Tatjana Patitz

In his 2015 book Models of Influence: 50 Women Who Reset The Course of Fashion, Nigel Barker reflected on Patitz’s modeling career during the height of the supermodel era in the 1980s and 1990s, writing that Patitz possessed an exoticism and broad emotional range that set her apart from her peers. In her 2012 memoir, creative director of Vogue Grace Coddington regarded Patitz as one of the original supermodels and a must in photographs and on the catwalk. Harper’s Bazaar wrote, “Indeed, Patitz’s features almost confuse. Like Garbo or the Mona Lisa, the inexplicable gifts of line and luminescence defy definition.” Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour stated that Patitz had always been one of her favorite models. Patitz’s work bridged the eras of the exhibitionist 1980s and the minimalist 1990s in an enduring way, as Barker concluded, “The most lasting images of her are when she was really looking like herself.”

Along with Michael J. Fox, she appears in the 2011 Carl Zeiss AG calendar, photographed by Bryan Adams in New York City in the summer of 2010.

In 2000, she appeared in the Korn music video for the song “Make Me Bad”.

Patitz also shared another cover with the supermodels of the era for the centennial issue of American Vogue (April 1992) photographed by Patrick Demarchelier.

The decade began with Patitz on the January covers of both the American and British editions of Vogue. She shared the British Vogue cover with Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington; the portrait of the five women is regarded as the cover that sparked the supermodel phenomenon of the 1990s, helping each woman attain global appeal. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, the cover inspired pop star George Michael to cast Patitz, Crawford, Evangelista, Turlington and Campbell in his music video for the song “Freedom! ’90” which was directed by David Fincher. Michael did not appear in the video; instead, each woman would lip-synch the song in Michael’s place.

Patitz and her co-stars were already top stars in the fashion world but were now gaining major recognition for their beauty and charisma outside of it too. The music video was programmed into heavy rotation on MTV, going on to transcend the worlds of pop culture, music, and fashion in the 1990s and remaining influential in the decades to come.

Like other famous beauties before her, Tatjana Patitz possesses a certain extraterrestrial quality, an aura of exquisite otherworldliness only too effortlessly capable of freezing mere mortals in their tracks…She’s the fitting embodiment of the nineties ideal: a cool customer who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. Rarely have blonde hair and blue eyes managed to look quite so exotic – with her trademark world-weary gaze and her loose-limbed aristocratic bearing, Patitz often seems as if she’s just been awakened from a divinely decadent dream. – ELLE (April 1990)

In 1990, Patitz was featured in George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” music video, along with Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell.

“I don’t want to do anything for fame or money or glamour or anything like that…I think people are coming to a higher awareness in the world. Everything is polluted – the oceans, the forests…and people are killing each other all over the place without realizing that we all belong together and have to share this place. Maybe I’m dreaming, but I’m hopeful.” – Tatjana Patitz, Model Magazine, December 1989

In the final months of 1989, Patitz was photographed with other top models in two portraits that would become key images of the supermodel era of the 1990s: “Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989” by Herb Ritts; and Peter Lindbergh’s cover of the January 1990 issue of British Vogue.

In 1989, Patitz went to live on a ranch in Malibu, California where in 2009 she was reported to have four horses, four dogs and two cats, commenting “I needed nature around me”. She has a son, Jonah, who was born in 2004, and is separated from his father, a marketing executive.

During this period, Patitz met Los Angeles-based photographer Herb Ritts, with whom she shared another significant and enduring collaboration in fashion, fine art, and commercial work, like a muse playing any role he suggested – mermaid, sprite, surfer girl, plainswoman, movie star. Ritts said of Patitz, “Her features are a bit off; she’s not a typical, commercial beauty, but when I shoot her, I’m never bored. Her looks have power, strength, intensity.” Patitz was the subject of his work Tatjana Veiled Head (Tight View), Joshua Tree 1988.

In another 1988 Vogue article titled “Tatjana: Million Dollar Beauty”, Patitz’s creative team shared their impressions of her: “In pictures, her sensitivity is what comes through; something delicate, fragile, exciting. It’s a strange mixture of lazy sensuality and moments of intense emotion,” said John Casablancas, president of Elite Model Management. “It’s hard to get a bad picture of Tatjana. She’s very photogenic, which is very rare, and she looks different in every light,” added photographer Patrick Demarchelier. “While some models develop one look, she has many.”

In 1987, she appeared in the Duran Duran music video for the song “Skin Trade”. She then moved to California to begin a career as an actress. In 1988 she appeared in the Nick Kamen music video for “Tell Me”. Her first appearance was a brief one as a murder victim in Rising Sun (1993). Following this, Patitz made several appearances on television series, music videos, and films. Her largest role was in the 1999 thriller Restraining Order.

In 1986, she appeared on two covers of the Italian edition of Vogue and continued to be featured in editorials in the American and British editions of Vogue. Patitz appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein photographed by Bruce Weber, and in 1987 for Revlon’s “The Most Unforgettable Women in the World” campaign photographed by Richard Avedon. Avedon also photographed Patitz for her first cover of American Vogue (May 1987), which is regarded as one of the definitive covers of the 1980s. Vogue began regularly including Patitz’s name on the pages of fashion editorials as early as 1987, familiarizing readers not only with her face, but also with her personality.

The December 1985 issue of Vogue featured Irving Penn’s photograph, “Colored Contact Lenses”, showing Patitz wearing contact lenses over closed eyelids. The image would later be featured in the 1992 book “On The Edge: Images from 100 Years of Vogue” as one of the iconic photographs of the era.

In 1983 at the age of 17, Patitz entered and became a finalist in the Elite Model Look (formerly known as Elite Models’ “Look of the Year” contest), and based on a Polaroid, she was placed third by Elite Model Management founder John Casablancas. Patitz won a contract and moved to Paris to begin working as a model. Though not an immediate success, by 1985, Patitz worked regularly and at the end of that year, she modelled for the cover of British Vogue, her first major cover.

As the decade progressed, Patitz’s career escalated and she was credited with expanding ideals of female beauty. Patitz and a select group of individual-looking, business-minded, high-profile fashion models emerged and came to be known as the original supermodels. A photograph showing Patitz with them laughing on the beach was taken by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue during this period. Simply titled “White Cotton Shirts”, the image, now regarded as an iconic fashion photograph, was accompanied by an article that singled out Patitz for her “astonishing presence”, praising her “uncosmeticised womanliness, new and important in the 1980s.”

Her versatility was exemplified by the changing of her hair color and style with each passing year during the late 1980s, from short-haired brunette to tawny mane to long and blond. For an April 1989 editorial titled “Earthly Powers” in British Vogue, hair stylist Didier Malige cut and restyled Patitz’s foot-long blonde hair into a cropped shag just above her shoulders. “Once I cut my hair – I cried for two months,” Patitz told Esquire magazine. “People said, ‘We can’t believe she cut her hair.'” But the move won Patitz covers of British and French editions of Vogue featuring her new look.

The pinnacle of that year came in July and August when Patitz was awarded with consecutive covers of US Vogue – two months in a row. It was an unprecedented achievement for a model of that time and an innovation for the recently revamped Vogue under the leadership of new editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. This period was the zenith of Patitz’s career, known as “the era of Tatjana” in the fashion industry – a whirlwind time when she seemed destined to walk away with the title of supermodel herself.

Tatjana Patitz (born 25 May 1966) is a German model and actress who achieved international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s representing fashion designers on runways and in magazines such as Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. Patitz is one of the “big five” supermodels who appeared in the 1990 music video “Freedom! ’90” by George Michael, and is associated with the editorial, advertising, and fine-art works of photographers Herb Ritts and Peter Lindbergh.

you may like: Rohan Marley