What’s Last Year’s Model to Do

The life span of a supermodel is a little longer than a mayfly’s--but not by much. You have to have the look of the moment and when the moment passes, so does the career. Most models end up in the “whatever-happened-to” category unless they find a way to parlay their Q-factor into some other fame game.

We’re about to witness the regeneration process at work. A crop of emaciated child-women called waifs, the latest aberration of fashion’s ideal form, are displacing the strapping mega-models of last year. The newest darlings of the catwalks are Kate Moss, Patricia Hartmann and Lucie de la Falaise.

Past-tense headliners Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell are still slinking down the runways, but their attempts to look waifish are pitiful. They look like Amazons in ballerina clothing.

Evangelista once said she and her good buddies “did not get out of bed for less than $15,000” a day. But she’s going to find fewer reasons to get up in the morning. She has been replaced in Valentino ads by Hartmann and in Kenar’s advertising campaign by Helena Christensen. Meanwhile, Turlington and Campbell are busy unfurling their golden parachutes. Turlington is hawking Special K on television. Campbell is counting on a singing career to carry her into the future.

Here’s what some other old-model mannequins have done to salvage a vestige of their fame: