Girls, Girls, Girls! Naomi, Claudia, Kate, Stella, and the Model Tribes of the ’90s

Leave the kryptonite to Superman: The likes of Naomi, Linda, and Christy didn’t need it. They had other secret weapons: legs for miles, unforgettable faces, attitude, presence, and personality. They were, simply, utterly supermodels, a now overused term that meant something specific when it was it was first coined and applied to one-name catwalking wonders with lithe but shapely bodies that clearly put them in the “I am woman, hear me roar” camp.

The bombshells were a subset of the supers. Latter-day BBs, Marilyn Monroes, Vargas Girls, they worked their sinuous curves (and Wonder Bras) to create a sense of heat. Claudia, Stephanie, Karen: These names paved the sizzling and ultrafeminine way for today’s Victoria’s Secret Angels.

Like fashion action figures, the supers and bombshells lived large and traveled in packs, conquering the public’s imagination. They were glamorous with a capital G—known to date famous men, travel on the Concorde, and have the occasional diva moment.

And then fashion, and its soundtrack, changed. The new beat, created by disaffected youth in Seattle, inspired designers to elevate street looks to the runway. Just as George Michael had to make room on the charts for grunge acts like Nirvana and Soundgarden, so the supers had to share the backstage with a new breed of model called the waif, whose exemplar is Kate Moss—a gangly snaggletoothed girl from Croyden, England, who quietly, but certainly, changed modeling forever with the crinkle of her freckled nose. Soon fellow waifs and BFFs Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow (who was discovered at a Cure concert) would follow in Cindy Crawford’s footsteps and anchor MTV’s House of Style.

The girlish, imperfect perfection of the waifs extended ideas of beauty and gave rise to a quirky model tribe we’re calling the individualists. Less grunge than indie, they weren’t afraid to be themselves. Jenny Shimizu had tattoos when they weren’t the norm; blueblood Stella Tennant wore a septum ring and stomped down the runway at Chanel. They had don’t-care attitudes and remarkable features.

Here we celebrate these women, who, whatever their tribe, defined the nineties, the decade that keeps on giving.

 

THE SUPERS

The fashion equivalent of action figures, the supers, one-named wonders, traveled in packs and defined glamour with a capital G.

THE BOMBSHELLS

Latter-day pinups, the bombshells, could work a Wonder Bra and a runway.

THE WAIFS

The visual equivalent of the grunge sound, waifs, brought fashion back down to earth, in a good way.

 

THE INDIVIDUALISTS

The individualists did it their way—and with attitude. Nose ring, tattoos, boy-crop—their indie style was all their own.

 

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