Prepared by Scottie Andrew, CNN
Tatjana Patitz, who rose to trend fame in the ’90s as an animal-loving supermodel with a piercing gaze, has died, her agent verified to CNN. She was 56.
Patitz died Wednesday from breast most cancers, her agent Corinne Nicolas told CNN. She’s survived by her son, Jonah.
The German-born product appeared on dozens of covers for Vogue and numerous other style magazines commencing in the 1980s. Her most well known include, which she shared with fellow supermodels of her era, encouraged George Michael to forged her in his audio video for
“Liberty! ’90.” Exactly where the other supermodels of her era were recognised for dominating the public eye, Patitz desired a quieter lifetime surrounded by nature, particularly wild horses and the Western lands on which they lived. However, she was impossibly, very easily stylish,
claimed Anna Wintour, Vogue’s world-wide editorial director, in a statement to the magazine.
“Tatjana was generally the European symbol of chic, like Romy Schneider-meets-Monica Vitti,” she reported.
Tatjana Patitz walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Use Spring/Summer time 1991-1992 manner show for the duration of Paris Fashion Week in 1991. Credit rating: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Visuals
Born in Hamburg, Germany, and lifted in Sweden, Patitz was found in 1983 when she was a finalist of the
“Elite Product Search” level of competition, in which Elite company heads chosen her from a pool of unknowns. (Cindy Crawford was also a finalist that 12 months, per Elite.)
Her job didn’t get off, even though, till the late ’80s. It was all-around this time that she grew to become the muse of photographer Peter Lindbergh, for whom she’d design until eventually the 2010s. He took a
now-legendary 1988 Vogue photograph of Patitz and other types on a seashore in Santa Monica, California, traipsing in the sand in matching white shirts.
Then arrived an
legendary 1990 British Vogue cover, also shot by Lindbergh — Patitz, one of the “initial” supermodels of that period, appeared alongside Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford,
Naomi Campbell and
Linda Evangelista. The image prompted singer George Michael to solid the ladies in the video for his solitary “Freedom! ’90” which also became a
cultural artifact.
Patitz (second from appropriate) hangs on the shoulder of longtime collaborator Peter Lindbergh, flanked by designs Karena Alexander (remaining) and Milla Jovovich, in 2016. Credit score: Frazer Harrison/Getty Illustrations or photos
Patitz was, at the time of her ascent, regarded as “abnormal” on the lookout in comparison to the other dominant models, in accordance to a
1990 Harper’s Bazaar tale: “In fact, Patitz’s characteristics virtually confuse. Like Garbo or the Mona Lisa, the inexplicable gifts of line and luminescence defy definition.” Her piercing gaze gave her a marginally a lot more otherworldly appear, in accordance to observations from individuals in the field.
The photographer Matthew Rolston said of Patitz in that 1990 tale, “There is a depth, an psychological high quality in her that is certainly remarkable.” Her visual appeal, she said, was not just stunning it was unforgettable and evocative.
Patitz appeared on much more than 130 journal covers in her lifestyle, in accordance to Elite. She was just one face among the a sea of supermodels for Vogue’s 100th anniversary protect in 1992, all of them dressed identically in white denims and white button-down shirts tied at the midriff. And in 2016, she appeared in a black-and-white Italian Vogue address shot by Lindbergh.
Tatjana Patitz in Germany in April 2022. Credit score: Gisela Schober/German Select/Getty Illustrations or photos
A lifelong animal lover, she was photographed on horseback for a 1989 Vogue unfold, also sporting various huge-brimmed cowboy hats. She also appeared with her son Jonah in a 2012 shoot at their California dwelling.
Off the runway, Patitz was passionate about animal advocacy, even from her early modeling times, as pointed out in her 1990 Harper’s Bazaar profile. She explained to the
Mexican journal Milenio in 2021 that she was included in California legislation to secure wild horses and has been involved with the American Wild Horse Campaign, which works to secure public lands. She continued to get the job done in trend all through her 40s and 50s, but she chose her jobs “extremely selectively,” she instructed Mercedes-Benz’s
63Magazine in 2016, and on all those assignments would attempt to “blend my do the job as a design with my vocation as a protector of nature and animals.”
Patitz instructed Milenio she most popular to stay a lower-crucial lifetime than her fellow supermodels and relished “staying surrounded by mother nature, away from concrete and sounds” with her son and their animals. She was a lot less existing in the community eye than her contemporaries, and when she relocated to California fairly than modeling hub New York, her legacy wasn’t as greatly acknowledged as theirs.
“She was significantly less noticeable than her peers — far more mysterious, more grown-up, additional unattainable — and that had its personal charm,” Wintour informed Vogue.
In a
tweet, the Peter Lindbergh Basis, which shares images from the late photographer’s archives, saluted Patitz’s “kindess, interior elegance and superb intelligence.”
