Art & Hue presents Supermodels

30 years of Supermodels

Art & Hue presents Supermodels, stylish pop art illustrations of iconic cover girls, available in three sizes and 20 colour options.

These minimal stylised graphic illustrations feature the fabulous supermodels that brought style from the pages of fashion magazines into popular culture.

30 years ago, five fashion models were photographed on the streets of New York by the visionary photographer Peter Lindbergh.

That 1989 image became the cover of the January 1990 issue of British Vogue and heralded the birth of the supermodel.

The five models on the iconic cover were seen by George Michael who asked them to appear in the video for “Freedom 90” and introduced “the supers” to MTV audiences globally.

Nicknamed Supermodels, these were fashion Superstars who became known by the first names – Linda, Naomi, Christy, Cindy, & Tatjana.

The “big five” became household names quickly and provided much needed style to a public starved of glamour, particularly since Dynasty with Joan Collins had come to an end in 1989.

Like a stylish soap opera, opening each new edition of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar became like tuning in for the next dramatic episode – what would these incredible women be doing and wearing next?

It’s a testament to their rapid success that the supermodels appeared in a car advert by 1993, not typically a progressive format.

Whilst it’s clear the supermodels lived and loved fashion, and were professionally invested in making each catwalk show a triumph for the designer, they also fought for equality and inclusion.

Linda may have joked that the supermodels “don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day” but it illustrates the determination of the models campaigning to be paid appropriately for the success they helped bring to the fashion houses.

Linda & Christy championed diversity when they told certain designers that if they wanted to have them in their show, they had to book Naomi too.

Thanks to the supermodels, the world’s attention was drawn to fashion, arguably more than ever before or since, and new models came to the fore, including the Bardot-esque Claudia, the versatile Amber Valleta, and the atypical Kate.

Not since Twiggy perhaps had fashion models became known so widely by their first names but by the end of the 90s, before fashion covers became dominated by film & TV stars, pretty much everyone knew who the supermodels were, superstars who had achieved success and recognition on their own terms.

This collection of eight pop art illustrations features Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Kate, Claudia, and Amber Valletta, who have been given the Art & Hue treatment in this group of stylish graphic illustrations.

Obviously there are many, many more iconic fashion models of the supermodel era, including Shalom, Nadja, Karen, Stella, Yasmeen, Nadège, Eva, Carla, Helena, Estelle, Kristen, Jenny, Yasmin, Georgina, Erin, Rosemary, Gail, Alek, and Stephanie, to name a very few, so this edit of eight is purely subjective – a personal selection of eight models who leapt from the pages of fashion magazines into the public’s perception, and other fields, and who are still modelling 30 years on.

Exclusively by Art & Hue, all pop art prints are printed on museum-quality archival card of 310gsm, made from 100% cotton, using fine-art pigment inks for longevity.

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