The SUPER brand lessons from the original SUPERMODELS…

SUPER. MODEL.

Two little words that are completely polarising to us normal folk who would describe themselves as ‘super’ simply by having a moment of quiet caffeination in the morning without being interrupted by your tiny housemates (ahem, I mean children) fighting about who owns more legendary Pokemon cards…

Anyway….

This month, Apple TV launched “The Supermodels,” a 4 part documentary on the early careers of Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell – THE ORIGINAL SUPERMODELS - and to me, 4 x episodes just wasn’t enough.

To set the scene here – I grew up loving magazines, first Dolly then graduating to Cosmopolitan, eventually moving to the likes of Harper’s BAZAAR and Vogue where ‘fashion as art’ is really bought to life. At one point when I left school and moved to Sydney, I had a collection of my Cosmopolitan’s that I moved around with me to each apartment I lived in (there were many!) as I couldn’t bare to part with them. I loved the fashion photography, the storytelling of all types and the whole creative process involved in the media – particular fashion media – which is why I really lapped this show up.

For my age bracket – I’m an 80’s babe – these women were a little older than me and definitely from another world. At no stage do I ever recall wanting to actually ‘be them,’ it was just that the work they created really was an intriguing, captivating collision of genres for someone like me who was studying both performing arts and advertising at the same time. The 1990’s and early 2000’s were a time when these women were at the highest heights of their fame. As was their bread and butter – PRINT MEDIA. The work these women produced with the very best international renowned photographers was something else, it was ART. And it could only be seen in print.

The show depicts the origins of their careers and a moment in time when every fashion, beauty and lifestyle brand clamoured for the opportunity to be sprinkled with a little SUPERMODEL sparkle. I’d never seen footage of Karl Lagerfeld before with anything but his signature grey ‘do (although Mr Valentino looked exactly the same.) Ru Paul and the drag scene was having an emerging moment. The Meatpacking area of Manhattan was still the dirtiest, grimiest place on the island. A time that if you wanted to buy a new fragrance, you went into a department store to get it rather than checking the Tik Tok reviews, when online beauty certainly wasn’t a thing and neither was grey market discounting…  

The fabulous fashion moments aside, what was and continues to be so VERY interesting is how these women built THEMSELVES and their careers into the biggest, internationally renowned, multi million dollar (x10!!) brands, without a single post, swipe, like, share on social media. Digital media certainly wasn’t essential in growth strategies yet and e-commerce was still very much a conversation starter or a dot point on ‘The Marketing Team’s’ to do list.

All that rapidly changed as we know, but still, these women continue to be the most well known models within the fashion industry of which the newbies (Kendall, Gig, Bella et al) themselves idolise and whose legacy they can never overtake. So does building a monumental personal brand WITHOUT social media, make Christy, Linda, Naomi and Cindy more credible professionally? Well, kinda.

These women knew their value and their contribution to the industry as a whole and it had nothing to do with the validation and currency of social media followers. Their work created an authentic virality of a different kind because there was an element of scarcity and exclusivity about what they created and who they were creating it with. You could only see what they were up to if you were one of those in the FROW at Fashion Week or if you could afford the cash to splash on a glossy magazine. You couldn’t just open an a free app 24/7 and see what they were putting in a smoothie. You had to buy a fashion magazine – the right type of fashion magazine - to read about it. That’s if you had the spare cash to splash on a glossy.

While younger generations couldn’t yet afford Calvin Klein, spending the precious $8+ on a magazine granted guaranteed access inside the wonderous world of high end fashion and beauty. It was an investment that cured the curiosity and inspired the creativity for a host of artistic pursuits far beyond modelling and depending on your age, those campaign images adorned bedroom walls, office mood boards or school diaries for years…

So, how did they do it? Let’s see…

1.       They knew the value of their brand and they advocated hard for it. (Sometimes that made them unpopular and touted as ego-maniacs, but now, we should be giving them a ‘high 5!’ in demanding the salaries they successfully secured for themselves.)

2.       They harnessed opportunities that would expand their brand reach in a unique way, for the time – I mean George Michael’s Freedom film clip anyone? Iconic.

3.       They did good work, really good work. When you become known for your output, delivery and results, you get…more work. (and can charge more for it too)

4.       They prioritised and nurtured their professional relationships, with each other and their employers. (There has long been chat that some of the group don’t actually get along IRL but you wouldn’t know it from the group studio time, because these women know how to SELL it.)

5.       They protected their brand image. Fiercely. (A very hard feat in the non-digital era)

Beneath all the glamour, the hard work is evident, there’s a lot of paparazzi BS and a total invasion of privacy for most of their modelling career. There is no doubt that even as the leaders in the modelling world who paved the way for the next generations to come, they got taken advantage of in horrific ways and were definitely played by ‘powerful’ men in the game. 

This show was actually produced by the four women themselves so as you can imagine any negative life experiences (illegal activity, medical trauma etc) wasn’t really delved into as extensively as what the positive moments were. It also would have been valuable to credit the hugely talented teams of people it takes to bring an editorial or advertising campaign to life (especially at this time) which to me was sorely neglected. After all, a stellar ad campaign is a lot more than 1 person with many creative geniuses behind the scenes.

It’s comforting to see that these women have gone on to align their personal brands now to causes that matter to them, causes that will help young people, women, the planet. Like many women in their middle years they have pivoted, tried new career pursuits whilst still being able to reminisce with fondness (and dare I say, a few tweakments) on their younger years. One thing this doco cements is that whilst between them they all have multiple other titles now, Mum, CEO, Philanthropist, Educator, Survivor, they will forever and always be known as THE (original) SUPERMODELS.

And they sure as heck won’t let any of us forget it.

Image Credit: The Supermodels promo image, Apple TV+