One of the most iconic faces of fashion during the 90s, Helena Christensen graced the catwalk of every top designer. Now the face of lingerie brand Coco de Mer, here she talks about her passion for photography, love of vintage and the charities close to her heart
Words BECKY DONALDSON
Memories that Helena Christensen made during the “very intense, hectic and mind-blowing” 90s are still coming back to her now. Alongside Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson, these original supermodels became as famous, if not more so, than the designers whose clothes they modelled.
Beautiful for their originality and personality, in 1996 Frank DeCaro of The New York Times dubbed them The Magnificent Seven, declaring they were known simply by their first names to their many fans.
“People tell me how much joy they have had growing up with the fashion, images and group of girls I was with,” she tells us from her mountain hideaway in the Catskills, upstate New York. “Very tender declarations of how much it meant to them and how much it means to them still.”
Being the most in-demand models in fashion history, the supers would do eight shows a day during the international collections and worked for every big-name brand and prestigious magazine.
Working hard, but driving each other, at the height of her success she couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of their collective force. “It took me a long time to know what it really was and it’s actually still hard to describe.
“Everything fell into place in a divine moment, because it was so special and unique and kept having that effect and impression and influence. I sometimes talk about myself during that time in the third person, and then I realise… you were there, you were part of it – and that makes me feel so proud and grateful.”
Known for her trademark red lips and dark eyeliner, today Helena, who is comfortably slouched on a sofa with her pet dog Kuma at her side, radiates her pared-back natural beauty: fresh-faced; hair tied into a top-knot and wearing an oversized sweater.
Born in Copenhagen, Helena is Danish on her father’s side and her mother Elsa, who owns a vintage shop called Yo-Yo in Christianshavn, is Peruvian.
Helena’s modelling career started at 17 when she won the Miss Universe Denmark crown in 1986. She then represented Denmark in the Miss Universe 1986 pageant in Panama. The following year she became a finalist in the Look of the Year 1987 competition, subsequently leaving home to pursue modelling in Paris.
Now a successful
