It used to be that landing an endorsement deal or a walk-on role in a B-level flick was the best that models could hope for once their runway days were over. No longer. A batch of entrepreneurial models who rose to fame before the millennium continue to reinvent themselves.
With careers as divergent as their personalities, Kim Alexis, Tyra Banks, Helena Christensen and Heidi Klum have been developing multiple vocations. But they are far from the only opportunists. When Janice Dickinson was approached for this article, her frontwoman had one question, “Is there any pay or is it self-publicity?”
Forthcoming as they were about their plans and their prospects, Alexis and Christensen were the only ones willing to address the ongoing controversy about Madrid banning underweight models from its runway shows. Alexis said, “It is about time that someone recognizes that too thin is not sexy. Banning is extreme, but effective, and will make a positive statement on health over looks.”
Christensen said, in some instances, the responsibility falls to mothers and agents, who should tell an aspiring model “very early on that her body just isn’t the right type for this industry and that it would be wrong and unhealthy to try to change it.” Should an agency sign her, the company should “be sure to support the [girl] 100 percent with any weight issues, follow her diet and eating habits and build up her self-confidence, so she can deal with the pressures of the business.”
“Many of the girls who end up having weight issues usually come into the modeling industry with very low self-confidence and very little support from their family. If an agency decides to employ a girl, it is their full responsibility to make sure she is healthy, physically and mentally,” said Christensen.
In addition to the Madrid controversy, here’s what the models had to say on a host of other topics, ranging from the highlights of their modeling careers to their latest entrepreneurial endeavors:
Kim Alexis, motivational speaker, author, TV personality, seven-time marathoner
What’s new?: “I’ve been speaking [publicly] for the last five years. Now I’m interested in getting my ideas presented in different ways: books, TV shows, a magazine concept. My message is to encourage women. At 46, I’m running my eighth marathon in New York this fall for Team for Kids, which helps schools set goals. Women my age ask, ‘Is it OK for me to have a life now?’ I’ve just sent my son off to college. I want them to know you’re so much more beyond the mother of your children.”
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Who were some of your favorite designers to model for?: “Azzedine Alaïa, Perry Ellis, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.”
Do you have a favorite runway moment?: “A few years before Perry Ellis died, he had Kelly Emberg, Nancy Donohue and me go down the runway together being light, carefree and young versus the untouchable girl.”
Is there one you would like to forget?: “I had gone over to Italy and tried to get fitted for a dress, and the designer canceled me. He said I was too big. In high school, I swam five-and-a-half hours a day.”
Models today need to be more … : “Professional and conscientious. I’ve heard over and over again they do what they want to do. They sit in their clothes and wrinkle them. They scratch their head, and someone needs to redo their hair.”
Who had the best parties?: “I didn’t do a ton of that. I found I was happy to wake up the next day and say, ‘I feel good about myself.’ But the first night I came to New York, I took my shoes off while dancing at Xenon and stepped on some glass and ended up fainting into my dad’s arms. I was all in white, and he was in white, and there was blood everywhere. People said years later they thought I’d had a drug overdose, but I was like, no, I was dancing barefoot.”
Big break: “I was taking college courses and planned to go to [the University of Rhode Island] to study pharmaceuticals. I was really into sports and played the clarinet. I didn’t know how to pluck my eyebrows or do my makeup. This [local] modeling school wanted to send pictures of me to one in New York. I kept saying, ‘No, I don’t want to be a model.'”
Tyra Banks, creator, host and executive producer of “America’s Next Top Model” and creator, host and producer of “The Tyra Banks Show”
What’s new?: “I have five television shows in active development and a feature film with Nickelodeon Movies being produced with Wendy Finerman. Her feature film credits include ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Forrest Gump.’ ‘ANTM’ is in its seventh cycle, and there will be even more celebrity guests for the second season of ‘The Tyra Banks Show.'”
Who were some of your favorite designers to model for?: “Christian Dior fashion shows were always exciting for me. The designs were so over-the-top and absolutely glamorous when Gianfranco Ferré was designing, during my days in Paris.”
Memorable runway show: “The Yves Saint Laurent shows were incredible, when I was modeling. Yves Saint Laurent himself was actually still designing, and he would book us all day for a fitting. He wanted to see a complete vision, so he’d have us all in full hair and makeup — all for just a fitting! [Those] bright-red lips, those tight chignons…we’d wait around in our white robes. It was old-school artistic couture. I can still remember the smell of the lipstick, like crushed red rose petals.”
Do you have a favorite runway moment?: “The Anne Klein fashion show — Louis Dell’Olio was designing — where I was given a full-length black crocheted dress to wear down the runway. I remember slinking down the runway like a cat and getting a huge ovation. My mom was so proud.”
