Well, hello everyone, OG supermodels Linda, Christy, Naomi and Cindy; the term was coined for women; these creatures became so famous that even No last name is required, such as Aretha or Marilyn. On the cover of Vogue’s September issue again, a monolith left over from that magazine era, decades after yours. We obviously miss you.
Beyond that, how to interpret the fervent enthusiasm sparked by the appearance of their new cover? A collaboration between American Vogue and British Vogue, designed by Edward Enninful, photographed by Rafael Pavarotti, posted on Instagram last week? Thousands of social media responses, comments, clapping hands and flame emojis?
“More content like this please forever and ever,” model Karen Elson wrote, summing up the prevailing reaction under Vogue’s post.
Beneath the chorus of love, however, is another growing commentary, but a slightly less enthralling one. One highlights what many viewers consider a shocking erasure of age: 58 (Linda Evangelista), 57 (Cindy Crawford), 54 (Christie Trinh Dayton) and 53 (Naomi Campbell) are advertised as models of mature beauty whose age already seems to have been wiped from their faces. They look retouched to look more like AI-generated robots than real people.
According to a spokesperson for Vogue, the photos had only “minimal retouching and minimal lighting”. But in a world where we’re increasingly concerned about the blurring of lines between virtual reality and reality, and the prevalence of disinformation, the definition of “minimal” and what it really means is a relative question.
It brought an air of uneasiness to the entire shoot—how much of it was real and how much of it was Photoshopped—that didn’t do anyone involved a favor.
It didn’t work out for the women on the cover, who stood out at the time because they had personality and were willing to show it. Because they don’t want to be blank mannequins like their predecessors, but individuals with their own personalities, attitudes and opinions. This personality involves expressions that, over time, etch years and experiences—joy, sadness, laughter, anger—into the topography of the face.
And it’s not for the women who look up to them as role models.
There’s no doubt that Vogue, a brand that still positions itself as the bible of fashion, even though its grip on that status seems increasingly tenuous, is putting women’s fulfilled lives on its biggest cover of the year Undoubtedly positive. Even that isn’t a surprise, given the rise of celebrity, the broader cultural fascination with the 1990s supermodel heyday, and the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary on the four women’s careers coming out next month.
In fact, the trend of promoting age has been seen in various Vogue magazines last year, with model Carmen Dell’Orefice on the cover of Vogue Czechoslovakia aged 91 and tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od on the cover of The cover of Vogue Philippines. 106. But it looks more like a stunt – omg! See how she defies age! Or gosh! so old! — rather than really embracing a more mature demographic. After all, there’s no such thing as an unknown older model who is regularly featured in magazines.
It’s also possible that the magazine is just portraying them the way they want to be shown. In this case, that’s fair enough. However, a Vogue spokesperson said, “Vogue retains final editorial control over the creative, fashion and video shoots that appear on any of its platforms.”
Of course, images of models of every age are retouched (and sometimes ridiculously so). Indeed, having met Naomi Campbell in person, I can tell you that she has no wrinkles. There is no doubt that these former superstars look extraordinary for their age.
But extraordinary is not the same as unbelievably perfect. When looking at photos of teens and 20-somethings, you can trick yourself into accepting the flawless nature of what you see. Thirty years on, it’s getting harder to pretend.
That means it’s hard not to see this as an opportunity to lose out on embracing all the traits of our humanity, not to mention the transparency of what we’re faking (or not faking). Fixing a wrinkle here, a crow’s foot there, may seem like a trivial matter. But that’s part of undermining our shared sense of truth.
In the video embedded in the article, Christie Turlington has a slight frown line on her forehead.That’s not surprising, as she recently told Marie Claire: “Women who are far from self-enhancement — those are the women I really admire. I love seeing a real Face. “
When Cindy Crawford takes a selfie with her old friends, her smile lines are small but noticeable; her forehead moves and her eyes pucker. These are all part of being alive. Removing these expressive marks from a photo when they are still evident elsewhere can make the entire shoot look more artificial than it really is.
After all, if anyone should understand the complexities of female aging in a youth-obsessed society, it’s that women represent the pinnacle of youthful beauty.
Linda Evangelista has opened up about the trauma she suffered from CoolSculpting, which she says left her disfigured. When she appeared on the cover of British Vogue in September 2022, she opened up about how makeup artist Pat McGrath used tape and her tools to “create illusions” and erase reality.
Ms. Evangelista avoided the subject somewhat carefully in the current extensive interview with Vogue. “I want wrinkles,” she says, “but I have Botox on my forehead, so I’m a hypocrite. But I want to be old.” But it wasn’t addressed any further.
It is especially ironic that, shortly after her death, the celebration of Jane Birkin’s life and style was characterized by a heady disregard for the pressure to follow any rules and a willingness to embrace one’s own wrinkles and their telling s story. (Ms. Turrington lists Ms. Birkin as one of her own beauty paragons.) It should be a sign, if anyone cares, of how much we crave these unfiltered examples.
“The world obviously puts a lot of pressure on women as they get older,” Ms. Crawford said in the Vogue video. But, she continued, “We can still have fun, we can still be beautiful, we can still be compelling.”
So make them clearly visible, including markings and so on. They were once the heralds of a new beauty. Hope they do it again.
