In the 1990s, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington were everywhere. On the cover of every magazine, in every major fashion show and ambassador for brands like Calvin Klein, Revlon, Maybelline and Pepsi. They were called by their first name only. These four models have become true superstars around the world. They had spectacular fees, they took the Concorde. And, as Linda Evangelista said, she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, a phrase she regrets today. In front of the camera, the four fifty-year-old models look back on their beginnings and tell their lives, supported by archival documents. We never tire of seeing the photographs and parades of the time, but also of seeing them speak in a very frank way.
The four episodes entitled The Look, The Fame, The Power, The Legacy evoke their history in chronological order. There are many testimonies from journalists and fashion magazine editors, but also from designers like John Galliano, Michael Kors, Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Donatella Versace, who say: “They defined the power of women and all four of them supported each other. »
The four friends talk about their memories, sometimes with emotion, of that crazy time, the 1990s, when George Michael’s Freedom music video literally propelled them into another dimension, to the rank of supermodels. It is also about the repercussions of fame, racism, their suffering, their friendship and their lives today.
The first episode looks back at the beginnings of these four models. Christy Turlington and Noami Campbell talk about how they met in New York when they were 15 and became friends from day one. Naomi, who practiced dancing in London, starred in a Bob Marley music video when she was little. She arrived alone in Paris at 16, and it was the designer Azzedine Alaïa (who died in 2017) who took her under his wing.
Linda Evangelista, the Canadian of Italian origin, always dreamed of becoming a model since her childhood and was spotted by the Elite agency during her participation in Miss Teen Niagara, while Cindy Crawford, the American from a small town in Illinois, remembers her early days when her hair was cut very short without her consent: “They cut my ponytail like that, I was in shock, I was crying. People ask me why I have never cut my hair since that day! It traumatized me! “, she says in the first episode.
It was at the end of the second episode, The Fame, that the famous black and white photograph of Peter Lindberg appeared on the cover of British Vogue, whose mission was to show the beauty of women in the 1990s. This photo was changed their lives. Then George Michael calls them and wants to have the five models in the photo (there was also Tatjana Patitz, who passed away in January 2023) for his music video Freedom. Naomi, Cindy, Linda, Christy and Tatjana consult each other and make a group decision. It is Naomi who announces the good news to George Michael. And it was Gianni Versace who brought them together just after, during his fashion show to the music of Freedom: a remarkable moment. And there you have it, supermodels are born.
It was the grunge movement, the arrival of Kate Moss and the economic crisis that put an end to their domination, but also their superstar whims. The fact remains that they are still there more than 30 years later. Cindy Crawford is the savviest businesswoman of the group; her name has become a brand, and today she poses with her daughter Kaia Gerber, also a model. “I am now Kaia’s mother! », she says about her daughter, more popular than her on social networks.
Linda Evangelista looks back on her health problems, her breast cancer which left her with scars, and the trauma experienced since cryolipolysis (a cold-loss slimming treatment) disfigured her. She then spent years in hiding, depressed. Christy Turlington, for her part, studied at university and created the Every Mother Counts foundation, which supports mothers around the world. Naomi Campbell talks about her addiction problems, her feeling of abandonment (she did not know her father) and her commitment to Africa.
This documentary series makes us relive with a certain nostalgia the era of our fashion superstars. The four models co-produce the series and they had the honesty to talk about their rise, but also their difficulties, which makes them all the more human.