2015 was rife with nineties nostalgia and it seems that 2016 will be no different as Balmain have announced their models for their new campaign and we are very excited. Forget the modern day Insta-models, the Gigi Hadid’s and the Kendall Jenners, it’s all about the nineties supermodels who wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. Yes, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer are all reported to have landed the Balmain campaign. Or should that be, Balmain landed them?
Released through Instagram to Olivier Rousteing’s two million followers with the hashtag #thisisHISTORY, the campaign is for the Spring/Summer 2016 line. The campaign was shot in black and white by legendary photographer Steven Klein and sees the iconic models showing the new generation of models how it’s done. The designer told Vogue US that the campaign marked a new chapter for the brand which will see it go back to its roots. ‘I felt like I was dreaming as I was watching the photo shoot, because I knew it was going to be something iconic that I would never forget… You realise working with them; it’s another way than working with the models of today. They know so much about themselves. Their career is so strong. They know their bodies so well. They move at the same time that the camera is moving. Steven knows them so well, so it was such a good synergy’.
Looking like they’ve stepped straight off a photoshoot in the nineties, their looks are iconic and dare I say, filled with much more personality than we see in today’s models. The term ‘supermodel’ has been around since the late 1800s but it was in the nineties that Karl Lagerfeld laid down the law by declaring that supermodels were more glamorous than movie stars. In the mid-90s, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington became known as the Big Five, later joined by Kate Moss to become the Big Six. It is thought that the power and influence of the Big Six was so great, that eventually the fashion designers and editors grew weary (or threatened?) by their power and vowed never to let another small group of models wield such power and influence. Now that, my friends, is power.
It is safe to say that these ladies were the definition of supermodels, and they won’t be fighting anyone for that crown any time soon.
all images belong to Balmain
feature image Peter Lindbergh/Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery
