Not every fashion icon transcends professional and geographical boundaries to evolve into a cultural icon. Supermodel Cindy Crawford did. Her transition was inevitable, given her global reach and influence, but she refuses to see herself as either. “I like fashion but I am not a fashionista,” she says. “When you wear clothes all the time for work, you just want a pair of jeans and T-shirt when you are not working. And you cannot think about yourself that way (as a cultural icon); it’s just too weird.”
Cindy Crawford interacted with media while on a visit to Mumbai to launch the new Constellation Pluma Collection by Omega, a brand she has been associated with for 20 years. “That’s longer than I have been married to my husband,” she quips.
The stunner, who was sporting a Peter Pilotto dress and pink Kurt Geiger shoes, chatted about evolving from a model to a mother and entrepreneur, and about fashion, obviously.
On Indian fashion:
The world is so small that you cannot but see the influence of Indian fashion and Bollywood. On Instagram, you can see fashion from all over the world. It is all kind of melting together.
Advice to daughter Kaia on following her mother’s fashionable steps:
I am letting her do a few things because she is still young. She is still in school. Fortunately, she respects the career that I had and will listen to me, hopefully. Recently, someone asked her if there was any advice that I gave her and she said: ‘When you look at the camera just, don’t have a blank stare, have a thought in your head. You don’t have to share it.’ I see some models who are beautiful but are blank. She was listening, I guess.
Changes in the fashion industry:
A lot of it has to do with Anna Wintour when she came to American Vogue . She started putting a lot of actresses and celebrities on the covers. I think it made it harder for models to have the cosmetic contracts and other big jobs. It seems like in order to have it now, you have to be a singer or an actor. Maybe it is great for celebrities, but in a way not so great for the models because they weren’t able to get the big jobs.
But the incredible thing, that I think, is happening is social media. Previously, models were just two dimensional. They didn’t have a voice. Social media has really allowed girls like Coco Rocha and Cara Delevingne to have a personality and a voice. You might like it or not, but at least they have a way to express themselves and not just through the clothes that they are wearing for photo shoot. This may help swing it back towards the models who are now becoming their own celebrities in the fashion world.
On her upcoming book Becoming :
It’s not an autobiography, but it’s autobiographical. The original idea of the book was to have 50 iconic photos married to 50 essays about the journey and the lesson that I have learnt along the way to celebrate me turning 50. But the publishers needed more than 100 pages. So now it is 250 pages with more than 150 images, including some that have never been published before — from when I was starting to model, all the way up until recent pictures.
I’ve learnt about taking chances, to say no, about ageing, about becoming a mother... And even though the world I learnt my lessons from is the fashion world, the lessons are universal. I wrote hoping that the women who have been my fans for years can share it with their daughters. It’s a book that I would give to my own children so that they understand that what is important is the journey.
Five things that are always in her bag:
Besides my wallet and my phone, I have my Kindle, almonds if I get hungry or protein bar, iPad — I like to watch TV shows, pashmina or some kind of wrap, and lip conditioner.
