Claudia Schiffer

Model

Claudia Schiffer was born in Rheinburg, Germany on August 25, 1975. She originally planned on being a lawyer and working in her father’s law firm. At 17, she was stopped by the head of Metropolitan Models, Michel Levaton, who signed her to up to become a model. As soon as her education was completed, Schiffer flew out to Paris for a trial photo shoot. Standing at 5’11, Schiffer modeled for Chanel in 1987, becoming one of Karl Lagerfeld’s favorite models thereafter. During her modeling career, she has worked diversely with the fashion house and iconic designer for its campaigns, advertisements and fashion shows. Her fame quickly came after, leading her into becoming the face of Guess. Guess designer, Paul Marciano stated that the name only became more known worldwide because of Schiffer. She has since been in campaigns for the GAP, Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, L’Oréal, Mango, Revlon and Accessorize. In 2009, she replaced fellow supermodel and friend Naomi Campbell as the new face of Yves Saint Laurent. In the following two years after campaigning for Chanel, she walked for the major fashion house in 1990. Schiffer has also walked on the runways for Victoria’s Secret, Jil Sander, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren and Valentino. In 1990, Schiffer was known internationally and was named one of the People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. From when she started as the cover model for Elle UK in 1989, Schiffer soon became seen everywhere on magazine covers such as Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Vogue Paris, Vogue Germany, Vogue Espana, Vogue Italia and Numéro. In 2009, she was featured in the V Editorial The Swimsuit Issue, Summer 2009 photographed by Mario Testino. Schiffer has worked with almost every legendary and iconic photographer since being photographed by Steven Meisel in 1990. She quickly became high in demand and photographers such as Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindbergh and Ellen von Unwerth have all continued to work with Schiffer throughout her career. Aside from modeling, Schiffer has also appeared in a number of films and television shows including “Richie Rich,” “Blackout,” “Friends & Lovers,” “Life Without Dick,” “Zoolander” and “Love Actually.” She also reached much success from her exercise videos, which were a huge hit and reached the bestsellers list.