Original subtitles

[jet engine roaring]

[pilot, over P.A.] Welcome to New York City, the capital of the world.

[Naomi Campbell] I remember when I got to New York.

Coming from the airport, you see the skyline,

you just go, whew! This energy.

It was more than what I imagined it to be.

["Good LIfe" by Inner City playing]

[horns blaring]

[indistinct chatter]

New York was just jumping.

[talking, indistinct]

[Naomi] People singing on the corner.

- [saxophone playing] - [car horn honking]

[Naomi] As a dancer, the first thing I wanted to do

was go to the Alvin Ailey School of Dance.

New York was vibrant and the energy was incredible.

- [man yelps] - [horns honking]

[Christy Turlington] I thought that New York City was like magic.

It had a little bit of that, kind of, grittiness that it's known for.

There was a lot of graffiti, especially downtown.

[woman] Here we go, off to the Limelight.

[Naomi] I love that everyone got dressed up to go out,

and that's how it should be! [laughs]

We were supposed to have dinner together...

[loud kissing]

[Linda Evangelista] We liked going to Times Square

before Times Square got cleaned up.

When there were peep shows, we didn't go to the peep shows,

but I'm just saying New York was a different place.

A little seedy, a little-- It was fun.

[Cindy Crawford] My time in New York, in the fashion world,

I do think it was kind of the golden age, but...

if it wasn't, don't tell me. Don't ruin the illusion.

[indistinct chatter]

[Mayor Koch] How am I doing?

[man] You're doing terrific!

Thank you!

[Cindy] When I got to New York,

I was twenty.

I'd been in Chicago, so I knew a little bit what a city felt like,

but New York is its own thing.

I remember trying to take the Subway, but being a little intimidated by that.

I would try to get taxis.

Sometimes they would stop and sometimes they wouldn't stop,

and I could not for the life of me figure it out until one day I realized,

"Oh, the light has to be on".

[Naomi] I'd put out my hands many times on New York City streets,

and the taxis would fly by.

Then Christy would put out the hand and then they would stop.

The guy would be like, "I don't wanna go to Brooklyn."

I was just like, "Why is he saying that?"

It didn't strike me until Christy would have to stand out in front of me,

get me a taxi to get to work.

It was all new to me.

It was exciting. It was challenging.

Stand here for us... You just made my day.

[Cindy] I had a really good friend who was a makeup artist,

and she let me stay on her couch.

After about three months, she's like,

"I think you need to get your own apartment."

[Christy] I got my first apartment before I turned 18

and then moved in straight away.

And had that kind of, like, big lofty thing,

but without any food in the fridge or any furniture, really.

And I was working constantly but your agency is taking a lot,

and also, just rent and all of the other things.

[Naomi] Christy and I lived together. We were roommates.

We would just be silly and have a laugh and have fun and...

- felt so comfortable with all of them. - Okay...

- Mmm! - [laughter]

They're my sisters.

[Christy] When I started working in New York,

it was so very much this, like,

nine to five, it's just a job job.

It felt very much like Working Girl.

[Cindy] I had to make my own way in the world.

Mommy and Daddy were not bailing me out.

Like, if I rented an apartment and I couldn't pay my rent, guess what?

I'm getting evicted and moving back home.

There wasn't that cushion,

which gave me a lot of drive, and I hustled.

Francesco Scavullo booked me for Cosmopolitan.

He liked me because I reminded him of Gia.

Gia was, like, a favorite of so many photographers

and so my agency said, "We have baby Gia."

Those girls worked hard,

and they worked constantly.

There was a feeling about them,

that they wanted more than just what was there,

but they were driven to...

...be better all the time.

They were constantly seeking

and wanting and curious and knowledgeable,

and just driven.

- [man] When's it gonna be on? Tonight? - [Christy] Yeah.

- [man] Oh, great. - If you stay up that late, 12:30.

- [man] Oh, no. - [woman] Oh, no! Yeah!

[laughter]

I have to work early tomorrow. I don't think I'm gonna stay up.

[Christy] By the time I started to work a lot with Vogue,

I would say to the editors, you know, like, [gasps]

"Well, I wanna work with Steven Meisel, can I work with Steven Meisel?"

And I remember Polly Mellen telling me like,

"I don't think you're his type, really."

I was like, "What do you mean I'm not his type?"

Steven is one of the great artists of our time,

because he would look at a model,

and he will see through the model to what they could be.

[Anna Sui] When we started hanging out,

Steven and I would go out

and with a Polaroid camera, take pictures,

and you knew right then and there that Steven had the eye.

He could spot somebody,

he could make them pose the way he was imagining.

He just had such a vision.

Steven started photographing

in the very, very, very, early 80s.

And he had gotten a studio on 23rd Street.

