In the latest issue of Italian glossy “A” (left), which hits newsstands across the country tomorrow, supermodel Eva Herzigova provides an exclusive interview with Claudio Castellacci as she talks about everything from Gianni Versace to Stanley Kubrick. The 35-year old Czech beauty, who shot to fame in the early 1990s with the release of that infamous Wonderbra advert, was instrumental in shaping the very definition of the word ’supermodel’, and in fact claims that ‘the era of young girls without a real job, such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, is over. The wheel is turning back in favour of supermodels.’ Eva’s success as a model is as incredible now as it was in those early Wonderbra days, and her face is featured in high-end adverts from Louis Vuitton to Dom Perignon. ‘Today, thanks to advertising campaigns such as these, I am featured in over 200 magazines contemporaneously, maybe even more.’

And what about the dreaded competition from other actresses?

As I said, it’s not a competition but a wheel that turns. There is always a muse, a star that people want in a particular ‘historic’ moment in time: in the 90s, it was us supermodels.

Yes, it was the era of Gianni Versace, of his revolutionary intuitions such as the miniskirt, which he relaunched in his Versus collection with those foreseeing adverts featuring Carla Bruni.

With Gianni Versace, models became identifiable, they had a name, everything was known about their private lives, who they lived with and who they went out with, the places they frequented. They became an object of desire. Before then, models were merely seen as living mannequins of which nothing was known, not even their names, aside from those of the very big such as Twiggy or Veruschka. From the 60s up until almost the 80s, models would even specialize in a specific ‘field’–those who walked the catwalks would not be featured in magazines. There would be those that specialized in fashion and those in beauty. But then everything changed and models became multitaskers, they needed to be able to do everything from walk on the runways to model for fashion shoots.

And then, as you said, the wheel turned.

Exactly, it became the era of singers, and then actresses, and then of the various Paris Hiltons and Lindsay Lohans, to name but a pair. But now back are the supermodels. Why? I think because, in certain ways, more and more women are identifying with a mature image, with the woman who has found her place in society and her independence. And this means that there are no longer limits to a model’s age, nor the fear that once you reach 25, if not 20, everyone turns around and says: many thanks, arrivederci. Today, a large portion of campaigns, I would say well over 80%, feature models that are over 30. And for me that is just fine.

In ‘A’ just over a week ago, we were discussing the fact that according to Kate Moss, being a model damages the brain; according to Claudia Schiffer, top models are a specie that is going into extinction; for Ryan Schinman, one of the biggest global agents, the historic supermodels–the ones that dominated the 80s and 90s–despite their ‘advanced’ age, earn (much) more than before. What do you think, can you become stupid by being a model?

Well, perhaps Kate Moss’ phrase was taken out of context; perhaps she meant something else; perhaps…(she pauses, smiles, keeps smiling as not even a diplomat at the United Nations would be able to do. And she avoids the question anticipating the next one). Yes it’s true that the top models of the 80s and 90s earn more than before. I can’t talk about the 80s because I wasn’t on the scene, I began right at the very end of that decade. What I can say for sure is that in the 90s, in general, more money was pouring into the fashion world, creating more opportunities. It’s on these opportunities that we today can capitalize upon.

That goes for both you as models as well as for the brands themselves, especially global luxury brands.

Yes, because the top models of that period are still recognized, they have a global appeal. That’s because, in those years, the large fashion labels and the big beauty brands would focus on just one face to invade the entire world. Thanks to that strategy, you would become the ‘girl of the cover next door’ overnight, from Dubai to Hong Kong, from Copenhagen to Canberra. Today it’s different. Today marketing commands. Market research demands that in Asia, an Asian model is featured, in America a movie star. And in Europe, the market becomes even more fragmented, so that in Italy one selects an Italian model, in France a French, and so on. Consequently, the fees paid to these models become ever smaller, because the budget becomes sliced into smaller, more ‘niche’ pieces.

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