Original subtitles

[outboard motor humming]

[groans] Kelly, can you... Don't drop her.

- Let's go. - [man] Naomi, do you mind if I just...

take a picture with you?

- [Naomi] I'm on a private visit. - [man] Oh, okay.

Thank you so much.

- Where are you from? - [man] Syria.

Okay, give me.

[man] What, my phone?

No way. Are you gonna? Really? Okay.

- [man] Sweet. - [chuckles] That's not good.

Don't worry, you look good.

[phone camera clicking]

- There you go. Thank you. - Awesome.

It's weird. That hasn't happened to me in months and months and months and...

Yeah, but I felt bad.

But I always want to say no, because my instant reaction is...

is, like... [chuckling] ...a paparazzi thing,

and they're not, they're nice people.

- [paparazzi man] Naomi! - [paparazzi man 2] Naomi! Naomi! Naomi!

- Naomi! Naomi! - Naomi! Naomi!

[people calling, overlapping]

[interviewer] Are you comfortable with all this press attention you're getting?

Um... I'm not used to it.

On a good day, we couldn't walk around.

Christy, you just signed a contract to become a spokesman for who is it?

- Yes. Maybelline Cosmetics. - Maybelline. Yeah.

You women have certainly become, like, the stars of the '90s, it seems.

People got to know our names because we were everywhere.

[men chattering]

Guys. Please, move back.

Guys, move it, or we'll stop. Let's give her some space.

It was insane! Like, we're not The Beatles.

[people cheering]

[Tim Blanks] Their power was the fact that they transcended anything.

Hopefully I'm gonna meet Prince tonight

because he wrote a song called "Cindy C" but I've never met him.

So, you have power, celebrity, and then the power of celebrity.

[Linda] In the same month that communism collapsed,

Naomi got the cover of Time.

[Naomi] People begin to realize that we're intelligent, that we're businesswomen

and we can take care of ourselves and our careers.

- I guess it's "Freedom" by George Michael? - George Michael video, yeah.

God, it would have been cheaper for George to get Sinatra to do the video

than all those models and everything.

We gave him a group rate.

- A group rate? - [crowd laughing, whooping]

[people cheering]

[Cindy] Fashion was the arena that made you famous,

but then it was like, your, kind of, celebrity took over.

If you guys would just keep calm,

I'll sign as fast as I can, I promise, okay?

But thanks so much for coming.

[people cheering]

[Joan Rivers] They're sexier than centerfolds.

They make more money in an hour than most actresses ever make for an entire film.

Who are they? Supermodels.

- [camera shutter clicks] - [flash battery whining]

[waves crashing]

[seagulls calling]

There's such a group right now,

there's, like, a cluster of us that people seem to know.

[laughing] It's warming up.

Being a model, I felt like I was becoming more,

or looking like more of a woman

than a teenage in between, bouncy-all-the-time model. [laughs]

I feel more womanly than I did-- than I used to.

[Linda] I had my stages.

Um, I went through some really awkward periods.

But I think, in all my travels and in this job, I learned a lot.

[Cindy] We looked powerful...

and then we kind of were like, "Mm, maybe we are powerful."

And we started owning that power.

Eventually, I got to start to choose who I wanted to work with.

[speaking, indistinct]

- Yeah. - You look so... No?

I wouldn't just, you know, be happy

that I was booked for the week or the month or the year.

It was like, "Well, what do I want to do most?"

And no, I don't want to just hold my time because it's Vogue.

Who's the photographer and who's the team?

[camera shutter clicking]

Once you know you can do that, that does start to make you feel like

you can be a active participant in your career.

They attained power, they really did.

They had power over the fashion industry. And everybody wanted them.

But these models were, like, really on every page.

When we launched Harper's Bazaar

to America, it was territorial.

Because it was a territory that Vogue owned.

At that point, Linda really was this kind of superstar

that embodied anything you wanted her to be.

So, for her to usher in in a different Harper's Bazaar,

she took on a different stature.

[Baron] She was the epitome of what fashion was about at that time.

She was like, "Enter the Era of Elegance."

[Goodman] And Bazaar rose to the occasion, absolutely.

And did give Vogue magazine a challenge.

I was so in demand, because I could move a product.

[people murmuring, chattering]

[Katy Soloman] Everyone in the fashion business, um,

in every single corner of the fashion business, is here.

There's the photographers, the models, the agents who are spotting the models.

There's the material people, I saw button people.

Then there's the real photographers who can't get in

'cause they don't have a pass.

[Musto] Fashion shows were real events.

This is A, B is there, excuse me, madam.

You wanted those invitations because there was so much glamour.

[woman] Hello, how are you?

[Musto] Everybody there was fabulous.

It was celebrities, it was fashion.

There's Julia Roberts, there's Leonardo DiCaprio.

["Everybody Everybody" by Black Box playing]

[Sante D'Orazio] If you didn't have those four girls in your show,

you were nothing.

[audience applauding, cheering]

They guaranteed coverage.

[female reporter] The Chanel Paris designer Karl Lagerfeld created...

Gianni Versace puts on a high-style, slick presentation.

Spring Paris designer Thierry Mugler

mixes fashion with his passion for theatrics.

[song continues]

[Valentino] All my big stars like Linda, Christy, Naomi.

All the big names in the... stardom fashion.

[Karl Lagerfeld] Linda, when she was young, was very, very beautiful

but she was even so beautiful that her beauty was lost on the runway.

Now she is really a strong personality.

Karl was so witty.

Not always politically correct, but...

...witty.

[Lagerfeld] I said very mean things about you.

- Really mean. - You wouldn't. You wouldn't.

How horrible you are to work with, all that.

How unpleasant.

- He's such a drag. - Always in a bad mood.

Always in a bad mood.

[crowd cheering]

[Gianni Versace] They are my actress, my...

The way I express my fashion through these women is simple heaven.

[song ends]

[Suzy Menkes] Gianni Versace was somebody who really opened up fashion

and showed things that had not been seen before.

But also, it was the way he showed them. Very sexual.

Molto italiano, if I said that right.

[Christy] He's the sexiest designer in Italy by far,

and it's the best show of the whole week in Italy as well,

so that's why I only showed up for this show.

[Naomi] He was very sensitive to feeling me, like...

I wouldn't have to say something, he would just come up and say it to me.

And I'd be like, "You're right."

[Linda, chuckles] Gianni wasn't afraid to embellish things.

It was like more is more, more is great.

It was always over the top and why not?

[applause, cheering]

[Naomi] I know my value.

If you want me to walk for you, you're gonna get your pictures,

I'm gonna get you press.

[Vivienne Westwood] I would give them everything I could afford

because there's nothing like them for selling the clothes,

they show the clothes, they feel the clothes.

[Westwood] Naomi, once she was wearing rubber stockings.

What happened is that the leg got stuck, and so she tipped.

[crowd exclaiming]

[applause, cheering]

[Naomi] Afterwards, designers asked me if I would fall for them.

And I was like,

- "Why would you want me to fall--?" - Why? Yeah.

- Press! "The press that you got." - Yes, I know.

And not surprisingly, their newfound fame has focused attention

on their power and mega salaries.

[female reporter] The cost of a single show in Paris can reach 170,000 dollars.

Topping the bill, modelling fees.

The House of Lanvin reportedly paid 20,000 dollars in fees

for top model Linda Evangelista for one show.

[Lagerfeld] You know the fees are high, but you get it back in a minute.

Because photographers photograph only those,

the runway photos make editorials all around the world.

I feel like eventually with a little bit more power, I'd be like,

"Okay, I want to work a lot with designers who I actually had a relationship with."

[Paul Cavaco] At that point, they really helped a lot of the young designers

go from being unknown to being known right away.

[Naomi] You got that opportunity when you were an unknown,

so you need to pass that on and do it to others.

[Christy] Marc Jacobs was a really good friend always,

and I worked with him from the very beginning.

Marc's brand made sense for the Perry Ellis brand,

in terms of, like, infusing some energy and excitement.

[applause, cheering]

I wasn't able to pay models to do my show.

I would call the agencies and I would ask them

if there were models that would be willing to do the show in trade for clothes.

And Christy was willing to do it.

And then the next season when we did a show, Christy asked Cindy.

Then there was Naomi and then there was Linda.

The attention just kind of grew. And it grew and grew and grew.

But it was-- It was all because of Christy.

[woman] Marc, how important is it having supermodels there to sell your line?

It is important because people recognize them as icons.

Those girls are incredibly beautiful.

They know how to wear clothes.

I'm really grateful that they do my show

and a lot of them are really... friends and stuff.

[Anna Sui] I was not really doing a fashion show at that point.

And I said, "Well, how can I do a show?" They said, "Well, we'll help you."

And Linda, Naomi, and Christy all got all the other girls

- and that was my first show. - [applause]

[Isaac Mizrahi] We really felt this thing that was happening.

I need Linda. Linda! Linda, Linda, Linda.

[Mizrahi] What was so great was that, you know, they were around the world.

And they would see things that we didn't necessarily see.

So, I would kind of rely on the reaction.

- How do you feel in that? - Like a princess. [laughs]

"Okay, she likes it, good, we're onto something here."

[Baron] They were part of the fabric of fashion.

So, that's why, you know, everyone was fighting to get them.

That's how important they became.

[indistinct chatter]

[John Galliano] I wanted to do a slightly more, like, salon presentation.

So, it was in a house.