We used to call it "The Clinic,"

[laughing] 'cause the girls would come in and Steven would teach them how to model.

The girls would change completely,

and the ones that were great would come out as superstars,

'cause they just took it, they were absorbing all of it.

They wanted to learn.

[Fabien Baron] Steven Meisel had a mirror in the studio

for the models to look at themselves,

giving the girl the authority

to push herself to the nth degree

because they would know if the foot was in the right place or not.

[Linda] I remember...

when I get called to work with Steven Meisel for the first time.

I was so hoping Steven would like me

and he said, "Can you walk? Like a big stride?"

And I was like, "Yeah."

And he said, "But do you think you can hit the mark and stay in focus?"

And I said, "Yeah."

I did it over and over.

And then that was the beginning of my relationship with him.

And we all got to be part of the process.

[faint chatter]

[Christy] It was my, like, my school.

He was very tactile always, as well.

Like, come over and actually hands on your hair.

Help do the makeup.

It was kind of our own little factory vibe in that we played.

We'd come to the studio and if we didn't have a plan

of what was gonna happen, we all kind of got to

work together and figure out what that was gonna be,

what the look was gonna be.

It was just constant building, destroying, building again.

[man's voice directing, indistinct]

[Christy] He really created this very intimate and safe environment on the set.

I felt like he really looked after me.

You know, I just feel like he cared how comfortable I was,

or recognized maybe when I wasn't, when I wouldn't have said anything, maybe.

It was really, really a special, um, family kind of bond.

[Naomi] I was 16 when I got to work with Steven Meisel for American Vogue.

[Carlyne Cerf de Dudzelle] She arrives, her legs was already

as big as they are now, three meters.

So, immediately Steven called her Bambi because she was Bambi.

She was all shy, she was like...

[vocalizing]

Well, she is not at all but that doesn't matter,

and she was a dancer so she'd use her legs and everything.

I'm trying to think.

Very first one is the dancing pictures and I don't know if they're in there.

Mmm.

Working with Steven Meisel is like an education.

He molds you, in just such a subtle way,

that you almost were like, "How did he get that out of me

because I didn't think I had that in me."

I was very lucky to meet this wonderful man

who's still family in my life and I love him dearly.

And I understood that you can have chosen families.

I didn't meet my father,

my mother had me at 17.

I think he was the same age.

That feeling of abandonment...

It's nothing she could have done to change that feeling with me.

I also believe a lot of that was part of my drive, too.

Not having my father figure in my life.

But then I got blessed.

When I was 16, I was working in Paris and I was on my own.

But one day, my purse was stolen,

I'd had all my money stolen.

My traveler's checks, I should say. Mum gave me traveler's checks.

I was going to dinner with another model 'cause she felt pity on me,

and that's when I met Azzedine Alaïa.

Azzedine Alaïa was a very enigmatic designer.

Azzedine really loved playing with the female form.

[in French] Femininity is a whole thing.

[interviewer, speaks French, laughs]

I don't know, I can't define some things.

[Beker] I think his clothes were very slinky, very sexy, very seductive.

There's an architectural feel to some of these pieces.

But very comfortable. They moved with you.

And he was just a sweet, sweet man.

And he doesn't speak English. I don't speak French.

But there's something.

And then he gave me an outfit,

and he asked me to put it on,

to see what his clothes looked like on me.

[laughs]

And I put it on,

and he liked how it looked.

And then he asked me where I was staying, and I told him, at the Hotel Lenox.

He then said to me, "Where's your mother?"

And I said, "My mother's in London."

My mother speaks French.

So, he said, "Call her."

So, I called my mum, and they spoke.

And he told to my mum that he would take care of me,

that I would stay under his roof

and that I would be safe to stay there.

My mother did not know who she was talking to,

never met him, but trusted him.

And so the next day or the next two days later,

I moved into Rue du Parc-Royal.

[woman] Oh, I love this dress.

- I've worn this. - [woman] Oh, really?

- Piece of art. - [woman] Yeah.

My papa was a genius.

[woman] Yes, he was.

[Christy] There you are.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

[woman] Mm-hm.

I thought my papa was gonna live forever.

- I never imagined... - [woman] Mm.

I never imagined... even thought about him leaving.

[Baron] Naomi became Alaïa's muse,

you know, like, almost like family.

[Naomi] He introduced me to so much in the world.

I met so many amazing people.

I learned about art, architecture, design.

Most importantly, I got to watch him work. I got to be part of his work.

And he really treated me like a daughter.

I mean, like, made me breakfast, made me dinner.

[voice breaking] I mean, we used to fight, don't get me wrong.

I would sneak out the window, go clubbing,

they'd call and tell him I was in the nightclub.

He'd come down to the nightclub.

And before he would take me home he'd say, "You wore the outfit wrong,"

and he'd be fixing it.

