How Cindy Crawford Became A Global Brand
I spoke to Cindy Crawford, one of the original supermodels, and her business partner, Katherine O’Leary about their new book called “Becoming By Cindy Crawford“. In the following interview, Crawford explains how she rose to the top of the modeling world, how social media is a game changer for models, the business of modeling and gives her best advice. Katherine gives us her view on Cindy’s success from working with her directly for over sixteen years in multiple business endeavors.
Crawford has created a trusted brand representing beauty, fashion, fitness and home. In her career, she earned long-term, global contracts with the likes of Revlon, Omega and Pepsi. She has graced over 1,000 magazine covers worldwide, including Vogue, Elle, W, Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Allure. She walked the runway for everyone, from Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel to Ralph Lauren and Dolce Gabbana and was featured in countless ad campaigns for virtually every top fashion designer, including Versace and Calvin Klein. She hosted a reality TV show on MTV, created bestselling exercise videos, skincare products and is currently expanding her successful Cindy Crawford Home collection that grosses over $250 million annually.
Dan Schawbel: What do you think gave rise to your fame in the 1990s and what set you apart from other models at that time?
Cindy Crawford: I feel fortunate to have been a part of a group of young women who were later dubbed Supermodels. There are a lot of reasons that the supermodel phenomena happened—more fashion on TV, MTV merging music and fashion and pop culture, etc.—but a lot of it was just timing. I think that we (Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, etc) were depicted as strong women who were in control helped us all to feel that way in our work life. We took chances and started to have more say in how we wanted to be portrayed.
Schawbel: How has the modeling industry changed since you were a teenager and what role has technology played in creating the next top models?
Crawford: I think the biggest change for young models is their direct access to their fans via social media. They can have much more influence on how they are perceived.
Schawbel: What impact have you made on the next generation of women and what are your aspirations for the type of change you want to make in the future?
Hopefully I am an example to young models especially to work hard and learn but then to take that knowledge and start developing your own projects that are the most authentic.
Schawbel: Can you talk about the business of modeling? What are all the sources of income for models, how long is the average career for women or men, and how can models survive and thrive after their career is over?