It was run down, and we brought in a ton of leaves

and dry ice and lit the house from outside

so it looked like she'd left the house and was coming back.

[applause]

Suddenly, Christy, Linda...

They were walking down the stairs.

[whispering] And they were this close.

You could smell the parfum that Linda was wearing.

You could hear the rustle of Christy's taffeta skirt.

[Naomi] John would whisper in our ear before we went out,

"This is your storyline,

this is what your character is in the story,

so you go out with this energy."

I loved it.

[Galliano] To finally see the vision come to life

by these women who cared as much as I did,

and to be involved in that whole creative process with them

was just... the highlight of my creative career, I think.

[all applauding, cheering]

- [cell phone ringing] - Oh, Naomi.

Omi? Hi.

Yeah, I think I texted you on the wrong number again.

I don't know why I have you all mixed up everywhere.

We just got here yesterday morning and we went and did our fitting last night.

And then today, we've been just kind of out and about.

- [man] We're here. - [Christy] We're here!

[Christy] I definitely am not a dramatic person.

- [Christy] Thank you. - [woman] You're welcome.

- [Christy] Come back in. [laughs] - [man] All right.

- How are you? - [Christy] Good.

[Christy] It's something that I, you know, I...

I guess I haven't been consciously avoiding, it's just not me.

- Okay. - [woman] Okay, I'm right there.

- [Christy] I'm so excited. - I know, I'm so happy.

[Christy] There were plenty of others that were more dramatic

or just had bigger kinds of personalities,

and I just didn't feel like I could compete with any of that.

[spectators] Naomi! Naomi! Naomi! Naomi!

- [crowd clamoring] - [cameras clicking]

[fans screaming]

[Christy] On the stairs.

- [Naomi] That's just beautiful, right? - [Christy] It's so beautiful, yeah.

- [Naomi] He's amazing. - [Christy] And the music is amazing.

[Donna Karan] What I loved about the girls, they were a group.

And that's what was so fabulous.

They worked together.

["Good Beat" by Deee-Lite playing]

[Jacobs] These girls were way beyond models.

They had these lives, and everybody wanted to be them,

and they looked amazing, they were having fun

and they were being talked about all the time.

[Blanks] They transcended anything people thought fashion had been.

And crossed over into mass culture.

[Linda] They started seeing the three of us together all the time.

But I don't know who named us, "The Trinity."

I'm not sure where Trinity came from, I have to be honest.

[Michael Gross] Steven Meisel dubbed them "The Trinity"

and they became this, um, tornado of publicity.

[Blanks] Their friendship was a big part of their story.

We were like a family, you know?

We were together all the time.

It was a fabulous time in that way.

It was a dream, you know? It was really a dream.

We would go around in Oribe's jeep at night.

[car horn honking]

We liked going through the Meatpacking District.

We liked going on the West Side Highway.

The Voguers would teach us how to dance.

[Edward Enninful] I remember all the gay kids were losing it.

I remember, like, just dancing with Naomi, you know, telling Naomi how to walk.

"No, swing the bag, this is how you swing the bag!"

I'm like, "You're teaching Naomi Campbell?"

[muffled hip-hop playing]

[Musto] Voguing is named after Vogue Magazine.

And the scene really flourished in the '90s in Harlem.

And it was these disenfranchised Black and Hispanic kids

who were usually queer.

And they worshipped the stars of Vogue.

They worshiped Naomi, Linda, Christy.

And so they would go on that runway and do mo-- Supermodel realness.

- [man on PA] Vogue, Vogue, Vogue, Vogue. - [hip-hop music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Musto] That period on that runway was their moment of being a supermodel.

And I think, in turn, the supermodels were influenced.

[Linda] I really believe gay culture and the drag community

helped me flourish.

'Cause they're larger than life.

They're like what I want to be.

But bigger.

[chuckles] Bigger and better. And with confidence.

[woozy electro music playing]

It suddenly became a lot more mainstream and cool to be a drag queen.

This is still way before RuPaul's Drag Race

but RuPaul was this big star in the '90s.

She had her first wave of success with a hit single.

♪ I have one thing to say ♪

♪ You better work ♪

["Supermodel (You Better Work)" by RuPaul playing]

RuPaul is, like, everything.

[RuPaul] The whole life experience is about transformation.

It's like, uh, you know, becoming a butterfly.

He's, like, proof you can be anybody you want to be.

- [man] The holy Trinity. - [Naomi] When the song came out,

we played it and played it and played it and played it.

♪ Linda, work mama ♪

♪ Naomi, she is fierce ♪

♪ Christy, foxy lady ♪

♪ Cindy, I can feel it ♪

♪ I have one thing to say ♪

♪ Sashay, shante ♪

I was flattered. It was something unexpected.

It wasn't on my bucket list.

But now I have that, that's a major honor.