And, "You should have put the belt like this and..."

[vocalizing]

And you know,

'cause you have to imagine the boutique was my closet.

What girl of 16-years-old

has an Alaïa shop as her closet?

[crying] When he passed away,

it was a shock to the system. [sniffling]

My life would have definitely been different without him.

He protected me in this business,

he guided me.

I mean, once, uh...

art director felt the need to tell me that he thought my breasts were perfect,

but he felt the need to have to touch them.

I called papa immediately,

I called papa right away and papa called him up

and read him.

Never came near me again.

It served that I opened my mouth and would speak my truth

because I believed that protected me,

as well as who I was surrounded by.

[indistinct chatter]

[man speaking French]

Hi, everybody.

- Hello. - Hello.

[man speaking French]

[woman, in French] In his fifties, Jean-Luc Brunel

allowed himself to be filmed during a casting in Florida.

It's his favorite exercise,

"chasing models"

as they say in the business.

Courtney Powell landed at the Karin Models agency in Paris.

"He started talking about sending me for a bathing suit campaign.

He told me that my measurements had to be perfect,

and that you have to have a certain look,

and he wanted me to pull up my shirt.

He started touching me."

Courtney says that she resisted him several times.

"From the moment I said no to Jean-Luc Brunel

I no longer got any work."

[Christy] I met Jean-Luc Brunel,

who's the infamous French agent

who was running Karin's agency in Paris at that time.

And they were like partners, the Fords and Karins.

I would go to Paris

and the Fords would have it set up that I would stay at Jean-Luc's apartment.

I think most of us are young.

You're put in an environment that you probably...

is completely new to you, right?

You know, you're overpowered by a older man

that's, like, going to guide your career.

You trust him.

You know, same old story.

[Christy] Nothing happened. Most of the time

he wasn't really even there.

I got angry at just looking back and thinking, like, survival sk--

Like I can't believe that I'm okay.

Nothing really surprises me about anybody.

I feel like even people you know,

you just don't know what they're capable of.

President of Elite Europe,

who coordinates the efforts of the Elite offices on the continent...

...Mr. Gérald Marie.

[applause]

I married my agent...

...Gérald Marie.

Who I thought was, like, so charming,

I liked how assertive he was.

[in French] When she has Elite on her back, the girl must be good.

If an Elite girl doesn't bring in $200-$250K a year

we won't keep her.

[Christy] She was only 22, she was young.

I never really saw him in New York.

And when I met Linda, she was already engaged to him.

[Linda] He really pushed me...

...to work, so much.

He... felt like a great guy.

He told me he was a German photographer's assistant.

- [chuckles] - And I thought he was obnoxious.

[woman laughing] But something happened!

And the next time I met him I found out he wasn't.

And I fell in love.

[woman] Aw, aww...

See, it's very good to be a German photographer assistant.

[woman laughs]

I just wanna live happily ever after, that's all.

[Linda] I lived in Paris about three years...

...and climbed the ladder slowly...

...before I felt like...

...I really made it,

I could start saving money.

I started working with really the top photographers.

But I wanted to be on a cover of Vogue.

Any Vogue, it was a dream for me.

I went on a trip with Peter Lindbergh.

Peter saw the androgynous side of me

and he really wanted me to cut my hair off.

He explained to me, "We already did so much with your long hair.

I think you really need to do this to go further."

I asked my mother what she thought.

She said, "But why? You'll be the only girl with short hair."

And I went, "Well, that's not a bad thing."

[Lindbergh] She just walked into the studio and said, "I'm ready now,

I want to cut my hair."

And then Julien, Julien who was her hair dresser,

just took her whole hair back, and said, "Is everybody okay?"

And she said "No, no," and she start crying, no?

And he took the scissors, and whap!

It was gone in one zip, no?

After that I went to Milano

to do the fashion shows

where I was booked for 20 shows.

As I was doing my fittings

and as they were seeing me,

they all started canceling me.

I only did four shows.

Done. [laughs]

And the next day,

instead of doing the shows,

Franca Sozzani put me on the Concorde to Steven,

who photographed me.

And, like, two weeks later...

...I'm on the cover of Italian Vogue.

And then, I was doing all the Vogues.

I was doing British Vogue,

French Vogue, Spanish Vogue,

American Vogue.

And this is, like, the moment I thought I made it,

after three years.

I think that's where I really gained confidence,

and it just kept going from there.

I think when you're a kid, you don't like anything that makes you different,

so having a beauty mark,

[chuckling] which I tried to call it, um...

You know, I didn't like it and my sisters would tease me that

a beauty mark is on this side,

that it's on the left side it's an ugly mark.

Then when I started modeling,

it was always a discussion.

