Born on August 25: Claudia Schiffer, eternal muse of Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel

She was born in Rheinberg near Düsseldorf (Germany) and is celebrating her 55th birthday.

Thanks to her, as well as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Yasmin Le Bon, Kate Moss, and Christy Burlington, a handful of hand-picked models graced the covers of top magazines and walked the runways of the most prominent fashion houses. It was in the glorious 1990s. They were no longer just models, but rather "supermodels."

Becoming a mother of three, Claudia Schiffer transformed into an actress, first playing herself (notably in Ronert Altman's strange "Prêt-à-Porter" in 1994) and then sometimes branching out into character roles (as in Richard Curtis's "Love Actually" in 2002). For the past fifteen years, however, she has felt more comfortable in the shadows, taking on the role of producer. Especially for the works of her husband, Englishman Matthew Vaughn, whose latest film, "Argylle" (starring Dua Lipa in her first real role), caused a stir when it was released on Apple TV.

In the collective unconscious, Claudia Schiffer will always remain the face of her compatriot Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. Let's put aside her meeting in Paris with photographer Helmut Newton at the age of 17 and her tumultuous relationship with the magician David Copperfield to focus on a certain Chanel Spring/Summer 1994 haute couture collection, which was presented at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. And it was a dress Claudia wore that caused the uproar. Fortunately, without the amplification of social media, which simply didn't exist, the scandal ultimately turned out to be nothing more than a storm in a teacup. But what happened? The German model wore a pretty bustier embroidered with Arabic characters. Not just any, since they were borrowed from a surah in the Quran entitled "The Cave", which was considered as a crime of lèse-majesté. It should be remembered that five years earlier, the supreme leader of the Iranian Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, had sentenced the English writer Salman Rushdie to death for supposed blasphemies that were barely more serious. Chanel therefore adopted a retracting stance by quickly stating that the model produced, the preparatory drawings, as well as all the photographs and negatives of these had been destroyed. Karl Lagerfeld himself apologised publicly, an exercise to which he was unaccustomed to. He indicated that he had been inspired by the photo of a detail on the dome of the Taj Mahal in Agra (India), the caption of which read: "love poem." Neither Karl nor Claudia were therefore condemned. Phew!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart / Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Claudia Schiffer closing the Versace Spring/Summer 2024 show on September 22, 2023 in Milan, Italy