[overlapping chatter]

- This is flowing the whole time. - This is weird, I got a cramp.

[Linda] I celebrate all the great things that we got to do,

but it wasn't as glorious as one would think it was.

And there were some hardships.

Some really tough ones.

Yes, darling, have you been doing this for a long time?

[female reporter] The lucky man is Gérald Marie,

the 40-year-old co-owner of Europe's Elite modelling agency.

He dropped by Toronto's International Top Models,

with his gorgeous wife at his side.

I learned that maybe...

[sighs deeply]

...I was in the wrong relationship.

You have to have a lot of nerve, you have to be tough and strong.

In any job you have to be.

It's easier said than done to leave an abusive relationship.

I understand that concept 'cause I lived it.

If it was a matter of just saying, "I want a divorce, see ya..."

it doesn't work that way.

[voice trembling] He knew not to touch my face.

Not to touch the moneymaker, you know?

I married him when I was 22.

And I got out when I was 27.

And he let me out as long as he got everything.

But I was safe and I got my freedom.

When I found out that...

he's hurt many, many, many women...

he's violated many women...

[inhaling shakily]

[trembling sigh]

[crying] ...it broke my heart.

[TV reporter] Sixteen women have now given their accounts to the French authorities.

[announcer] Gérald Marie!

[TV reporter] And all of them say they were either raped

or sexually assaulted by Gérald Marie.

I knew I had to endure the abuse in order to continue working.

That was made very clear to me.

I was dependent on Marie for my food,

for my housing, and for my employment.

I was completely trapped.

I never, never told my story because I feared.

Thanks to the power of all these women coming forward.

Bless them, God bless all of them.

It gave me the courage, now, to speak.

[TV reporter] Gérald Marie's lawyer said he categorically denies the accusations

and claims the women are trying to frame him

as a scapegoat for an era that's now over.

I would love that justice be served.

I would love... for assholes like that to think twice,

and be afraid.

[sighing] And...

I would love women to know that they're not alone.

[bell clanging]

- [Naomi] That's collagen, ginseng. - [Cindy] Ginseng.

[Cindy] And you make tea out of this?

Yeah, I'm going to make some. I basically get a--

- [Cindy] Water? - [Naomi] Yeah.

- [Cindy] Or is that coffee? - [Naomi] No, it's water.

Let me make sure my hand...

We have a trust, it's a bond. That we just...

We don't even have to speak about it, it's just there.

I'm not going to say there was not any competition at all.

No, but with our... I would say with me and you...

With me and you, no.

For me, anyway, there was times where,

like, Naomi or Christy or Linda would do something and it--

I wasn't jealous that-- It was more like,

"Oh, I wish I would have done that," not "I wish they didn't do it."

Oh, "I wish I...", you know.

At the time, like, I wasn't in the thick of the fashion...

...with a capital "F," world.

[David Letterman] Ladies and gentlemen, here she is, Cindy Crawford.

[crowd cheering, whistling]

Look at this, right here. "The sexiest couple alive."

[Cindy laughs]

[Cindy] I think I was 22 when we met.

And in the beginning of a relationship, when you're a young woman, you're like,

[gasps] "You like baseball? I like baseball!"

"Oh, you're really into Tibetan Buddhism? I might be into that, I'll try that."

You know, you're willing to kind of mold yourself

around whoever you are, you know, in love with.

He was older so I just was, like, in a different circle

and not doing some of those same fashion-y things anymore.

[director] And action!

[breezy Pepsi jingle playing]

Is that a great new Pepsi can or what?

[music playing over loudspeaker]

And cut.

Pepsi was such an iconic American brand, it was a Super Bowl commercial.

[indistinct chatter]

That was a time in my career where I veered away

from, like, the high fashion elite,

and kind of, took more charge of my career.

[crew chattering]

[Tom Freston] She was sort of everywhere.

All the spokes of the popular culture, Cindy Crawford was turning up.

[Denis Leary] I want half-hour specials about Cindy.

I want hour-long rockumentaries about Cindy.

I want Cindy Unplugged, I want acoustic Cindy.

I want long drawn out, slow motion shots of Cindy walking, 24 hours a day.

If anyone reads this book, we can look exactly like you?

- Exactly. - Is that right?

People don't leave you alone, do they? They're all over you.

- They're bothering you all the time. - Sometimes, it's--

A little like this experience here tonight?

Well, the men fantasize the most about Cindy Crawford.

At the time, the most glamorous or would-be glamorous women in Hollywood

were really, really soft-pedaling all of that.

You had the most extraordinary beautiful women like Michelle Pfeiffer,

but they weren't being glamorous, you know?

If you were dressed too fabulously...

...or your hair was too amazing or whatever,

then people would say [clicks teeth], "Not a serious actress, no. Not serious."