"Like, should we cover it with makeup,

we can't really cover it with makeup 'cause it's not flat."

My first British Vogue cover, they retouched it off.

The jury was still out.

Richard Avedon,

the first time I worked with him was for my first American Vogue cover.

I'm a portrait photographer as well as a photographer of women.

And the clothes are elements that I can use for design,

as are the women, for form,

for a way of expressing, uh...

certain things, I feel.

Avedon is a legend among photographers,

a legend in the history of art,

within the history of photography.

[Charles Decaro] Richard Avedon's work has always been

what continues to resonate. He's the master.

One of the most famous photos in the world of Dovima with the elephants.

You've seen an Avedon before even if you don't recognize it.

[Cindy] With Avedon, it's a very different kind of energy.

It's not like click, click, click.

It's like, "Okay," and... click.

I think he liked that I was a good student of his.

[laughs] I paid attention.

He taught me how to, like, bring it.

For, like, that spark.

And it ended up that from that shoot, I got two covers.

August, and an October of 1986.

American Vogue left the mole on.

And that was it, it was never a discussion again.

'Cause, it was kind of like, the Vogue seal of approval.

If it's good enough for Vogue, it's good enough for everyone.

[Naomi] Let's talk about the structure of this issue.

When's this issue need to be ready to print?

What's our deadline?

- [woman] The end of February. - [Naomi] Perfect.

So, we're gonna to put Kehinde Wiley

'cause he's doing my portrait for the National Portrait Museum this year.

I love this, but I love this picture.

I love it, because we see Christy. You see Kate.

Bridget Hall.

Oh, my God, you see everybody

[indistinct murmuring]

I don't want this one. No.

We've got no models here.

[man] We got big sister Iman, I was gonna say, yeah.

I think Iman and Katoucha.

Yes!

And Farida.

[Naomi] I appreciate the work that Beverly Johnson, Iman,

Naomi Sims, Donyale Luna,

Gail O'Neill, Karen Alexander...

I appreciate the work of the ladies before me.

But I wanted to take it more,

I wanted to go further, I wanted to push the envelope.

I wanted what the white model was getting, I wanted it too.

So, in 1987,

I asked for my first Vogue cover.

It's like they don't know how to answer me, they don't know what to say.

And I felt a little awkward, and I felt a little shrunken,

like, I shouldn't have opened my mouth,

I'm not gonna get a yes.

[Enninful] There were so many restrictions

on what it meant to be a black model, and she had to really fight

a system that essentially said you had to be white

to succeed on the runway or in fashion magazines.

[indistinct chatter]

[Naomi] So, I was at the time working for Mr. Saint Laurent,

so I told them.

[Bethann Hardison] Mr. Saint Laurent had always been supporting

the idea that black models are valuable too.

[applause]

[Naomi] I didn't know what type of power Yves Saint Laurent had.

[woman, faintly] Bravo!

[Naomi] I didn't know that Yves would say something.

That is one of my best collections.

It was very hard to do,

and when it's hard to do, it's better. [chuckles]

And the next thing I knew, I was in New York

with Patrick Demarchelier.

I had no idea until it came out

that it was the first time a black person had been on the French Vogue cover.

I didn't look at it as breaking a barrier,

I just looked at it as,

"This can't stop here.

This just can't be the one token."

But then I shot my first American Vogue cover,

and I had no idea that it was for September

'cause, you know, I'm still...

What I did learn about the magazines in America was

February was Black month,

and every February on all the magazines

was a Black person.

That I knew. That I got.

But I hadn't realized that March and September were their big selling...

I was just going from job to job

and just living my life.

[Cindy] Once you're on the cover of American Vogue, especially then,

that was it. Like, then we started doing runway shows,

which was a new thing.

Back in the day, you were either a print model

or a runway model.

[Isaac Mizrahi] Fashion shows were like very quiet little affairs

and the only people attending were, you know, fashion executives,

people buying clothes and the fashion press and that was it.

[Linda] There was a shift when

the print girls started doing runway.

[applause]

[Tonne Goodman] When designers put all the girls on the runway,

it changed the caliber of a fashion show.

[Karl Lagerfeld] Now, the print girls you see in the magazines,

you have them in the shows,

so it's like seeing movie stars in the real.

[Cerf de Dudzeele] Everything was exciting!

The girl was exciting on the runway.

They were not walking like asparagus, "Boom, boom, boom, boom," you know?

[Suzy Menkes] These models were very strong in the way they strutted out.

They showed their personality. That was the whole point.

[Naomi] Most of the time I just looked straight ahead,

and think about walking straight, and putting a pleasant look on my face

and looking at people who I know, and going...

[Linda] I remember at one of the Versace fashion shows,

three photographers came backstage and they said, "Could we speak to you?"

And I thought I was in trouble.

