At the height of her career, Cindy Crawford was labeled as the all-American girl next door. She rebelled against that reputation when she decided to pose naked Playboy magazine in 1988 — a controversial choice that also ended up launching her to even greater heights of success.
In the second episode of Apple TV+ Super models docuseries, Crawford explains that becoming the face of Revlon gave her a certain level of job security and the freedom to pursue adventurous projects.
In 1988, she was asked to do Playboy and, she says, “Everyone in my life at the time thought I shouldn’t do it Playboy. My modeling agency didn’t think it fit the types of jobs I should be doing. I think the brand still had a connotation that might have scared some people.”
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The supermodel goes on to say that she “understood the Playboy platform and what it symbolizes” and that posing for the magazine was “definitely outside the normal trajectory for Vogue model at the time,” she still felt drawn to the project.
“I don’t know, there was something about it that intrigued me. So, against the advice of my agents, I said yes.”
Apple TV+
It certainly helped that the shoot offer came from Herb Ritts, a famous fashion photographer.
“Herb Ritts was someone I worked with a lot,” says Crawford. – I stayed in his house and we were very good friends.
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She also told the outlet that she didn’t need to be paid much to do it, “as long as I could have control over the images and I wanted the right to kill the story if I didn’t like it.”
“Herb and I combined it with another trip we were doing for French Vogue to Hawaii. We would take a picture for the French Vogue and then we would take a picture for Playboy“, she says in the document. “I mean, you almost couldn’t tell which pictures were for French Vogue and what the pictures were for Playboyit was very organic and I loved them.”
She concludes, “For me, that’s the whole point, even if I make decisions that other people don’t agree with or don’t like, if they’re my decisions and I have control over them, that empowers me. Even if it does Playboy. I never felt like a victim of that decision.”
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Apple TV+
Additionally, as Crawford and her fellow supers point out, nudity is very much a part of their job and in most situations they often have far less or no control over how their bodies are displayed.
Looking through a book of her nude photos, Naomi Campbell explains: “When I’m naked, I don’t feel like I’m naked. It really depends on who I’m shooting for. I could feel fully clothed. It’s a concept and a way when it’s done tastefully that it doesn’t you feel like you’re naked.”
He continues, “It might have made people think, ‘Oh, she’s really comfortable in her own skin.’ Not necessarily, I didn’t. Just because I wasn’t thinking about Naomi being portrayed, I felt like I was in another character… I felt dressed up, if you can believe it.”
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Christy Turlington adds: “I respect and admire people who can be comfortable in their bodies and naked. If I’m working with someone I trust and respect and understand their vision, then I can take a risk. If I can trust that person who filmed it and I know what he sees and I know that my comfort will make that picture much more exciting, more interesting, whatever, then I can go there. But if that trust isn’t there and there’s this feeling, well, you know, ‘Go. Do it. You do your thing, I I’m going to catch it,’ I can’t do it. I can’t just do all the things that take time and trust for any camera.”
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Apple TV+
And finally, Crawford’s professional risk with Playboy paid off in a big way. In the late 80s, MTV decided to start a show focused on what’s up and coming in fashion, and they were looking for someone from the industry to host the show.
“After all, fashion was primarily female, and then all of a sudden Playboy were primarily boys,” explains Crawford. “It was a very different thing. This doubled my audience. And those two things together led to MTV. They wanted someone, like a model or someone in fashion, but they also wanted someone who had male fans.”
The model adds: “I had no training in broadcasting. It was bringing together music, fashion and pop culture and putting it in a mixing bowl and we didn’t care what came out.”
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Eventually, the TV gig helped her show more of her personality.
“It gave me a chance to talk and I was able to bring a little more of myself to my public persona,” she shares. “I found it all very empowering.”
Super models the four-part documentary series spotlighting the remarkable careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington, will premiere on September 20 exclusively on Apple TV+.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education