Is there one you would like to forget?: “An Isaac Mizrahi fashion show where I got into so much trouble for swinging my cape too much — Isaac yelled at me for going overboard. But what Isaac didn’t know was that the guy who stands with the model right before she goes onto the runway told me, ‘Tyra, you better swing that cape like I know only you can!’ The guy saw Isaac digging into me, but kept mum. So did I. I took the fall for that guy. But CNN’s ‘Style With Elsa Klensch’ ended up using that footage of me swinging that Mizrahi cape at the top of her style show for years!”
Who had the best parties?: “I never went to the parties. I went to work and then went home. I always had my eye on business, not fun.”
What was the funniest or strangest thing you saw backstage?: “The craziest behind-the-scenes spectacles were at Thierry Mugler shows. It was like a circus of freaks and flavor — absolutely over-the-top wild.”
What was your big break?: “My big break was when I first moved to Paris and booked 25 shows: Chanel, Dior, Lagerfeld, YSL. It was the first time in history any model had done that. It was incredible.”
Helena Christensen, photographer, co-owner of Butik, a TriBeCa boutique, and co-designer of its new clothing line
What’s new?: “I just got back from a small exhibition of my photos in Tokyo, and I’m working on a big show opening at the Locust gallery in Rotterdam at the end of November. So far, we’re not planning any other Butik stores, but you never know. We just presented our own clothing line, Christensen and Sigersen.”
Who were some of your favorite designers to model for?: “Always Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, because the clothes were beautiful and he is exciting. Also, it felt very special to be working for one of the most legendary houses in fashion history.”
Do you have a favorite runway moment?: “I did a Thierry Mugler show once where a big porn star was walking on the catwalk before me. When I started to walk, he came back, pulling off his pants and showing off. Well, the reason he was such a big porn star…well, it was an odd sight to look at strutting up there.”
Is there one you would like to forget?: “The one where I fainted in the final lineup because my corset was extremely tight and it was 104 degrees.”
Who had the best parties?: “Versace had some pretty decadent soirees…and Galliano! But the girls had their own best parties, really.”
What was the funniest or strangest thing you ever saw at a show or backstage?: “Oh dear, just about everything was rather strange. Most of it has been erased from my memory. There was too much to remember.”
What was your big break?: “Meeting Peter Lindbergh and Lagerfeld the first week I was in Paris…and probably Herb Ritts directing me in the ‘Wicked Games’ video.”
Today’s models need to be more … : “Can’t finish that one. The ones I know are very cool and so beautiful. No complaints there.”
Heidi Klum, producer and host of “Project Runway” and “Germany’s Next Top Model,” jewelry designer
What’s new?: “It feels like so much is new all the time. We had the ‘Project Runway’ finale during fashion week, and I’ve started having meetings with my German TV show, ‘Germany’s Next Top Model,’ [which] starts shooting next year. We are on our second season, and it’s been a great success in Germany. I’ve designed an exclusive jewelry collection for QVC called the Heidi Klum Collection for Mouawad and was on QVC earlier last month to introduce that. Being at home with the kids is wonderful. Trying to teach them everything from potty training to ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ — it’s a lot of work, patience and fun.”
Who were some of your favorite designers to model for?: “I have a lot of favorites, but, really, it depends on the occasion. I wore Michael Kors for the Emmys this year; for CFDA, I wore J.Mendel. On ‘Project Runway’ this season, I wore everyone from Donna Karan and Catherine Malandrino to Roberto Cavalli and Zac Posen.”
Do you have a favorite runway moment?: “My favorite runway moment was during last year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show when my husband [Seal] was performing ‘Love’s Divine,’ as I walked the runway in angel wings that had megawatt lights on them, as well as on the bra and panties — it was fabulous!”
A show you’d like to forget: “When you are on the runway, all you want is for it to be perfect. I remember slipping badly and almost falling at the Millennium Fashion Show in Times Square. I just caught myself.”
Who had the best parties?: “I am not big on the party circuit. I’m more the type to chill with friends at dinner. I do remember, though, when I first came to New York being dragged to the Tunnel, watching people dance in nothing but a G-string in these cages … then being dragged to the Vault, watching things that I can’t even repeat.”
What was your big break?: “Signing with Victoria’s Secret was a big break in my career. I got a ton of visibility from the campaigns, which they started using me in right away and walking in the fashion show. Right around the same time, getting the cover of Sports Illustrated Swim and all the press that surrounded it, that helped raise my profile as well. This was the beginning, so it was a big break, but everything after that up to this day is still important.”
Today’s models need to be more … : “Nah, I’m a live-and-let-live girl.”