The term supermodel, coined in the 1980s,refers to a highly-paid élite fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling.The term took hold in the popular culture of the 1980s and 1990s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels. They have multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements and campaigns. They have branded themselves as household names and worldwide recognition is associated with their modeling careers.They have been on the covers of various magazines. Claudia Schiffer stated, "In order to become a supermodel one must be on all the covers all over the world at the same time so that people can recognise the girls.First-name recognition is a solid indication of supermodel status in the fashion industry.

History

According to Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, the first known use of the term "supermodel" was in the 1940s by an agent named Clyde Matthew Dessner in a 1943[10] "how-to" book he wrote about modeling.However, a writer named Judith Cass used the term prior to Dessner in October 1942 for her article in the Chicago Tribune, which headlined "Super Models are Signed for Fashion Show". The term "supermodel" had been used several times in the media in the late 1960s and mid-1970s. In May 1967 The Salisbury Daily Times referred to Twiggy as a supermodel; the February 1968 article of Glamour magazine listed all 19 "supermodels"; the Chicago Daily Defender wrote "New York Designer Turns Super Model" in January 1970; The Washington Post and Mansfield News Journal used the term in 1971; and in 1974 both the Chicago Tribune and The Advocate also used the term "supermodel" in their articles.American Vogue used the term "supermodel" on the cover page to describe Margaux Hemingway in the September 1, 1975 edition. In 1979, model Janice Dickinson claimed to have coined the term "supermodel" as a compound of superman and model. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson stated that her agent Monique Pilar of Elite Model Management asked her, "Janice, who do you think you are, Superman?" She replied saying, "No... I'm a supermodel, honey, and you will refer to me as a supermodel and you will start a supermodel division." Dickinson also claims to be the first supermodel.

First supermodel

Lisa Fonssagrives is considered by most[clarification needed] in the fashion industry as the world's first supermodel. Fonssagrives was in most of the major fashion magazines and general interest magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Town & Country, Life, Vogue, the original Vanity Fair, and Time. The relationship between her image on over 200 Vogue covers and her name recognition led to the future importance of Vogue in shaping future supermodels.

1980s-1990s

In the early 1980s fashion designers began advertising on television and billboards. Models became individually familiar to the masses, no longer nameless faces. Catwalk regulars like Gia Carangi, Carol Alt, Christie Brinkley, Kim Alexis and Paulina Porizkova began to endorse products with their names as well as their faces, getting in front of everything from Diet Pepsi to Ford Trucks. Elle Macpherson, who became known as "The Body," sold more pin-up posters than any actress in Hollywood.[citation needed] As the models began to embrace old-style glamour, they were starting to replace movie stars as symbols of luxury and wealth. In this regard, many viewed supermodels not so much as individuals but as images.

During the mid-1980s, a shift took place in the world of high fashion which would have a permanent effect on modeling. A new, more exotic model became the vogue, defying the beauty standards of the day. Elite Models' Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, and Linda Evengelista were among the most exotic fashion models working at this point, but they would not have been able to model just few years before: Crawford's beauty mark, Patitz's and Evangelista's idiosyncratic features challenged notions of beauty. Madison avenue was willing to pay top dollar for their immediately recognizable faces. They became personalities in the media, and their individuality would set the stage for the supermodels phenomena of the coming decade.

Late 1990s - 2000s

In the late 1990s actresses, pop singers, and other entertainment celebrities began gradually replacing models on fashion magazine covers and ad campaigns.The pendulum of limelight left many models in anonymity. A popular "conspiracy theory" explaining the supermodel's disappearance is that designers and fashion editors grew weary of the "I won't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day" attitude and made sure no small group of models would ever again have the power of the Big Six.

Yet Charles Gandee, associate editor at Vogue, has said that high prices and poor attitudes contributed less to the decline of the supermodel. As clothes became less flashy, designers turned to models who were less glamorous, so they wouldn't overpower the clothing.The majority of models come from non-English speaking countries and cultures, making the crossover to mainstream spokesperson and cover star difficult.The opportunities for super stardom were waning in the modeling world. Supermodels Tyra Banks and Lisa Snowdon left the business in May 2005, but Snowdon still does a spot of modeling here and there. Banks shoots as well from time to time to show a professional version for the girl's photoshoots in America's Next Top Model.

Male supermodels

Men's fashion represents just a fraction of the industry.[citation needed] Men, nevertheless, have played a part in the fashion world, while commanding less compensation than their female counterparts.Well known male supermodels include Mathias Lauridsen, Marcus Schenkenberg, Tyson Beckford, Mark Vanderloo, Alex Lundqvist, Will Chalker, Evandro Soldati, Tyson Ballou, and Michael Bergin.

Criticism

Criticism of the supermodel as an industry has been frequent inside and outside the fashion press, from complaints that women desiring this status become unhealthily thin to charges of racism, where the "supermodel" has generally to conform to a Northern European standard of beauty. According to fashion writer Guy Trebay of The New York Times, in 2007, the "android" look is popular, a vacant stare and thin body serving, according to some fashion industry conventions, to set off the couture. This was not always the case. In the 1970s, black, heavier and "ethnic" models predominated the runways but social changes since that time have made the power players in the fashion industry flee suggestions of "otherness".