New York Fashion Week: celebrate eight decades of the seasonal runways with a look back at the most iconic supermodels

It’s been 72 years since the first ever Fashion Week hit the New York runway in 1943

The Evening Standard's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

1/28
Charlie Teather18 February 2016

As New York Fashion Week kicks off a month of eagerly anticipated runway shows in the four fashion capitals, we're flashing back to take a look at what made the most iconic supermodels of the last eight decades so, well, iconic.

In collaboration with up-and-coming fashion illustrator, Shira Barzilay, global leader in fashion for tall women Long Tall Sally have created a list of 27 supermodels and discussed what made them so successful.

From Carmen Dell'Orefice and Jean Patchett through to Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner, the list moves through the decades as it visits the likes of doe-eyed 60s icon Twiggy as well as arbiter of the 90s 'heroin chic' trend, Kate Moss.

Depicting the evolution of 'desirable' body shapes in the industry, 50s icon Dovima shows off a 19 inch waist compared to today's models who are more likely to be nearer the 23-25 inch mark.

In terms of height, the first model on the list, Dorian Leigh, would be seen as remarkably short in today's world reching just 5ft 5". With Jourdan Dunn almost 5ft 11" and Karlie Kloss towering over the majority of us at 6ft 1", it's clear to see that the scale of requirements for a catwalk model have changed dramatically.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in