I got invited to go to the Oscars with Richard.

I'm like, well, I mean, what do models do well?

We wear clothes well, I mean.

I better look good, like, that was kind of what my thinking was.

It's like, "I'm going to go to the Oscars, I better be a freaking supermodel."

I had just done a Versace show in Milan.

So I asked Gianni to make a dress for me.

[spectators clamoring]

[Cindy] So, when I showed up in that red dress,

I think it was a little like,

"Wow, fashion is back at the Oscars."

[people cheering, screaming]

[no audible dialogue]

Models are glamorous right now, when no one else...

A lot of people sort of shunned glamour for a while,

and then models still are glamorous because that's what we do.

The world was just thirsty for beauty and glamour and fashion.

Superstar models. They're the new glamour girls.

[Jeanne Beker] What that whole era made us realize too was the importance of image.

[Cindy] They're putting high heels on us, and it was like all of a sudden...

...we were the physical representations of power.

And I think where it gets tricky and hard to talk about

is that the implication is that some people don't fit that.

And then they're made to feel less beautiful.

[Harold Koda] You had the goddesses of the Trinity.

You know, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington.

It's very hard to approach that kind of perfected beauty.

It sort of set up an impossible ideal.

In mainstream media, the balance of power has shifted to advertisers.

The editors are under pressure to make a favorable climate for their advertisers.

This means that particularly the representation of women

is absolutely conditioned in our culture

by what the advertisers need the audience of women to care about.

Increasingly, the "beauty myth" is being used to make women feel

that their sense of self-worth as human beings

depends upon conforming to these stereotypes.

Now, those are very difficult things to negotiate with.

Impossible, I would say.

I don't want to seem to be part of the feminist group

that's constantly demeaning fashion magazines.

That ridiculous rhetoric that the fashion magazines

are there to give women low self-esteem.

I am a great supporter of the fashion industry

and I see the fashion magazines as artworks for the masses

and most people love to simply glory in the beauty and the color

of these magnificent pictorials.

[Mizrahi] One of the ways to look at this

is that these models took tropes about women,

and rather than be victims of them,

they made them icons.

It's like, you know, high heels are power, right?

Whereas if you talked to Gloria Steinem, you can't run in high heels.

And she's right, you know, she's right, but we're right too.

I mean, high heels are beautiful, and they make you look beautiful

and that's a kind of empowerment.

There was this feeling that models were strong

and had something to say to the world.

[interviewer] Are there models that you look up to?

Yes. Cindy Crawford.

I met Linda Evangelista, she is my idol.

[Christy] I think the phenomenon during those years

was kind of coming from a lot of different angles.

Because we were everywhere.

[woman on PA] We're really thrilled that Christy

could be part of the store event today.

[Christy] It just seemed to be a lot of attention.

But I would attribute that mostly to media.

[Beker] Hi, Linda, we, we won't bother you.

But we want to say that it's a treat seeing you, Linda.

We weren't seeing enough of you, but I know you're taking things easy,

that's why you weren't in eight million shows.

I did 40 shows in Europe.

- How many more shows do you want me to do? - Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

We want you to do each and every one of them.

[Christy] You just couldn't catch a break.

There were so many backstage photographers.

- Excuse me, could you go away? - Not now, please.

- Not right now. - No, not right now.

- I'm putting makeup on her. - [man] Okay.

- Can I have five minutes? - [man] Okay.

How many more pictures do we need of me in curlers, in rollers?

How many more pictures do we need of me putting my lipstick on?

It just progressed and it got worse and worse and worse.

- [man] Come on! - Come on! Bug off!

Bug off, I mean it.

[Cindy] It used to be very common, like, after a show,

you'd be changing back into your street clothes,

and hundreds of people would be pouring backstage.

And we were still in various states of undress.

That's it. Stop.

[Linda] At a certain point, I started hiring a bodyguard to shield me.

There was a point when I bought some spray paint.

And when we would start to get dressed, I would shake the can.

And if they didn't disperse,

I threatened to spray their lenses.

I just... I didn't want them photographing us women...

...with our clothes off.

And some people thought I was overreacting.

[Polly Mellen] The supermodels are supermodels.

They demand.

They demand the Concorde.

They demand their car and driver.

Some of them demand their chef.

Some of them, they demand their suite at the best hotels.

They don't stop making demands.

And we have spoiled them and turned them into the supermodels they are.

- I'm difficult, okay? - [man] I know you are.

[laughing]

[indistinct chatter]

[Sui] I just started, so it was very intimidating,

and they would come in the room,

they would make a bee-line for the Polaroid board and say,

"Oh, how come I'm only number eight? Like, who's number one?

How come she's number one? How come she's opening and I'm not opening?"

They knew their stuff and they knew where they stood.

