi noted, “People feel like we don’t hurt and we don’t cry and we don’t get sad. None of that is true.’
Of the four, the story of South Londoner Naomi is perhaps the most eventful.
Discovered at the age of 15 while shopping in Covent Garden, she told how she secretly started working as a teenager while her mother Valerie was unaware.
Yet it was far from easy. The late 80s and early 90s was a period when black models were still not getting the opportunities of their white counterparts and as Linda Evangelista explained: ‘Naomi, I thought, was prettier, had a much rockier body than me and a better attitude and I’m thinking, “Why don’t they book her?”
She and Christy refused to accept bookings unless Naomi was also hired, and as Naomi explained, “They had my back and supported me and that kept me going.”
Stepping into the screening and Q&A at The West Hollywood EDITION, Naomi, 53, Cindy, 58, Christy, 55, and Linda, 58, came together to discuss the phenomenon in depth
Naomi looked elegant in a sheer black shirt and matching skirt, with her dark locks in her signature poker-straight style
They were joined at the event by Larissa Bills, Mikey O’Connell and Roger Ross Williams
While the Apple TV+ series basked in the women’s exceptional beauty, it didn’t shy away from the uglier issues they faced, such as addiction, domestic violence and racial inequality.
As Naomi noted, “People feel like we don’t hurt and we don’t cry and we don’t get sad. None of that is true’
But Naomi’s time in the spotlight has not been without controversy. When she was in her twenties, she was already in the grip of a cocaine addiction and checked herself into rehab.
The series also briefly touched on her anger issues (she was charged with assault in 2006 for hitting her housekeeper with a cell phone). “Addiction can cause such enormous fear and anxiety, so I got really angry,” she explained.
The four women said they have largely avoided the sexual abuse issues that have rocked the industry in recent years, but Linda married her agent Gérald Marie at the age of 22.
Although they divorced after six years, she was shocked when he faced allegations of sexual misconduct and rape two years ago (he denied them and the criminal investigation was closed due to France’s statute of limitations).
She was in tears and described how she felt when she heard the claims and revealed her own abuse at his hands. “He knew not to touch my face,” she says. “Not to touch the moneymaker, you know?”
Of the four, Linda had more than her fair share of hardships. She battled breast cancer and spoke on the series about the fat freezing procedure which she claims left her ‘disfigured’ and depressed.
“I can’t like myself with these hard masses and protrusions sticking out of my body,” she said.
The quartet’s dominance began to decline in the mid-1990s, when excessive glamor fell out of fashion and grunge arrived. As Linda said in the series, “When this all comes to a halt, what else do you do?”
Cindy managed to make a brand of herself, launching a makeup line and appearing in Playboy.
Naomi’s time in the spotlight has not been without controversy as, already in the grips of cocaine addiction in her twenties, she checked herself into rehab.
Cindy managed to make a brand of herself, launching a makeup line and appearing in Playboy
All four continued to model and after withdrawing from public life following her cosmetic procedure, Linda returned to the catwalk last year.
Martin Brading, a photographer who photographed Naomi when she started, said she was “very cooperative at the time,” suggesting she might not have been so cooperative later.
And as Linda explains, there were tricks at the time to capture the perfect image on film, such as holding up the end of a skirt with fishing line or cinching a model’s waist by sliding a Coke can behind her belt.
“Nowadays all the magic happens in post-production,” she said. “In the ’80s and early ’90s, all the magic happened right when you heard ‘click.’
