Models Who Make The Moment and The Names You Have Forgotten.

Models who make the moment and models who’s name you have forgotten.

By: Zsófi Benyi

Flip up the Vogue cover in 2009 May celebrating the month of the Met, embodying fashion where the Model is Muse. Today, ten new superstars are gracing the 2023 May issue honoring Karl Lagerfeld and his unparalleled artistry. If I think of the nineties: I can hear the iconic notes of Freedom by George Michael and THE supermodels singing in spring dresses pressing out the Versace Runway. If we say the word fashion today, the Hadids, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber and Hailey Bieber are the number one names to come to mind as every second show we glance at, every other campaign at your bus stop will face you with them.

What about the rest of the nineties supers who made the decade big but missed the most iconic music video and the 100th anniversary Vogue cover? What about the 2000s babies and models today with great talent but less famous upbringings?

Ask Anna Wintour, and she will confirm: the best catwalk beside Naomi Campbell belongs to Shalom Harlow, aka Miss Saucy, who took over Amber Valletta in the infamous 1995 Todd Oldham show. Speaking of Amber Valetta, not part of the famous five, now sustainably editor of British Vogue served more iconic moments than one could count. The haircut from the 1993 Vogue cover, wearing the dress in history that took the longest to make, rocking the most famous Versace Jungle Dress for the first time (before JLo broke the internet in that same dress), and starting the trend of dressing big for the Met Gala when she turned up as Marie Antoinette.

Just a gentle reminder that to know fashion and any decade, you will need to remember more than five famous names. Take the Vogue cover of May 2023: Anok Yai, Shalom Harlow, Kendall Jenner, Liu Wen, Adut Akech, Natalia Vodianova, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Gigi Hadid, Devon Aoki. Hopefully, there are new names that do not ring a bell: fashion and any decade in fashion are not just five supermodels, it’s many incredible faces and forces to reckon with.