S
he’s been adept at hiding it, but Christy Turlington suffers from a terrible affliction: a “gimpy”
eye. She’s soldiered on despite this impediment—achieving 30 years of supermodel-dom, plus
a second, even more super life as a global maternal health advocate. “Someone once said I have
a symmetrical face,” she says. “I do not have a symmetrical face. Almost nobody does. But, yeah,
I have a gimpy eye. One eye that’s round and one that’s more slanty.” She laughs. “I’m sure it’s
a sign of intelligence.” She adds, “In a photo session, people try to balance my eyes with light.”
But not Clemente. In her portrait, “one eye was as it is in life, which I love. I can see a lot of
things that are me.” That said, “he added a few inches to my neck!”
Turlington first sat for the artist 20 years ago. “It was a watercolor; I have it in my bedroom.
It was more of an impression—we knew each other, but time makes such a difference.” She
sighs. “Now we’re at the place where everything is 20 years ago. We were laughing about that,
and then we said, ‘Okay, every 20 years we’ll do a sitting.’ So we made a date.”
On viewing the completed portrait, Turlington says, “It has the feeling of Pontormo or Modigliani or Giacometti.
All portrait artists that I love. You know, I like Lucian Freud, but I don’t know if I would, say, run to that sitting.”
At 47, Turlington is in fine fettle. She works full-time on her nonprofit, Every Mother Counts; is raising two children,
Grace, 12, and Finn, 10, with husband Edward Burns; and still makes time for the occasional high-profile modeling
gig (besides regular magazine covers, she has contracts with Maybelline and Calvin Klein, among others).
Of the changes in the industry—the birth of the social supermodel, for example—she observes, “In the ’80s or ’90s,
the supermodel thing was kind of similar; it
brought more sales, more attention. Then that
becomes exploited, and everybody hates those
people. When an era ends, there’s nothing worse
than having been tied to that era.”
That’s why, of course, Turlington did other
things: completing a bachelor’s degree with honors,
studying public health at Columbia, and
attending various wellness initiatives before the
2010 launch of Every Mother Counts. “The more
you have going outside of the modeling world,
the better off you are,” she says. “You can’t be
reliant on the flavor or the tastemakers, you know?
Turlington has managed to transcend fashion while remaining very much in fashion. “I’m not one to think that much
ahead of myself, apart from the fact that I love 50. It looks pretty; it’s aesthetically pleasing,” she says, laughing. “All the
good things in my life happened post 30. But I guess you’re always in a state of becoming. I love the pictures Alfred
Stieglitz took of Georgia O’Keeffe. He photographed her over and over through the years, so he had this portrait of her
that wasn’t just a moment; it was all the parts of her over time. I kind of see it like that.”
Asked to name her aging inspirations, Turlington says, “There are so many. Joan Didion. Come on! I love her. Vanessa
Redgrave. Gloria Steinem! Charlotte Rampling! Iman, I mean, come on.” She’s a particular fan of Didion’s style. “She
never changed, and she looks perfectly modern.” (Like Didion, Turlington plans to embrace the turtleneck. “Céline,
old Helmut Lang, skinny Calvins,” when the time comes.)
Until that fateful day, Turlington remains a model of health and balance (thankfully, she also possesses a deep love of
red wine). She is currently finishing a month-long cleanse. “I don’t really crave things,” she explains. She has also started
training for the Boston Marathon, in April. “My fifth marathon since I turned 42!” she chirps. Along with her regular
yoga, Turlington will often run for up to two hours at a time. “Just to chill, do my long run, and breathe.”
I read her a quote from Gwyneth Paltrow, who said that turning 40 was like getting a “software upgrade.” “Oh, you
girls in your early 40s,” she cackles. “You should see what it does to your hard drive.” n
“BUT, YEAH, I HAVE
A GIMPY EYE. ONE
EYE THAT’S ROUND
AND ONE THAT’S
MORE SLANTY.”
Portrait of a lady. Dress, Valentino. Sandals, Valentino Garavani. Hair: Sally Hershberger for Sally Hershberger 24K;
makeup: Dick Page for Shiseido.
248
LINDA EVANGELISTA
L
inda Evangelista is describing the images she has of herself—among other things—on the
walls of her New York apartment. “Pulling my cheeks from Steven [Meisel], crying from
Peter [Lindbergh], whistling from David [Sims], the corset…”
Of course, even with the briefest description, you can see each and every picture. Evangelista
is, after all, the supermodel’s model. She wrote the book on chameleonic glamour
(sadly, not yet literally, much to the chagrin of Linda obsessives everywhere). But while she
has posed for the lexicon of photographers, illustrators, magazines, and campaigns over a
legendary 35-year career, Evange