Claudia Schiffer: From a Model to a Fashion Dictator

Your career and primary profession are of course well known to everyone - do you still like it and also how diversified the industry has become?

I’m very lucky to love what I am doing and to be able to pick and choose my projects with partners who I admire. I’m also enjoying the different paths my career has taken, including roles where I am designing or cura- ting collections, which felt like a natural next step for me.

How would you describe your personal style?

I’d describe my personal style as quite instinctive. My everyday “uniform” tends to be denim, coupled with cashmere jumpers and blouses and great accessories. I love outfits that feel effortless.

Where did your inspiration for the Être Cécile collaboration come from?

The collaboration is inspired by the effortless feel of the 60s and 70s style icons like Sylvie Vartan and Jane Birkin. Like Être Cécile, I love that everyday cool, French-girl aesthetic and my denim “uniform”, coupled with great accessories. I love the design process, such as the mood-board stage, when I’m looking at inspirations from art and fashion and how literal or abstract, I want it to be.

What’s the best advice you received from a designer yourself – for example from Karl Lagerfeld?

Karl was my magic dust; he transformed me from a shy German girl into a supermodel. He taught me about fashion, style and how to survive in the fashion business. What Warhol was to art, he was to fashion. He is the only person who could make black and white colourful and I will be eternally grateful to him.

I understand you collaborated with several brands in celebration of your birthday?

Yes I’m incredibly excited that brands including Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, Isabel Marant and Versace, as well as Bamford, Barbie, Frame Denim and Lucie Kaas have decided to release limited editions and one-off pieces in celebration of my birthday which will be launched this September and October. Selected items and sales will go towards a number of charities from Unicef, for whom I’m a UK Ambassador, to Heads Together and Humanitas Ricerca.

Do you have any other project for next year?

I’m curating an exhibition of ‘90s fashion photography at the “Kunstpalast Museum” in Düsseldorf / Germany in March 2021, including incredible photographers from Helmut Newton to Herb Ritts.

Photo: Être Cécile