the.com/supermodel
A human being paid absurdly well to make clothes look like someone else's problem.
means A fashion model so famous and in-demand that she (or he) becomes a celebrity brand in their own right, rather than just a hanger for the clothes.
from A straightforward fusion of 'super' (from Latin super, 'above, beyond') plus 'model,' which traces back to Latin modulus, a small measure or standard — originally someone who posed as a pattern for artists to copy. The word 'supermodel' existed in a minor way for decades, but it only became a real cultural title in the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, when a handful of models crossed over into fame and fortune that rivaled movie stars — becoming, in effect, their own standard rather than a measure of something else.
- term coined
- popularized by 1980s fashion press, not models themselves
- economics
- top earners made more than entire design houses
- myth busted
- height matters more than conventional beauty
- shelf life
- careers often peak before age twenty-five