And they showed me pictures of me,

and my eyes are down in all the pictures,

because I'm looking at the front row, and at my colleagues, my friends.

And they said, "Can you please look at us

when you get to the end of the runway?"

And I said, "I'm so sorry, of course."

So, when I looked up...

...I was like, "Whoa!"

[cameras clicking]

I couldn't believe how many photographers were there. I had no idea.

[Christy] The backstage vibe is very intense.

[Naomi] But we loved it that way.

We loved being hectic and the adrenaline.

Girls, standby on this side of the stage.

[Cindy] We all think, "Wow, I'm the only imposter here,"

like, I can pretend, "Oh, yes, I, I'll have that wine,"

or "Oh, Hermès, I love Hermès."

I didn't even know what Hermes was or whatever when I was a kid, right?

But you quickly learn to fit in and adapt.

[Naomi] Cindy was definitely the more serious,

but we knew how to get her to loosen and have fun.

Tequila.

[Mizrahi] The thing you have to love about these women

is that they didn't do this, kind of, fake bullshit,

kind of, walk, you know? They just had fun.

Nobody walked like Naomi.

She had a walk that basically said, "Get the fuck out of my way,

'cause I'm owning wherever I'm going."

[Mizrahi] I remember one show, my mother,

who is, like, the straightest, sort of, middle-aged woman.

At this point, she was probably in her mid-sixties.

After the show, she came up to me, she said,

"Darling, I would have sex with Naomi Campbell."

[faint chatter]

[Linda] The glory days!

But, remember, in those glory days...

...it wasn't perfect.

Because...

Because Naomi wasn't always booked to do the shows.

See, I didn't understand.

Naomi, I thought was more beautiful,

had a much more rockin' body than I did.

And a better strut.

And I'm, like, "Why aren't they booking her?"

[Enninful] When Naomi came, designers were still, you know...

"We only have one Black girl this season." It was that time.

"Black girls can only do shows in the summer.

Black girls can only wear the bright-colored clothes."

I said to them, "If you don't book her, you don't get me."

[Naomi] Linda and Christy absolutely put themselves on the line.

They stood by me, and they supported me.

And that's what kept me going.

[horns honking]

I would do all these great shows, wear all these beautiful dresses,

but then it would come time for the advertising,

and I would not be included.

And that used to really hurt me.

And then sometimes, I was booked just to appease me

or to make me think, "Okay, we're gonna use her."

Then I'd go to the shoot and sit there

from nine till six all day and not be used.

It made me more determined than ever.

Not to ever be treated that way, not to ever be put in that position again.

Can we hold a wall that Christy can lean against?

- [man] Um, yeah, totally. Black or white? - White.

[woman] We also have to do a Calvin Klein.

With the cube, you mean? It could just be the corner, maybe.

- [woman] Yeah, or just like... - [man] So she can lean...

Leaning. Yeah, I feel like...

[camera clicks]

Christy, can we try profile a little?

Like-- Yeah, beautiful. Calvin Klein vibe.

[woman] Very Calvin Klein. Classic.

[Christy] I worked for Calvin Klein for 33 years.

I was probably 17 or so when I first met Calvin Klein

and met the brand, doing fashion shows and things.

You know, it stood out for me, I think even as a younger teenager, um,

all the ads.

I knew Calvin Klein jeans and I knew Calvin Klein fragrances.

Obsession was a big deal.

[Calvin Klein] What you want to do is create excitement,

you want people to notice your ads,

your print ads, or your commercials.

In the kingdom of passion the ruler is obsession.

Calvin Klein's Obsession.

[male voice] Oh, the smell of it.

"Ah, the smell of it."

Now, when you hear, "Well, the smell of it,"

your mind goes right to a very specific place.

[Klein] I have an effect on society.

I mean, I can change attitudes.

I can make people feel a certain way.

He understood how to use the tools at the time,

You know, like, the billboards, the magazines,

to push his image in a very clean

but controversial way.

You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins?

Nothing.

He always wanted everything to be super erotic and sexy,

and everybody sleeping with everybody.

And then there was AIDS.

And they just wanted to chill

and they wanted to calm everything down.

So, he had this perfume called Eternity.

Which was about family.

And he signed up Christy as the face of Eternity.

[Christy] I have so many memories from that first Eternity campaign

in Martha's Vineyard.

The photos were shot by Bruce Weber.

It was really bonding and super fun.

[Bruce Weber] The sun's setting, the light's really beautiful.

Look at these girls' pictures, they have that desire.

The desire to stand alone and be somebody.

[Grace Coddington] Bruce Weber,

he really changed photography and fashion through his cameras.

He changed girls from that much more heavy makeup

to the more natural girl

that was healthy and just glowed.

[Christy] I made close to a million dollars a year on that contract.