Isaac, why do you always give me the flat shoes

and you always give Naomi Campbell the high heels?

You gave me slippers for my finale last season.

[Mizrahi] 'Cause you wouldn't take them.

[Donatella Versace] Before the runway or a photoshoot,

you know, they were spending so much time controlling

every little inch of the makeup, every little inch, you know,

look at themselves in the mirror.

- [hairdresser murmuring] - [Linda, indistinct]

Each one of them had this strong personality,

and were not afraid to show it.

I just had this big fight with him.

I'm not trying to be a bitch but really,

- you cannot fake the shoot. It's cheesy. - You're absolutely right, you're so right.

I mean, Naomi would let me have it if she didn't like her dress.

And if it meant I had to make one within 24 hours for the next day, I did.

What lips is it? The same color that Anna has?

[continues, indistinct]

[man murmuring]

[Naomi] It was hard to be an outspoken Black woman,

and I definitely got the cane for it, many times.

I left Ford and went to Elite.

John Casablancas took me to Revlon once

and said they wanted to sign me under contract.

But when they told me what they wanted to pay me,

I said no, in front of the whole room.

I said, "I get paid that in Tokyo in one day.

Why would I take that for a contract for a year?"

And my counterparts had told me what they were getting,

so they told me, "Don't you take anything less."

So, I was just like, "No, I don't want this, sorry."

So, John got very embarrassed and then decided to call me difficult.

And he then decided he was going to go to the press

and say I was difficult and that he fired me.

[John Casablancas] They're most of all selfish.

And they very, very quickly develop into monsters of egocentrism.

First of all, let's get this clear. Models cannot get fired.

We are self-employed.

Sponsored by our agencies.

Your previous agent was not very complimentary about you.

No, he was very undignified.

He got very nasty, which I personally felt

that it was just exploitation because he knows my name

will be printed in the paper and it will be a big press thing for Elite...

- Press for the agency. - But I have nothing to say to him.

I think his behavior was totally undignified.

That stigma of his words and his statement to the press

messed my work up for many, many years.

I've heard "crazy." I've heard "nightmare." I've heard "difficult."

I was called difficult because I opened my mouth. Period.

I don't know, I'll think about it. I can't promise because I'm not gonna...

[Naomi] I mean, some people call people bitches

when they're hardworking, opinionated and in control of their own career.

That's when I realized the pen could be poisonous.

That's when I realized.

I'm not the same person I was 30 years ago.

But... I just don't want to be known for that.

I don't want to be known as, "She's the model who said that quote."

What about the one that said "I won't get out of bed"?

- [Gross] That's Linda. - [woman] Linda.

[Rivers] What did she say?

"I will not get out of bed for less than 10,000 dollars a day."

I shouldn't have said that. I don't know. That quote-- that quote makes me crazy.

It makes me crazy. I don't even know how to address it anymore.

I said it, and, um...

around the world I've apologized for saying it.

I did say it.

[Linda] If a man said it,

it's acceptable to be proud of what you command.

[interviewer] Some people would say it was immoral

that you earn a million dollars a year.

I never gave a figure about how much money I make a year.

I provide a service and, I mean,

the people I'm working for make a hell of a lot more money than I do.

My fee is only a very small percentage

of what an advertising budget consists of.

It's not that high compared to what they have to spend on a campaign.

And you should see what they get back.

So there. [laughs]

[no audible dialogue]

[Cindy] Certain designers didn't like the fact that,

if after a show, it said,

"Cindy Crawford wearing this designer."

They didn't like that.

[chattering, indistinct]

Designers inevitably, started getting pissed off that their shows

were about the models and not about the clothes.

You know, "What about me?"

[photographer] Naomi, please can you look at me?

- Naomi, for me. - [photographer 2] Naomi, please.

Hello, good morning.

[indistinct chatter]

The model, unfortunately, they have to be controlled in this moment

because all the big star I think they went out with their head.

They don't know where they are anymore.

I think it's a new attitude because they became too tall, too big,

so it's good to take it down a little bit to Earth.

[Anna Wintour] I mean, the whole sort of supermodel thing, you know,

it got a little bit out of control with the kind of money they were being paid

and their supermodel status.

But obviously, like anything else, there's a sort of rejection against it

and you want something else.

[Beker] We drank them in and they were in their glory.

But then it was almost like too much.

["Backwater" by the Meat Puppets playing]

By midway through the '90s, the economy had shifted.

All of a sudden, it wasn't so tasteful

to demonstrate this conspicuous consumption.

To flaunt it.

[song continues]

[Enninful] It was a new reality, you know?

And it wasn't just about fashion, it was about music, it was a lifestyle.

[Linda] Oh, the grunge movement.

Oh, I got scared there.

I got scared I didn't belong.

It's so funny because I would be, like, slouched over for the picture,

and then they would, like, say, "Change film."

