Super Models

It all starts with Cindy. Although the term supermodel has been floating about since the Forties, the modern definition arose by necessity to describe the break-out success of Cindy Crawford. Helped by her July 1988 pictorial in playboy, Cindy became a celebrity first and a model second. In the ensuing decade, new members of the supermodel genus (Vulpinus majoris) were identified. There were the girls-night-out trinity of Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell, and our cover girl, Claudia Schiffer, who in any given year can lay claim to being the highest-paid supermodel ($12 million in 1993 alone). Supermodels made fashion superhot. MTV, or Model Television, caught on with its House of Style and runway-meets-dance party events. Even stodgy VH1 began taping fashion-award shows. Now, as the curtain rises on playboy's second annual rite of spring, you'll see our collection has a goddess for every supplicant. The year of the supermodel has turned into the decade of the supermodel.