Photo: The Big Five -British Vogue, January 1990 by Peter Lindbergh

Everybody already uses the expression “Supermodel” but do you actually know what is behind it?

The term became popular during the 90s, with the help of Gianni Versace and Azzedine Alaïa, was created the fantasy of the Supermodels: a group of models who became starts and a kind of superheroes due to their looks and strong personalities.

These were high paid models, going from cover to cover and signing huge commercial contracts that became household names.

Who were the original Supermodels?

First came “The Trinity” group, formed by Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista. To them joined Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. Together they were known as “The Big Five” due to British Vogue’s cover of January 1990 where they all appeared photographed by Peter Lindbergh.

Later on, Tatjana Patitz was replaced by Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss came along and the group became known as “The Big Six”.

However, there were more models in the 90s that acquired that status: Amber Valletta, Tyra Banks, Shalom Harlow, Elle Macpherson, Heidi Klum, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen, Stephanie Seymour and, later, Gisele Bündchen and Adriana Lima.