Incredible Woman

Crawford recognizes that there have been plenty of upsides for them both. “We’ve had these special moments that, if I wasn’t in fashion, we wouldn’t have had. Like when we were both in the Versace show in 2017. I wasn’t there as Kaia’s mom, and she wasn’t there as my daughter. She was there, I was there, both for our own reasons, and there’ve been a few of those little moments. I love whenever I get to work with Kaia. It’s really fun.” Beyond their obvious physical similarities – cascading brunette hair, sharply defined cheekbones, dark expressive eyes and all-American smiles – the most comparable trait Kaia shares with her mother is her renowned work ethic, which has no doubt contributed to her own success in the industry.

Crawford is, and has always been, the utmost professional. Whatever string to her illustrious bow she is pulling, she does it with precision, never missing her target, always delivering and always on time. We know her as an incredible model, mother, entrepreneur and wife, a self-made woman from the Midwest who, now at 60, has been working pretty much continuously for five out of her six decades. Is she thinking about stopping anytime soon? “At times I’ve been tempted to step back more, but I don’t want to add to that idea that women of a certain age need to be more invisible. Even though there are days when I feel like, ‘Oh, why did I say yes to the shoot?’ – or maybe, ‘It’s time’.” The question of retirement follows her like it does so many icons, but she is typically pragmatic on the subject: “Modeling really is a skill that you get better at. It’s probably like a football player or a soccer player having to choose when they want to retire. You’re like… but I still like it.”

It certainly doesn’t feel like ‘it’s time’ for Crawford just yet. She has carved a career out of taking chances other models might have been afraid to take, from doing Playboy and her MTV show House of Style to starring in the 1995 thriller Fair Game and, most recently, walking in the Gucci Cruise show in New York’s Times Square. Talk of her two Playboy spreads shot by legendary photographer Herb Ritts (in 1988 and 1998) still brings a small but defiant smile to her face. “The first time I did Playboy, I said, ‘I don’t want money. I want control’. I had approval of the pictures. I even had approval to kill the story if I didn’t like it,” she says before pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Maybe some people would still question that decision, even though we were shooting for Vogue at the same time, and you couldn’t tell what was for what because for French Vogue you could do topless. So, I think I stand by that decision, and because of that, I got MTV and things like Pepsi that were more appealing to men and women, and not just fashion.”

I attempt to call her a trailblazer and she’s quick to bat the compliment away. “I think in some ways I get more credit than I deserve, because it wasn’t like I had this master plan. But what I did do is I took chances, and you know, if there wasn’t a good reason to say no, I was like, ‘Let’s try’.” It’s a strategy that has served her well and one that has delivered iconic moments. Be it playing her part in George Michael’s Freedom! ’90 video (and the subsequent supermodel lip sync to the track at the finale of Gianni Versace’s fall/winter 1991 show) or dressed as George Washington on the inaugural cover of JFK Jr.’s George Magazine in 1995, Crawford’s willingness to say yes has certainly paid off.

Her latest roll of the dice saw her create another iconic Crawford fashion moment with Gucci creative director Demna for the house’s aforementioned Cruise 2027 takeover of Times Square in May. Surrounded by its famous neon lights and giant screens, she closed the show in a dramatic feathered black strapless gown.“The dress was so heavy and my heel came out of my shoe right when I walked out and I never got it back in. But that dress was so big you couldn’t see it. I was like, ‘Just don’t lose the shoe. Just keep the shoe on. I don’t want to be like Cinderella’.” Naturally, no one noticed this minor wardrobe malfunction, such is Crawford’s unparalleled professionalism. Her return to the runway wasn’t without reservation, but support from a fellow model was on hand. “Kaia was very supportive and proud of me for doing it because she knew I was like, ‘Wait, is this a good idea or a bad idea?’ and it was such a big show.” From a pre-show lunch to the afterparty, Crawford’s daughter was by her side, just as Crawford had been for Kaia in her early modeling days. “I think seeing me do something that I had some nerves about is good for her to see.”

‘Cindy Crawford’ the brand might appear a paragon of perfection now, but for Crawford, it’s always been as much about taking risks and allowing yourself to fail as it is about hitting the target. A gamble that perhaps didn’t pay off professionally was her feature film debut, Fair Game. In it, Crawford plays Kate McQueen, a lawyer whose life becomes endangered when she discovers something she shouldn’t have. Enter William Baldwin, the police detective assigned to protect her, who she inevitably falls in love with. “You know, in retrospect, maybe I would have taken acting classes before I did it, but I’m proud of myself for doing it,” she says smiling. But for Crawford it offered an important lesson: “I realized that I’m only comfortable as myself in front of the camera. It was actually such a gift because I was able to let that [part of my career] go.”

She also credits her mom with informing her own approach to parenting her adult children. “My mother’s also a great mother because she’s pretty good at not giving advice unless you ask for it. I’ve realized that’s really hard to do, but now that my kids are older, I do try to.” With both Kaia and Presley making their own way in the world, Crawford and Rande have had to learn to sit back. “When they become adults, all of a sudden you’re like, okay, I’ve got to back off here. It might not be the way I would do it, but you know…” she concedes. Like so many parents who build their lives around their families, there has also had to be an adjustment in terms of her marriage. “When you get married, you talk about what kind of family you want or where we’re going to live. But no one ever talks about what this phase looks like, empty nesting, because it’s so far away you can’t even imagine it. But it’s an opportunity for us to redefine our relationship. What do we want to do, do we want to travel, do we not want to travel? We haven’t answered those questions yet but we’re asking the questions and it’s fun trying to figure that out together.”

There is plenty still keeping Crawford busy; her career, alongside Naomi Campbell perhaps, the most enduring of all the Supers. “I’ve already done so much. I couldn’t have dreamed of my career, right? I would have set the bar much lower,” she says, laughing. “One thing I really am looking forward to is being a grandmother. I’m at the age where a lot of my friends are starting to have grandkids, and even though I don’t think either one of my kids is close, I do hope I get to experience that, because it looks really fun.”

As we say goodbye, at precisely 08.59, I thank her and tell her how thrilled we are with the shoot, to which she replies, “I mean, I do shoots, but it’s PORTER, so it’s definitely Fashion with a capital F.”

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