Christy Nicole Turlington (born January 2, 1969) is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein fragrances since 1987. She has also worked on various campaigns for Maybelline Cosmetics and Giorgio Armani, has appeared in several films about the fashion industry and was a co-founder of the now defunct Fashion Café.
She was discovered by Dennie Cody while horseback riding in Miami, Florida, where her father was working as a training captain for Pan Am. Turlington began modeling after school from age 14 to 16 and during summers until she graduated from Monte Vista High School. After graduation, she moved to New York City to model full-time.
Turlington has several accomplishments in the modeling industry, having had numerous million dollar contracts with companies like Maybelline, Chanel, and Calvin Klein. Although she is known as one of the most successful supermodels in history, Turlington has rejected the 'supermodel' label. She is widely respected in the fashion industry as one of the friendliest and most professional models in the business. In 1988, Turlington along with
Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer became known as the first supermodels. Photographer Steven Meisel booked Turlington, Campbell and Evangelista frequently and together they became known as the "Trinity."
During the 1990s, she appeared in Unzipped, a documentary about fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, and the fashion mockumentary film Prêt-à-Porter by famed director Robert Altman. Additionally, she was featured in Catwalk, a documentary about life on the fashion runways by director Robert Leacock.
Turlington also appeared in two music videos. Fellow model Yasmin Le Bon got her husband Simon LeBon of Duran Duran to feature Turlington in their 'Notorious' video in 1986, as well as the album cover. In 1990, singer
George Michael drew inspiration from Peter Lindbergh's January 1990 British Vogue cover (which features Turlington, Campbell, Evangelista, Crawford and Patitz) for his 'Freedom' video. The video featured all top 5 female models along with their top 5 male counterparts, lip-syncing the song.
She has appeared on over 500 magazine covers and has been featured in several professional photobooks, including Peter Lindbergh's '10 Women', Arthur Elgort's 'Model Manual', Herb Ritts 'Man/Woman' and Karl Lagerfeld's 'Off the Record'. In 1993, she posed nude for
PETA's anti-fur campaign. Also in 1993, her face was used on 120 mannequins created by Ralph Pucci for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, causing her to be called the 'Face of the 20th Century'.
More recently, she has become a partner in three successful business ventures: an ayurvedic skincare line (Sundari) and two clothing lines produced by Puma: Nuala, an active women's clothing line; and Mahanuala, a women's yoga-wear line.
On August 11, 2006, Women's Wear Daily reported that Turlington had signed a multiyear contract with Maybelline, marking her return to the company that made her famous with its 'Maybe She's Born With It' ad campaign.
On the issue regarding the statement of Claudia Schiffer that the supermodel was dead, Turlington agreed saying, "It's over, it's over, it's over,". "It was fun, but now I just wish it would go away. The name supermodel? I hate it."
