Tatiana Patitz, one of an elite group of famous supermodels who graced magazine covers in the 1980s and 1990s and appeared in George Michael’s Freedom! Music video ’90, died at 56.
Patitz’s death in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area was confirmed by her New York agent Corinne Nicholas of the Model CoOp agency. Nicola said the cause was an illness, but did not give further details.
Patitz, who was born in Germany, raised in Sweden and later built her life in California, was known as part of an elite handful of “original” supermodels appearing in Michael’s video alongside Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford.
She was a favorite of fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who highlighted her natural beauty in his famous 1988 shoot, White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu, and for the 1990 cover of British Vogue – prompting Michael to choose the group in his lip sync video, according to Vogue.
The magazine quoted its global editorial director, Anna Wintour, as saying that Patitz “has always been the European symbol of chic, like Romy Schneider meets Monica Vitti. She was much less noticeable than her peers – more mysterious, older, more elusive – and that had its appeal.”
In a 2006 interview, Patitz opined that the golden age of supermodels was over.
German model Tatiana Patitz, second from left, is seen in a photo taken by German photographer Peter Lindbergh during the run-up to the 35th edition of the FIAC International Contemporary Art Fair at the Grand Palais in Paris. Also pictured from left are Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder and Stephanie Seymour. (Lionel Bonaventura/AFP/Getty Images)
“There was a real era and the reason it happened was because glamor was brought into it,” she was quoted as saying by Prestige Hong Kong magazine. “Now the celebrities and actresses have taken over and the models are completely in the backseat.”
She also noted that models of her era had stronger physiques.
“The women were healthy, not these scrawny little models that nobody knows their names anymore,” Patitz said.
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