The ’80s were…an interesting time for the modeling world. The term “supermodel,” which was already in existence, really started to apply to some of the modeling icons of the day. The profession was lucrative and also highly visible, with the lives of models becoming just as fascinating as their work (a trend that would continue into the ’90s and well beyond). There were also barriers being broken, with non-white models being selected to walk the runways of major fashion houses—but, as is no surprise, there were still problems of exclusion and racism permeating the industry at all levels. We even saw the debut of some modeling superstars who would go on to have careers in the ’90s and beyond—truly embodying the idea of supermodel well beyond their initial time on the runway.
Keep scrolling for 32 of the most iconic, groundbreaking, savvy, and fascinating supermodels of the ’80s. Many of them you don’t know, or know in a different context—but their work was epic.
Linda Evangelista
(Image credit: Getty Images)
An up-and-comer in the ’80s who would hit supermodel-dom in the latter part of this decade, the fashion chameleon started out in the mid-80s. But in ’88, when photographer Peter Lindburgh suggested she cut her hair short, she became the Linda Evangelista we all know and appreciate. One of the “Big Six” supermodels who would dominate the ’90s (the other five being Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, and Christy Turlington), she’s been immortalized in hundreds of magazine covers.
Cindy Crawford
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Crawford would be one of several models on the January 1990 cover of British Vogue, instantly making her a household name. But her star was still rising in the 1980s; In 1986 she was signed to Elite New York modeling agency. Her first big “moment” also happened in the ’80s, even though it’s a blink-and-you-‘ll-miss-it cameo: In the Michael J. Fox film The Secret of My Success, a quick montage of models all turning…
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