Claudia Schiffer in Vogue Paris: August 2007

"I mean I'm not nervous when I walk onto the set for a photo-shoot because there is very little that's going to happen that hasn't happened before."
Claudia Schiffer to TI.

You've got to hand it to Claudia Schiffer.For one, she still looks like Claudia Schiffer and nobody else.She has never second guessed her identity. She has never dyed her hair goth black. She's never shown up with a short bob. This year, she's crafted one hell of a career comeback with a clutch-full of killer bookings starting with her Chanel SS08 gig and her LV supermodel reunion job. The great thing about the Claudia Schiffer story is that she's never really stayed inside the fashion orthodoxy. She was never a great photographer's muse or a self-conscious creation like the Lindas or Cindys. She was never packaged as a part of anyone's trinity, nor was she an editorial pet of any one given publication. Legend has it she was just a gorgeous teeanger from a good bourgeoise family, sitting in a Hamburg nightclub with her privileged circle of friends when the spotlights hit her. Next thing she knew she was in Paris shuttling between Guess and Chanel via the Concorde of course, and massing beaucoup bucks while doing it. Her sistren in the trade were never kind to her. They took to calling her "Miss Piggy" behind her back. But those were very catty, very messy days because some of those evil girls would sit perched in Superstudio Industria with a McDonald's cup secretly filled with vodka . They were apt to lash out. And yes, fashion IS high school with ashtrays...and vodka among other things. Because Claudia was not edge or avant-garde or an "intellectual beauty" the directional photographers left her off the list when it was time to strip down from the glamazon ideal and get into the makeup- less reality of grunge. In fact Claudia tells a sad tale of one particular Vogue sitting where the photographer never spoke to her once. Claudia of course didn't help matters when she would periodically mouth off on the strange new editorial permutations wandering the photo-studios. She slagged Kate Moss off for failing to keep her clothes on. Croydon Kate, who was not to be messed with, settled the issue by declaring "Oh she's just jealous that I'm loads prettier!". How we miss the days of blue chip model catfights! Claudia has recently weighed in on the issue of underweight models and the general anonymity that afflicts the latter day catwalk girls. But Claudia, or someone in Claudia's camp is being very shrewd these days (It couldn't possibly be American Idol mastermind Simon Fuller who boasts managment cred on Claudia right this sec, could it?)

Claudia Schiffer in Self Service: November 2007

She's balanced the politely commercial Vogue Paris cover with the slighty racy edits in "underground" mags like Purple and Self-Service. And she's conducted herself like an icon now that she's been reinstalled in Karl Lagerfeld's circle, playing dress up for Dom Perignon in your current magazines. Because Claudia is such a "type" and a stereotype to boot ( the Tuetonic sex-bomb) she'll always be able to trade on her iconography in ways that the mean girls who once tried to trouble her cannot. TI worked with Claudia once and it was a great experience, primarily beacuse she had this ability to revise your assumptions about her...in one roll of film. To edit the narrative, a shoot was booked with Claudia. No expense was spared. Miles of clothes were pulled. Claudia's assistant walks in to announce that Ms Schiffer could only spare 30 minutes of her day. How we hated Claudia. Until she walked on set and threw herself on the floor, shifting and changing and writhing on the beat of each click of the camera. 30 minutes later, she stood up to full height, kissed everyone of the cheek farewell and ran off to her waiting car. Going through the film two days later, we found that every frame was a moment, every shot a cover. Sometimes the general public forms an opinion about a girl based on the pictures they see. But there are some models who make the process of picture-making a lot easier than others. Those are the models the photographers come back to year after year. I'm glad Claudia is back, if only to teach a new generation of 15 year old models a lesson in longevity. With the Chanel campaign comes a really fantastic cover booking that will break early in the new year. And then Claudia will grow bored yet again with the click, click of the camera and settle back into domestic bliss until she feels like going out and getting the last laugh. One more time. Who's choking on their vodka now?