I remember signing it, for some reason, at night at some law office

with my agents.

I didn't have my own lawyer.

I only had to work, like, a hundred days a year,

which is not a lot of work, really,

and, of course, I couldn't work for anybody else,

and I couldn't-- Not even editorials.

But the Eternity campaign had a certain kind of visibility

and so representing Calvin Klein

felt very much like the pinnacle of what was happening at that time.

[woman] Eternity, Calvin Klein.

[static, music playing]

[woman] Revlon new complexion make-up. Cindy--

[man speaking French]

[ad jingle playing]

[Cindy] As a model,

a cosmetic contract is the golden ticket.

It's, like, job security all of a sudden.

You're not waiting for like,

"Oh, I might get that campaign, I might not."

[David Letterman] Please welcome, the lovely Cindy Crawford.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

Hi, how are ya? Nice to see you. Thanks for being here.

[applause continues]

She has just now been named the spokesmodel for Revlon.

What does that mean? Free lipstick?

[laughter]

Yeah. And that, that and hopefully more freedom.

More freedom to do?

Anything I want.

[Cindy] Things were really happening, I was doing the right campaigns.

[man] Flex your hair and show off your body.

[ad jingle playing]

And then all of a sudden, in '88,

I was asked to do Playboy.

Everyone in my life at the time thought I shouldn't do Playboy.

My modeling agency didn't feel that that fit into,

you know, the type of jobs I should be doing.

I think the brand still had a connotation to it

that maybe scared some people off.

I understood the platform of Playboy and what that symbolized.

It was definitely outside the normal trajectory

for a Vogue model at the time.

The offer came through Herb Ritts, a photographer.

Herb Ritts was someone that I worked with a lot,

and I stayed at his house and we were very good friends.

[Herb Ritts] Part of what I do that's very important

is being able to suss something out, to be a diplomat of sorts.

So, you really have to be one-on-one with someone

and realize what they're about and try to get what you want.

I don't know. There was just something about it that intrigued me,

so against the advice of my agents, I said yes.

But I said, "You don't need to pay me a lot of money

as long as I can have the control of the images."

And I wanted the right to kill the story if I don't like it.

Herb and I combined it with another trip that we were doing

for French Vogue to Hawaii.

We would shoot a picture for French Vogue,

and we would shoot a picture for Playboy.

I mean, you almost couldn't tell which pictures were for French Vogue...

...and which pictures were for Playboy.

It was very organic, and...

I loved them.

That's the whole thing for me is

even if I make choices that other people disagree with or don't like,

if they're my decisions and I have control of it,

that's empowering to me, even if it's doing Playboy.

I never felt like a victim of that decision.

I don't feel like when I'm nude, that I'm nude.

It really depends who I'm shooting for.

I could feel totally clothed,

it's the concept and the way

when it's tastefully done you don't feel like you're nude.

Might have made people think,

"Oh, she really feels comfortable in her skin."

Not necessarily, I didn't.

Just because I was not thinking of me,

Naomi, showing myself,

I felt like I was in some other character.

So, I didn't necessarily feel like I was... [inhales]

I felt dressed, if you can believe that.

[Christy] I respect and admire people who can be comfortable in their bodies

and comfortable naked.

If I'm working with somebody that I trust,

and that I have respect for, and I understand their vision,

then I can take some risks.

If I can trust that person capturing it,

and I know what they see

and I know that my comfort is gonna make that image

that much more exciting, interesting, whatever,

then I can, kind of, go there.

But if that trust isn't there and there's this sense of well, you know,

like, [laughing] "Go!" "Do it!

You do your thing, I'm gonna capture it."

I can't do that,

like I can't, I can't just, like, do all my... the things.

That takes time and trust, like, for any camera.

[Cindy] Herb had the...

I just never once felt even remotely uncomfortable in front of his camera.

There we go, and yeah, there we go, that's it.

The thing I love about this, it's not about fashion.

Obviously, they're nude, but they were great friends

and all of a sudden, to just put them together

and have them knowing each other.

There's a great heart that comes when I look at that picture.

It's not overtly sexual at all.

There's a true soulfulness coming from these girls.

You can feel their eyes. It's really about their eyes and their looks.

[Cindy] It's such a Herb picture because we were naked but we weren't being sexy.

There was, like, a simplicity to being, you know, without clothes.

But we shot it with and without Christy

because Christy couldn't be in the Rolling Stone edition at the time.

I was working with Calvin and I couldn't do anything with anybody else,

so when Herb was like, "Just get in for a couple of shots,"

I realized that the desirability of having a model in a campaign

was because of all the things that you're seeing out there

and seeing somebody do interesting, more edgy kinds of things.

And then to kind of cut all that off,

I don't know, it just, kind of, wasn't that exciting anymore.

