My childhood was in a time when it was perceived as the golden age of supermodels. One however, seemed to separate herself from the rest. Cindy Crawford was a valedictorian and discovered at 16 while working in a corn field in Illinois, by a local newspaper photographer. She was different but not too different being able to maintain her All-American girl image. She also marketed herself as a product with name and face recognition.
With the rise of gossip magazines and TMZ, celebrities replaced models as the cover stars on all magazines when they were selling better. On a Vogue cover, a modern icon like Gisele still sells fewer copies than Jennifer Lopez on the newsstand. Perhaps that is because there are avid J. Lo fans and relatively few Gisele fans, but rather than capitalize on personality, models have continued to get more focused on their name (or making of that name). If women are not averse to worshipping ideals of beauty, they at least want some difficult personal backstory to go with the ideal. The problem with the idols that America makes is they are too generic. They convey nothing in pictures beyond physical beauty. Chanel Iman is the best of the bunch, but that is because it seems like she might have a personality. It would be nearly impossible for one model to control media the way Crawford was able to do in the '90s, because there is so much more media now to monopolize. In an industry often considered to be one of the most frivolous on earth, she took the selling of her own appearance seriously. How can modeling be considered frivolous when it has such a large impact on our culture?
And ultimately that is what Cindy Crawford had that the other supermodels did not have. Not a diva or a ditz. Warm and present rather than cold and distant. She still understands how to maintain a fantasy, which is why she makes occasional appearances in commercials as the MILF next door. She made it through the gauntlet of the fashion industry, where constant physical criticism is routine and aging is frowned upon (and then injected with Botox for frown lines), with her dignity intact.
The thing about Cindy that especially sets her apart visually is her mole that some people find disgusting. But it is memorable, and it became her image, tied to the American tradition of Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark. And because Crawford's mole could be seen as a flaw, it made her slightly more relatable. That is why she is more specifically iconic than Christy Turlington or Stephanie Seymour, who are objectively equally beautiful. Having one obvious "imperfection" became an asset. Even Heidi Klum tries for something similar, but Klum cannot be relatable no matter how much she tries. Being down-to-earth is not in Heidi's DNA, which traffics in haughty German perfectionism.
Cindy embodied the clash in the '90s between European fashion (flashy and baroque) and American fashion (obsessed with cleanliness and simplicity). Rather than the image of a model as a fussy and feminine living doll, Cindy Crawford was James Dean. She did not invent the model-as-American-rebel idea, she was imitating Gia Carangi, to whom she was often compared. But Cindy, like Gia and Angelina Jolie (whose breakout role was her portrayal of Gia in an HBO movie), brought the same sort of incorruptible strength of presence and associated sexual energy. Even in a ball gown or styled to look demurely feminine, Cindy broadcasts toughness, a kind of forthright cowgirl confidence.
She branded herself as American, constantly. As much as Michael Jordan did. She established an iconography of white tees and blue jeans and soda, an American flag rippling somewhere in the background. She might as well have been Wonder Woman. Megan Fox in Transformers is just Michael Bay's heat dream of the Cindy Crawford persona.
Her real successor is Tyra Banks, who also understood how to latch onto the whole "all-American" thing, how to build yourself into a brand that could last past a modeling career. In Tyra's case patriotism was also invoked to counteract the institutionalized racism in the fashion world (particularly prevalent overseas, where much of the industry is located). Banks both embodied the hypertraditional California-girl ideal and flipped the ideal by being black. She was the first black Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue cover girl and the first black Victoria's Secret model, thereby extending the unforgivingly impossible ideals of youth, beauty, and sex appeal for women somewhat, but not nearly far enough. Banks also stays relevant by using reality t.v.
I wonder if all this public vanity will reach a point where people will start to reject it outright, to consider the negative mental effects and self-esteem problems that constant physical comparison and competition create in everyone, male and female (especially children), or whether it will continue infinitely into a narcissism event horizon. The whole concept of an "ideal" beauty is so false, so blatantly subjective, why do we valor something no mortal person can achieve?
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