Biography
This page uses content from the Christy Turlington biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Christy Nicole Turlington (born January 2, 1969 in Walnut Creek, California) is an American supermodel best known for representing Calvin Klein fragrances since 1987. She grew up in Danville, California, with a British commercial pilot father and Salvadoran flight attendant mother. She has also worked on various campaigns for Maybelline Cosmetic and Giorgio Armani, has appeared in several films about the fashion industry and was a co-founder of the now defunct Fashion Café.
Career
Turlington can lay claim to a long list of accomplishments in the modeling industry, having had numerous million dollar contracts with companies like Maybelline, Chanel and Calvin Klein. Although she is known as one of the most successful supermodels in history, Christy has rejected the 'supermodel' label. She is widely respected in the fashion industry as one of the friendliest and most professional models in the business. In 1988, Christy along with Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour and Tatjana Patitz became known as the first supermodels. Photographer Steven Meisel booked Christy, Naomi and Linda frequently and together they became known as the "Trinity".
During the 1990s, Christy appeared in Unzipped, a documentary about fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, and the fashion mockumentary film Prêt-à-Porter by famed director Robert Altman. Additionally, she was featured in Catwalk, a documentary covering life on the fashion runways, by director Robert Leacock. The documentary was filmed in 1993 and premiered in 1996. The film followed Christy and her fellow models Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon, Kate Moss and Carla Bruni as they jetted around London, Milan, Paris and New York during Spring Fashion Week. It included rare footage of what goes on behind the scenes at big shows including fittings, parties, shopping and catfights. The film was shot in black and white and color, and featured many top designers at work like a young John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace 4 years before his death.
Turlington also appeared in 2 music videos. Bestfriend and fellow model Yasmin LeBon got her husband Simon LeBon of Duran Duran to feature Christy in their 'Notorious' video in 1986. In 1990 singer George Michael drew inspiration from Peter Lingbergh's January 1990 British Vogue cover (which features Christy, Naomi, Linda, Cindy and Tatjana) for his 'Freedom' video. The video featured all top 5 female models along with their top 5 male counterparts, lip-syncing the song.
More recently, she has become a partner in three successful business ventures: an ayurvedic skincare line (Sundari) and two clothing lines produced by Puma: Nuala, an active women's clothing line; and Mahanuala, a women's yoga-wear line.
On August 11 2006 Women's Wear Daily reported that Christy signed a multiyear contract with Maybelline, marking her return to the company that made her famous with its 'Maybe She's Born With It' ad campaign.
Trivia
- Christy Turlington has graced over 500 magazine covers.
- Her face is used on the mannequins created by Ralph Pucci for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, causing her to be called the 'Face of the 20th Century'.
- Her unclothed form was used in a PETA campaign under the motto 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur'. (see PETA campaigns)
- She climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
- She is the chairperson of the Intercambios Culturales of El Salvador organisation.
- Christy has been featured in several professional photobooks including Peter Lindbergh's '10 Women', Arthur Elgort's 'Model Manual', Herb Ritts 'Man/Woman' and Karl Lagerfeld's 'Off the Record'.
- "I am Christy Turlington I am the word" is a short story by Tom Junod published in Esquire Magazine in November 1997 (Volume 128, Issue 5).
Personal life
Turlington has been practicing Yoga for almost 15 years and is the author of Living Yoga: Creating A Life Practice (ISBN 0-7868-6806-6). Owing to this interest in Eastern religions she went back to school in 1994 and graduated cum laude in 1999 from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Comparative Religion and Eastern Philosophy. Previously a vegetarian, she has gone back to being a meat eater. An ex-smoker whose father died of lung cancer, Turlington is also an anti-smoking activist.
On June 7 2003 she married actor/filmmaker Edward Burns in a ceremony with U2 frontman Bono acting father of the bride. Burns and Turlington have two children: a daughter Grace born October 25 2003 and a son Finn born February 2006. They have a dog named 'MicSpic' after Turlington's Hispanic and Burn's Irish heritage.
External links
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