Claudia Schiffer made history as a top model and Lagerfeld muse. Now she is celebrating her 50th birthday.
Claudia Schiffer (50) has been in the flash since she was discovered in 1987. And yet the model, who celebrates her 50th birthday on August 25, manages to lead a withdrawn, almost mysterious life. With her husband, film producer Matthew Vaughn (49, "Kingsman: The Secret Service"), and their three children Caspar (born 2003), Clementine (born 2004) and Cosima (born 2010), she has it all Great Britain, adopted home, made comfortable. The model scepter, which Schiffer held firmly in his hand for years, has been passed on to a new generation.
The model follows Karl Lagerfeld's advice
Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford (54), Kate Moss (46), Naomi Campbell (50): They are all firmly connected to the fashion scene of the eighties, nineties and in some cases also in the 2000s. Schiffer, a girl from Rheinberg am Niederrhein, owes her career to a lucky coincidence. After she was discovered in a discotheque, the photographer Ellen von Unwerth (66) and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) helped her – in addition to appearance and skill – to relevant success. The latter let the then 18-year-old high school graduate run down the catwalk for Chanel and thus marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
Schiffer established himself as an internationally sought-after model and muse of the star designer who died a year and a half ago. She seems to owe her recipe for success to him: "At the beginning of my modeling time, Karl Lagerfeld advised me to just always be myself and not waste energy trying to be what others would like me to be," Schiffer explained in an interview in 2018 with "ICON", the fashion magazine of "Welt".
The model continues to develop
Do not pretend and do what you feel like doing? The model seems to have actually taken this advice to heart. At the beginning of her career, Schiffer had always claimed that she never wanted to be photographed topless, but she threw this plan overboard in 2019. She adorned the cover of the Italian "Vogue" and described it as "great pleasure" herself.
In general, the now 50-year-old walked off the beaten track several times in the course of her career. Starting with the moderation of the ProSieben show "Fashion Hero" to her job as a tights designer and her own make-up line to her most recent engagement as an art curator, which became known in August this year. The mother of three lives her life the way she sees fit. And there are only insights when she wants to.
The model no longer needs compliments
As early as 2014, Schiffer seemed to have completed the jet set life of a model. In an interview with the magazine "Grazia" she said that she was afraid that "nothing and nobody" could persuade her to return to the catwalks of this world. She likes family life in Great Britain in a house that was built in 1574 and has 14 bedrooms just too much for that.
This year she reiterated that statement. Speaking to the UK edition of Elle magazine, she said that she didn't feel the need to be called "beautiful all your life". Schiffer, who was honored with the Bambi Fashion Icon Award in 2017, fondly looks back on days gone by. "But then the new generation comes and you hand over the scepter."