When a supermodel dies early we lose the chance to see beauty at any age

We are meant to outgrow schoolboy crushes, but I cried this morning at the news of German supermodel Tatjana Patitz’s death from breast cancer, aged 56.

She was the Valkyrie-like beauty who seductively mouthed the words to George Michael’s Freedom ’90 through a cloud of cigarette smoke, alongside Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.

In the music video that upgraded models to celebrities, Evangelista was the chameleon, Crawford the all-American pin-up, Campbell the trailblazer and Turlington perfection, according to the 90s standard of beauty – but Patitz was my favourite. Her name didn’t become a brand, like Elle (Macpherson), Claudia (Schiffer) and Kate (Moss), but that was part of the attraction. Liking Patitz, along with Marpessa Hennink, Karen Alexander and Yasmeen Ghauri, separated you from fashion dilettantes.

As a 14-year-old thumbing through US Vogue, I felt like a model scout when I discovered Patitz in a 1987 advertisement for Revlon, alongside Iman and Jerry Hall. It was crush at first sight because of her almond-shaped eyes, symmetrical features, milkmaid skin and vowel-laden name.

I wasn’t alone, with US Vogue editor Anna Wintour part of the fan club.

“Tatjana was always the European symbol of chic, like Romy Schneider-meets-Monica Vitti,” Wintour said in Vogue’s report of Patitz’s death. “She was far less visible than her peers — more mysterious, more grown-up, more unattainable — and that had its own appeal.”

Patitz scored countless Vogue covers with photography greats Peter Lindbergh and Herb Ritts, a role in a 1988 Levi’s commercial opposite male model Bruce Hulse that was banned in the UK and lucrative campaigns for Chanel and L’Oréal. On the airbrushed surface there is very little for me to cry about.

I felt a similar loss, when supermodel Stella Tennant, granddaughter of Deborah Mitford, the Duchess of Devonshire, died by suicide in December 2020. The indie aristocratic Tennant, who worked with Versace, Alexander McQueen and Chanel, never reached crush status, my heart was already taken, but I felt robbed.