Francesca "Frankie" Rayder is an American model who appeared in the
annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show four times and in the Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit Issue twice. She has an extensive portfolio of covergirl
appearances for numerous high fashion magazines and was once a VH1/Vogue
Fashion Awards for Model of the Year nominee. She has performed in many
runway shows and has been featured in numerous print ad campaigns. At the peak
of her fame, she was an it girl according to The New York Times and GQ
once named her the Sexiest Woman in the World.
She is well known for her print work for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues, The
Gap holiday ads, a Godiva Chocolatier ad campaign and the 50th anniversary Ann
Taylor ad campaign. She has appeared on the cover of US Vogue, Vogue Paris,
Vogue Italia, British Vogue, German Vogue and Vogue España.
Rayder was engaged to Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player, Flea, with whom she
has one child. After giving birth in 2005, she took a hiatus from modeling
until 2008. At first, she only returned to print work, but she has also returned
to runway modeling in 2009. In her comeback, she achieved a Vogue España
cover in February 2009. She has a younger sister, Missy Rayder, who is
also a fashion model. Early years
Rayder was born in River Falls, Wisconsin, where she was known as Heidi
Rayder. As a teenager, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, a large city
close to her home town, where she was first approached by a model scout who
spurred her interest in the industry. Her first major success came in 1992,
when she met photographer Steven Meisel. Meisel booked her for a photo session,
which became the first of many. Rayder's first session were soon featured in the
magazine Italian Glamour. She is a graduate of River Falls High School,
where she played for the basketball team, and she began her modeling career
with Caryn Modeling & Talent Agency in Minneapolis. She worked at a golf
clubhouse in her youth. She was given the stage name Francesca to seem more
exotic. Career highlights
Rayder made her Paris runway debut on the 1997 fall runway for designers like
Chanel, Christian Lacroix, and Dries van Noten. In 1998, she was in high demand
and her booking prices were sometimes bid up to $25,000 by clients hoping to
pay her enough to cancel other appearances. In 1999, she became the
face of Givenchy and Meisel photographed her for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace ad
campaigns. In the fall of 2000, The New York Times referred to her and her
sister collectively as the famous Rayder Sisters. At the same time, it also
described Frankie as an it girl. In 1999, she became the face of
Givenchy. During Fashion Week 1999 in New York City, Rayder was booked solid
for four or five shows a day for designers such as Marc Jacobs, Badgley
Mischka, Daryl K, Tommy Hilfiger and John Bartlett in typical day. In 2000,
she was one of the top-priced models. That season she modelled in the
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Later that year she was a nominee at the 2000
VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards for Model of the year along with Gisele Bündchen,
Carmen Kass, Angela Lindvall, and Maggie Rizer, but Kass was the winner after
defending-winner Bundchen withdrew to host the show.
In 2003 she became the face of Chanel. Rayder worked New York Fashion Week for
top designers for several years. During the 40h Anniversary Swimsuit Issue
shooting, Stewart Shining photographed Rayder. Rayder is, along with Cheryl
Tiegs and Melissa Keller, one of several models associated with Minnesota who
have made a name in the Swimsuit Issue. She has also appeared in 1999, 2000,
2002, and 2003 Victoria's Secret fashion shows and a cameo role in the 2001 movie
Zoolander. In the early 2000s, GQ named her the Sexiest Woman in the World.
In 2004, she was one of the featured models in the 50-model 50th Anniversary
Ann Taylor ad campaign photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Rayder was also
mentioned in the press for several months for an ad campaign for Godiva
Chocolatier. In 2005, she appeared in ads, which also included models such as
Sophie Dahl, and Anouck Lepere, where the models posed lovingly with chocolate
goods for Valentine's Day in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle. The promotion
was for chocolate products that came with a "lottery" ticket that potentially
could give the buyer 52 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes, including one
custom-designed by Blahnik himself. The ads began receiving publicity in the
fall of 2004. Between 2004 and 2009, Rayder took a
hiatus from runway modeling. She returned to the stage in New York in
February 2009 for the Fall 2009 show. She had previously made a return to
print work in fall 2008 advertisement campaigns for both Stella McCartney and
Roberto Cavalli and for the 2008 Gap holiday campaign. Rayder also became
part of The Gap's United States and Japan 2009 spring/summer campaigns. As
part of her comeback, Rayder performed covergirl work for the February 2009
Vogue España and one of fourteen alternative covers for the September
2008 V magazine. Notable affiliations and appearances
Following her success, Rayder traveled to Miami Beach, New York, Paris, London,
and Milan, working for a number of agencies such as Company, Women Model
Management, Page 305, City Models, Take Two, Storm, and Why Not. Her
advertisement portfolio includes Givenchy, Valentino, Lagerfeld, Chanel,
Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, DKNY, Gap, and Tommy Hilfiger. Rayder has also
worked for designers such as Anne Klein, Matthew Williamson, Zac Posen, Marc
Jacobs, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, and Michael Kors, and appeared in a
number of magazines, including Elle, Vogue, The Face, Photo, Harper's Bazaar,
Allure, Rebel, and Marie Claire. Her magazine cover credits include: US
Vogue, Vogue Paris, Vogue Italia, British Vogue, German Vogue, Vogue
España, Vogue South Korea, Vogue Brazil, Elle France, Elle United States, and
Elle Germany. She was also featured in the 2004 and 2005 Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit Issue. She appeared in the video for Phoenix's "Funky Squaredance,"
which was directed by her then-boyfriend Roman Coppola.
Personal life In 2002 Rayder was falsely linked to
Nicolas Cage after his relationship with Lisa Marie Presley ended and when she
was dating his cousin Roman Coppola. Her relationship with Coppola was
widely-chronicled and serious; that year, she was close to marrying the son
of Francis Ford Coppola by some accounts. Early in her career Frankie
and her sister Missy lived across the street from each other. They were
featured together on the May 2000 cover of Harper's Bazaar. The Rayder sisters
appeared in holiday advertisements for Gap as siblings in 2003 to the tune of
"Put a Little Love in Your Heart". In later years, Missy and Frankie appeared
in Gap holiday advertisements as a pair. In 2004, Rayder started dating Red Hot
Chili Peppers' bass player, Michael "Flea" Balzary. In January 2005 the
couple publicly announced their engagement. On October 26, 2005 Rayder
gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Sunny Bebop Balzary.
Flea's former bandmate, John Frusciante, is Sunny's godfather.The song, "Hard to
Concentrate" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2006 album, Stadium Arcadium
was written by Anthony Kiedis as a wedding proposal for Flea and Rayder.
There are a total of four Rayder sisters and they have one brother and her father
continued to live in River Falls in 2004. Rayder and Balzary live together
in Malibu, California. Some sources state that the couple have married, but
no official confirmation is available. In the September 2010 issue of C
magazine, Frankie is featured with a group of women friends known as "The
L.A. Ladies Choir" which meets at her and Flea's house in Los Feliz. The
article goes on to mention that Flea is her husband and that he joins the
women's group playing bass. The choir's group is coming out with their first
album in September named "Joyfully." Rayder is a knowledgeable Boston Red Sox
fan, and she is also a Green Bay Packers fan. Rayder has volunteered her time for
programs for youth in the arts. Rayder has a tattoo on her back.
References External links
Frankie Rayder at the Fashion Model Directory, Internet Movie Database,
models.com, style.com, New York Magazine, One Thousand Models
Frankie Rayder on Askmen.com Frankie Rayder swimsuit picture gallery
at CNN/SI.com