Modeling Journey

The late Francesco Scavullo's name is synonymous with the seductive, head to toe all out glamour that was represented by the quintessential Cosmo girl. Over a thirty year period beginning in 1965, Scavullo captured the essence of the Cosmo girl as a sensuous, confident and sexually liberated woman. During this period, Scavullo together with his long time companion and stylist Sean M. Byrnes, was responsible for the selection of the model, the cleavage revealing outfits, make up and hairstyles that would eventually appear on the cover. Every model wanted to be a Cosmo girl and the Cosmopolitan cover was accompanied by a model profile and interview which provided  an insight into the personality and life of the cover model. Scavullo's stable of beauties included Lauren Hutton, Naomi Sims, Brooke Shields, Gia Carangi, Janice Dickinson and Christie Brinkley. I have many Cosmopolitan covers in my collection and the following selection is a chronicle of some of the most influential models of our time.  

The late eighties and early nineties was the era of the supermodel. Models of the day were muses, and had long-standing collaborative relationships with photographers, designers, stylists, and hair and make-up artists alike. Photographers such as Francesco Scavullo, Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Steven Meisel, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier and Arthur Elgort, created imagery which encapsulated the individual spirit and personalities of a select group of women. The career trajectories of Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymour, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer span over two decades, and indeed many continue to model to this day. The following iconic images are amongst my favourites.