And they'd say, "Okay, relax." And I would be like...

[exhaling]

[chuckling] And I'd be, like, standing like...

You know, I found it very amusing.

I don't think that people want to show off the fact

that they have a lot of money, so although designer clothes are expensive,

I think there has to be a little bit more subdued.

[Christy] But I feel like probably for anyone on the cool side to be like,

"Oh, there's the end, supermodels in grunge, what is that?"

[laughs]

I'm not sure that fashion alone pushes the culture forward,

but I do think that it's kind of a sign post...

...that tells you where the culture is.

[hip-hop music playing]

[Afrika Bambaataa] It's the hip-hop culture.

So now you got rap, fashion, culture all together.

I mean, hip-hop was this unbelievable fashion influence from day one.

This was a whole different huge genre that took over the world.

[reporter] With his eye on the street, Karl takes a hip-hop beat.

[Lagerfeld] It has to reflect in a way the life of today of tomorrow.

If not, it doesn't say anything.

Music is really the thing where the fashion influence comes from today.

That brings the color, that brings everything.

The '90s was a sort of counteract to what had come before in fashion,

much more of a response to what was happening in society.

[people cheering]

[news reporter] Mister Gorbachev finally brought the curtain down

on the Soviet Union.

[cheering joyfully]

[Givhan] Model scouts were now roaming the streets

of these former Soviet areas

and, you know, looking for faces that, um,

you know, appealed to them and that captured their imagination.

The good students are the ones from Eastern European countries.

[man] The ones from East European? Why? 'Cause they're so ambitious?

Ambitious, hungry and they want to get out.

Money.

So that's started to bring white girls in, but skinny white girls,

girls with not necessarily personality or anything.

[announcer] Stay tuned for Elite Model Look of the Year.

We're going up to the microphone and then standing at the microphone,

saying your name and your country very clearly.

[Cindy] They could use 40 models coming out of, like, Eastern European countries

as opposed to ten big models they had to pay a lot of money to.

It was, like, cheaper to use 40 unknown models.

But in order to do that, everyone had to be the exact same size.

[Casablancas] Suddenly, we see all kinds of new models coming up,

including from my agency, so I like it.

I think that it gives a run for their money

to the ones who thought they had it all made.

[Hardison] It wasn't so much about race, it was just eradicating anything

that distracted from clothing, from the collection.

So, you got these girls.

It became just the moment and it became something that became a trend.

And designers as independent as they are,

as different as they all claim to be, and they are,

when a trend happens, it seems like they go right down the yellow brick road

and they're following each other.

What do you think this new look is, how would you describe it?

- They call them the waif, right? - [laughter]

[Cindy] These young girls, they have, like, stringy hair, no make-up,

kind of this blank expression into the camera.

- What does that mean for us? - I can do that! I can do it too.

It almost felt like a rejection of the supermodel

and everything we embodied.

[reporter] The waif look.

They're child-like, vulnerable and often small,

as much as six inches shorter than the usual runway model.

Among the new names is Shalom, there's 19-year-old Amber Valletta,

who doesn't want to be a supermodel.

And Kate Moss, also 19,

who's well on her way to becoming one but can't quite imagine it.

I don't think I'm the same thing as them.

They're different. They're just more sophisticated.

They're women and I'm not really a woman yet, I don't think.

[Baron] Kate Moss, when she came in the picture,

I think changed the game of the supermodel.

She was not beau-- super beautiful. She was shorter.

Her legs are crooked, her teeth are a little bit like, eh.

But just something touching about her.

There's a fragility that you wanted to get close to.

Kate is so wonderful, I mean, she's so waif-like.

And there's this whole new thing

of wanting to see a new image, a new face.

And Kate is just wonderful.

[Christy] We worked together doing advertising for Calvin.

And we did have this crossover, especially Naomi and I,

were really close with Kate.

She's five years younger than me, four years younger than Naomi,

but we also felt like that was another kind of cohort that also made sense.

And because of that, in a way, we felt a little bit more

still connected to that next generation.

[reporter] The undisputed supermodels are defensive

about reports they're being sidelined.

If you have a hockey team, you don't retire the whole team all at once.

You bring in rookies one at a time.

I mean, I'm... It's really nice to see these new girls.

[Linda] The question I hate the most,

"What are you going to do when you're too old?"

It's such a nasty question.

Do you want to be an actress?

Um, I don't think I want to go...

I know I won't go out there and pursue it.

It just seems like the natural thing to do to carry on,

'cause when this all comes to a halt, it's like what else do you do?

[Mary Hart] Cindy Crawford is the hands-down queen of the supermodels,

but can she be as big on the big screen as she is on magazine covers?

[woman] The world famous supermodel's first screen test is as a lawyer.

Do you have a problem with lawyers or something?

