Claudia Schiffer born 25 August 1970 is a German model and creative director of her own clothing label. Schiffer rose to popularity and became a household name during the early 1990s as one of the world’s most successful models.
In her early career, she was said to resemble Brigitte Bardot. She appeared on more than 1000 magazine covers and continues to front global campaigns for luxury fashion and fragrance houses. In 2002, Forbes estimated her net worth at about US$55 million (£38 million).
Schiffer completed her education and then began to work as a model. She flew out to Paris for a trial photo shoot and soon after she appeared on the cover of French Elle after being well received in Paris. In the early 1990s, she starred in the highly publicised Guess? Jeans campaigns. Paul Marciano said in E! Forbes Top 15 Supermodel Beauties Who Made Bank, “Guess name became really much more known around the world because of Claudia”.
After several other magazine appearances including the cover of British Vogue shot by Herb Ritts, Schiffer quickly achieved supermodel status and was selected by Karl Lagerfeld to become the new face of Chanel.She went on to become world famous, instantly recognisable with her blue eyes, blonde hair and tall figure, standing at 1.81 m (approx. 5 ft 11 in.).
Schiffer appeared on the November 1999 millennium cover of Vogue as one of the “Modern Muses”. Named as one of the most beautiful women in the world, her ability to appeal to a global audience has assured an internationally successful career spanning more than 25 years.
Schiffer was the first model to make the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New York Times and People and has appeared numerous times on covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Time. Schiffer has appeared on the catwalk for numerous fashion houses, including Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Valentino.
As well as endorsing luxury brands, Schiffer has appeared as the face of high street retailers including Mango and Accessorize, and had her ears pierced for the first time specially for the 2006 Autumn/Winter Accessorize campaign.She has also featured in commercials for Pepsi and Fanta. From her appearances in a 1998 Citroën advertisement she allegedly earned £3 million. Schiffer still holds a contract with L’Oréal and is one of their longest standing ambassadors.
Karl Lagerfeld photographed Schiffer for a Dom Pérignon campaign, around 17 years after her first appearance for Chanel. Schiffer has appeared in recent campaigns for Chanel, YSL, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dolce & Gabbana. Most recently she appeared as the face of the Chanel A/W11 Eyewear Campaign She is signed to a few agencies solely for her modelling interests including d’management group in Milan, 1/One Management in New York City and Marilyns in Paris. Her mother agency is Model Management in Hamburg. Schiffer was a judge on Fashion Fringe in 2011. In 2012, she posed again for Guess black and white ads marking the brand’s 30th anniversary.