[Christy] All right. [chuckles]

- It is so long, Mom. - [mom] I know.

I had to come all the way from New York to cut your hair?

It's a little tricky with the mask, I gotta say, working around your ear.

[mom, laughing] I know. How short are you going?

[both laugh]

[mom] I was telling my friends this morning at coffee,

and I said, "Yeah, she cuts hair." I said, "Yes!

She used to cut even Oribe's hair."

[Christy] That's my claim to fame.

[mom] I know, and he let you.

[chuckles] A hairdresser.

[Erin] Maybe you should, um, do your hair short again.

[Christy] I think about it sometimes.

And then I'm like, it just takes so long to grow.

- [Erin] I liked it. I thought it was good. - [Christy] I do think about it sometimes.

Like, "That was a haircut."

[indistinct chatter]

[photographer] Christy, look this way, please. Beautiful.

[Christy] I realized that...

...I really hadn't been happy with the Calvin Klein contract.

It wasn't like a bad deal per se,

but I hadn't really gotten to a place of feeling burnt out or tired or anything.

I was, like, ready to go.

So, I sort of re-negotiated my deal with Calvin...

...by cutting my hair.

When we were cutting it, my friend Oribe cut it,

we were laughing and saying, "Oh, I'm gonna get in so much trouble,"

but I didn't really think I was gonna get into trouble.

But it definitely was not received well.

I think Calvin was really mad,

because when you have a contract, you have to continue that look.

So, to suddenly cut your hair off in the middle...

...was kind of a disaster.

[Christy] When I re-negotiated...

- I know, it's hard. It's hard. - It's also...

[Christy] ...I still was able to stay close to Calvin

and continue to work for Eternity and actually opened his show

the next season with my new haircut.

It was sort of the end of an era of those kinds of contracts

because they just didn't make sense.

Agencies have power,

and yet they behave like they don't have power.

They're supposed to be working for you.

Let's... I mean, like, let's be real, this is not about personalities

and, like, chemistry or, like, we're really a family.

This is, like, this is a business for you all,

and I never signed another contract with any other agency since.

[Klensch] This is Style and I'm Elsa Klensch

reporting on the design worlds of fashion, beauty, and decorating.

[Cindy] In the late 80s, there was an explosion of new media.

All of a sudden, there was cable television

and they needed more content.

We start with a story that's been hot since the spring fashion shows...

There was this new, kind of, interest in fashion that was brewing.

[Beker] Elsa Klensch was the first to look at style

as a true fashion insider.

[Klensch] Calvin Klein experimented with silhouettes.

It's all close to the body, they're very body-conscious clothes.

[Oldham] And that started changing everything.

[interviewer] People think of models, you know what the image of models is.

But obviously you must be bright if you're, you know--

What is the image of models? I'd like to know.

You mean, that we have, like, single digit IQs and stuff like that?

- I'm not saying that to you. - No, but I mean...

Before cable, large parts of America were really culture starved.

In a way, cable took what was going on

with that vibrant culture in New York City

and pushed it out by satellite

all over the country.

When we started MTV in the early 80s,

it was not only to play the hits,

it also exposed people to all sorts of new things

in the popular culture.

So, we said, "Let's do some more stuff on what's sort of coming up

as fashion from the streets.

Let's try for a new face, a new host.

MTV spokesperson for fashion."

[Cindy] Fashion still was primarily female,

and then all of a sudden, Playboy was, like, primarily guys,

it was a very different thing.

I, like, doubled my audience by doing that.

And those two things together led to MTV.

They wanted someone like a model or someone from fashion,

but they also wanted someone that had male fans.

That was like a 30 second pitch meeting. "Let's do it.

Can we get one on next week?"

[Cindy, on TV] Welcome to House of Style, I'm Cindy Crawford.

It's like my first big piece for MTV, right? I'm here by myself.

[Cindy] I had no training in broadcasting.

I'm gonna show, like, the whole look. So, you walk down the runway,

take the coat off.

[Cindy] It was bringing together music and fashion

and pop culture

and, like, putting it into, like, a mixing bowl.

And we didn't really care what came out.

Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford.

Welcome to House of Style, coming to you this time from Paris.

She would mine and create episodes

and bring in her friends and acquaintances,

people she knew from the business.

We don't like wearing clothes. No, that's a joke.

Naomi, behave yourself.

She began to incorporate designers.

The length is a little bit long.

We definitely took the pads out of the boob, too.

I'm one of the old models that has boobs.

It gave me an opportunity to talk

and I was able to bring a little bit more of myself

to my public persona.

It shows your little beauty mark.

That all felt very empowering to me.

That about wraps it up for this edition of House of Style.

I'm Cindy Crawford and I'll see you again real soon.

Bye.

[Cindy] British Vogue wanted Peter Lindbergh

to shoot a cover to represent

the new idea of beauty for the '90s.

And Peter said, "I can't do it with just one woman."

He reached out to me and to Cindy, Naomi, Linda and Tatjana.

We all worked together in various combinations a lot at that time,

so we all came just in our jeans and I remember being in Tribeca.

Peter always gets super excited when he shot and, like,

you know, "Ah, I'm so excited, so excited."

And I was also just out of my Calvin contract too.

So, just to be together as a group,

it just was so fun.

It wasn't about the fashion.

It wasn't about the hair and the makeup.

It was about the women.

[Kurt Loder] Welcome back to The Week in Rock.

George Michael has a new video just out for "Freedom! '90",

the second single off his latest album Listen Without Prejudice Volume One.

Once again, Michael himself has declined to actually appear in the clip.

Instead, he's delegated a flock of Elite and Ford agency fashion models

to do his lip syncing for him.

I made decisions a couple years ago

to change the way my career was going and my life was going...

...by not appearing in videos.

By not being interviewed.

By not doing press.

Basically, letting my music, kind of, do what it's gonna do.

We get this phone call that George Michael wants to shoot us in--

Wants us in his video.

George was like, "It has to be this group of women."

It had to be all of us.

So, we go talk.

"Are you doing this?" "Are you doing this?"

I wasn't interested initially at all,

because it wasn't fashion.

And at some point, we made a decision, like, a group decision.

I said, "I will do it."

- "I'm gonna do it!" - I said, "Yes, okay, I'll do it."

So, who's gonna tell George?

Basically, I'm in a nightclub in LA.

Roxbury's, actually, on Sunset.

And George is there. And he comes up to me and he says,

"So, what is it that you guys want?"

I said, "We want this much money and round trip Concorde tickets!"

He goes, "And that's it?" I said, "That's it."

[David Fincher] When George pitched me his idea,

he said, "What do you think about doing the entire video

with just amazing looking women lip syncing?"

So that he didn't have to.

And I said...

"Knock me over with a feather and throw a sheet over me,

that sounds like a great idea." [laughs]

["Freedom! '90" by George Michael playing]

[Linda] When I got to the set,

and they wanted me to lip sync,

I didn't know the words.

I had to learn them very quickly in the trailer

while they were doing my hair and makeup.

[lip-syncing] ♪ Heaven knows I was just a young boy ♪

♪ Didn't know what I wanted to be... ♪

I just remember it being super dark

and someone explaining to me that I was gonna be in a bathtub.

I was like, "Really?"

I felt like everyone else had a better part than me.

[lip-syncing] ♪ I won the race, got out of the place ♪

♪ Went back home, got a brand new face ♪

♪ For the boys at MTV... ♪

These girls knew how to position their faces.

They could find their light

and when we gave them a character,

they brought something to it.

[lip-syncing] ♪ Now I'm gonna get myself happy... ♪

They sucked you in.

My very first scene that I shot was

where you just see my eyes through, like, this cutout.

You see my mouth, then you see my eyes, you see my mouth, you see my eyes.

And anytime I dip down it's because I don't know the words yet.

[laughing] I'm not that great with lyrics.

[Naomi] We were not knowing the impact

that that video had at all.

We didn't have time to know because, honestly,

we were just jumping from next country to the next country.

[Donatella Versace] "Freedom" had just come out.

I was talking to Gianni and said,

"Why don't you get the girls?"

"The gorgeous girls on the runway?"

[Christy] We got there, saw our clothes, did our rehearsal.

And then the song came on.

And then it was like, "Oh, I get what you're doing." [laughs]

["Freedom! '90" by George Michael playing]

- [applause, cheering] - [cameras clicking]

[Menkes] You just can't imagine the excitement,

the energy, the sort of, madness

of when Gianni Versace

had all the supermodels together.

I mean, he really caught that moment.

[song continues]

[Donatella] Each one of them had this strong personality

and they're not afraid to show it.

The combination of fashion and their personality was magic.

[Menkes] It was a moment.

It was the moment of Gianni Versace

and the way he wanted to produce sexy women

who were also strong women.

[Cindy] This incredible song, this incredible designer,

the moment of the women singing the song.

It was just like it all came together.

[song continues]

[Christy] We could feel that moment.

That is a moment that you kind of knew would be iconic, actually.

[song continues]

Was like, "Okay, that's what a supermodel is."

[Linda] I didn't imagine that it was going to

catapult us to another level.

[Fincher] They were not like other people, they weren't just beautiful.

[Baron] They stand out, they were really becoming iconic

and, you know, memorable.

And important.

[Enninful] They became household names.

And I think that really solidified the supermodel.

We looked powerful,

and then we started believing that.

[kettle whistling]

[whistling fades]