[woman] Marked for death by the Russian mob

in the thriller, Fair Game.

You know what they call a Florida cop in a three-piece suit?

No, what?

The defendant.

[both laughing]

[Cindy] I never had a master plan.

I think a lot of things were just my willingness

to take a chance and try something a little bit different.

- [man] Cut. End sticks on D. That's a cut. - [Cindy] Did we get it?

But there's been things that I've tried that haven't been successful.

[reporter] She's 29. It's a great time for her to transition

from modelling to acting because in a couple years

she'll be too old to do modeling.

[Cindy] I wasn't that upset they said I was a terrible actress,

but a female critic said that someone that looked like me

couldn't be a lawyer, and I was so offended.

[Cindy] I'm proud of myself for not being afraid of criticism...

...that I wouldn't try something new.

[people cheering, clamoring]

In the '90s, Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe had done very well.

And then there was the Fashion Cafe.

Naomi, Christy, Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson.

The brothers who were running it really wanted those four names...

[crowd cheering]

...to be attached to attract tourists to patronize the place.

[applause]

[Naomi] We have Asia, London, South Africa

and lots of countries that are very interested in having Fashion Cafe.

I think Italy already loves it and I think it's definitely going to be a success.

Wrong. It was a terrible idea.

Fashion is not known, sadly enough, for encouraging a lot of eating.

There was a definite parallel between Giuliani sanitizing New York

and the corporatization of the fashion industry.

Dream with me of a city that can be better than the way it is now.

[horn blaring]

[Musto] Just like mom-and-pop stores started fading away,

the same thing happened in fashion.

Everything became slick and shiny and big.

Seeing the commercialization

in the late '90s, just showed you

that fashion became more and more democratized.

[news reporter] Wherever you live in the world,

as long as you can access the internet, you can place an order.

[Kors] So, we started seeing everyone come in

and want a piece of the fashion pie.

Fashion now is so much more of a business.

It's all about being global.

[Klein] This is a perfect example of how we take something

that maybe starts in the United States

and expand it around the world.

You know, the word globalization didn't exist 30 years ago.

For me it's okay, I must be an opportunist.

[Freston] You know, it was television.

Which was much more widespread and impactful.

You know where to find me.

[Givhan] When Isaac Mizrahi collaborates with Target,

it's a very different universe.

[Beker] You know, get rid of the elitism and the snobbery,

and, you know, make it accessible to everyone,

it lost a lot of its specialness.

It wasn't a rarefied world anymore.

[Versace] I try all the time to put out of me,

what I think, what is my philosophy in fashion.

I try all the time to understand the age, the people,

who I wear, who I live with.

[Katie Couric] You're looking at a live picture of the scene

at the Miami Beach home of Gianni Versace.

[reporter] Fashion designer Gianni Versace has been shot dead

outside his villa on the Ocean Drive.

Mr. Versace, of course, one of the world's top fashion designers.

[Cindy] I remember, actually, I was in Rome at the time,

so, I was actually sitting with Mr. Valentino

in his office when we got the news.

[Christy] I was in California when I heard.

I, you know, saw the news.

[Couric] As you can see, Versace's home remains a crime scene this morning.

[Couric] How did you learn of his death?

Um, yesterday I was driving to Rome

to go to work for Gianni and, um... [sniffles]

I was driving to Rome to meet Donatella and Santos

and the whole team for rehearsal.

And I got a phone call ten minutes before I got to Rome.

And I didn't believe it.

So, I got out the car and stopped the car and then I got back in the car

and someone called me and said it wasn't true, it was a mistake.

And then when I got there and I saw Donatella...

You know, so...

[Couric] You found out it was in fact true.

Yeah.

It was just...

I can't tell you the shock.

It was like everything starts ringing in your ears and it's just awful.

And then we get closer and closer to the Hotel de la Ville.

I cannot get into the hotel because there's crowds

and thousands of people are outside the hotel,

so I have to climb up the laundry shaft to get into the hotel.

Gianni Versace was a fashion revolutionary.

He unleashed the beast in fashion in a way.

Gianni decided to treat us like human beings,

women with different personalities and he let our personalities shine through.

And he really celebrated us.

He kind of understood the synergy of, like, raising everybody up.

So, he wasn't at all afraid of allowing us to also shine.

[Cavaco] Gianni Versace was gone.

And I think that that kind of sort of ended that supermodel era.

[Versace] It's "Not be afraid of what you are,"

that's the Versace key.

From when I start, I always say, "Be yourself."

It's the only fashion you can wear, it's you.

[Christy] I think I really wanted to have the freedom to be something else.

[Naomi] People feel like we don't hurt, and we don't cry, we don't get sad.

None of that's true, it's all a myth.

[Linda] So, I'm the supermodel, right?

But I'm not super human.