Could the era of the supermodel be
over?
Only a few models now regularly appear on the cover of fashion magazines. Mostly the covers are taken by actresses. Marc Jacobs says now that they have advanced digital technology to make them look as good as a model, actresses are taking over. Even Anna Wintour admits she's now less likely to put a model of the cover of Vogue.
"It's a difficult time for models," says Marc Jacobs, the chief sponsor of the Costume Institute exhibition. "The whole idea of supermodels came in a pop culture when actresses weren't that interesting. Now Hollywood is filled with young actresses, and there is digital technology to make them look good."
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Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue for two decades, admits that she is more likely to find star power in Hollywood than on the runway. "The public interest in models these last few years has not been as it was during the early '90s when Naomi [Campbell] and Linda [Evangelista] caused so much excitement," Ms. Wintour says. "And until models become celebrities again in their own right, I can't see them selling as well on magazine covers as actresses."
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Ms. Wintour says that the scarcity of models fronting Vogue is because "the generation that followed the supermodels shied away from that sort of fabulosity and scrutiny."
"For models to have the same social and commercial clout as Hollywood stars, they will have to want to live that sort of 'fishbowl' existence; they will have to be up for living a glamorous and public existence," she says. "Gisele and Kate did this, of course, by dating the likes of Leonardo di Caprio and Johnny Depp early in their careers; by going out to events and walking the red carpet; and by each having, in their very different ways, a world-class sense of style."
Models who are bucking the trend are Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum and Kate Moss, who is still going strong at 36. But as Anna says, they are all celebrities in their own right, hence the staying power.
