Feuding in the fashion industry is more than just catfights. Sometimes it's subtweets and
brown-nosing on Instagram. Here are a few super famous models who could simply never get along.
Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell's feud is as legendary as the models themselves.
According to Banks, it all began in 1991 when she
arrived in Paris as a newbie and not only scored magazine covers,
but landed a historic 25 runaway shows. Then the comparisons started. Banks told Skavlan in 2016,
"I did really well really fast, but then the industry was saying, 'Oh,
look out Naomi Campbell, here comes Tyra Banks!'"
Apparently, Campbell didn't appreciate that and turned on Banks.
"To this day, I'm very scared of her [...] It was
very difficult — like some of the lowest times of my life — dealing with that."
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal in 2019, Banks stated,
"I was going home at night crying my eyes out because a woman that I was looking up to seemed
like she just didn't want me to be there, and was doing everything in her power to make me go away."
They didn't speak for over a decade until they reunited on Banks' talk show in 2005 to hash
things out. Banks accused Campbell of trying to sabotage her career and calling her names;
Campbell said she remembered their interactions differently
and flat-out denied some claims. But in the end, she apologized.
Even so, it seems their feud wasn't squashed. Per Page Six, in 2020,
Campbell shared a TheThings article titled "Here's Why Fans Are Starting
To Think Tyra Banks Is The Real Mean Girl, Not Naomi Campbell."
Elle Macpherson was everywhere in the '90s and she was simply known as "The
Body." The moniker got its start when Macpherson landed on the cover of Time
in the '80s and the publication gave her that nickname. She then fully embraced the title,
even launching a line of intimates called The Body. Unsurprisingly, when Heidi Klum suddenly
started using the nickname, Macpherson wasn't impressed and even considered taking legal action.
It all started in a 2006 Victoria's Secret ad starring Klum.
"When I got into this business, they called me The Body."
She later argued it wasn't her doing. According
to the Daily Mail Klum told Harper's Bazaar Australia,
"It's not like I called myself The Body. It wasn't like, 'Elle, I'm taking over this title.'"
Even so, Macpherson's spokesperson told New York Daily News,
"We were initially flabbergasted [...] In terms of public record, that name belongs to Elle."
Adding fuel to the feud was a 2014 decision by lingerie brand Bendon to replace longtime
creative director Macpherson with Klum. As the latter told Harper's Bazaar Australia,
she was merely offered the job, not actively trying out to get Macpherson. Yet again,
Macpherson wasn't buying it. She quipped to The Telegraph,
"Why would I be angry? That they took my clothes
and ripped out the labels and put somebody else's in?"
In 1992, 17-year-old Kate Moss landed a Calvin Klein ad campaign to help
catapult her into the limelight. In one of the images, shared by Mirror,
the future supermodel posed topless alongside a shirtless Mark Wahlberg
and while the snaps were a hit, things were tough behind the scenes. Moss said,
"I was such a nervous wreck. At the time he was such a d—head. He wasn't very nice.
Even Calvin Klein admitted,
"Oh my god, [Mark] and Kate couldn't stand each other."
At the time, Wahlberg wasn't exactly keen on playing nice in the public eye either.
After they worked together, he took a dig at Moss' appearance, telling Nuts magazine,
"She kind of looked like my nephew."
Cut to 2020 when he insisted to The Guardian that
there was never a feud between them, but did vaguely admit,
"I think I was probably a little rough around the edges."
And he was right. Moss told Vanity Fair in 2012 she still regrets doing the shoot. She confessed,
"I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18,
when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts. I felt really bad
about straddling this buff guy [...] I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks."
She later told BBC's Desert Island Discs in 2022 that she has no good memories of that project,
noting that she didn't feel confident. She said,
"He was very macho, and it was all about him."
"The best protection against AIDS is to keep your Calvins on. Now
that could definitely come between me and my Calvins."
Back in 2016, Rebecca Romijn told Entertainment Tonight that she's not a fan of social media
celebrities, like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, being booked as models. She said,
"No one has proven yet that numbers of followers translates to revenue,
so it is frustrating [...] They are not true supermodels."
She then turned on Vogue and other publications for fueling the shift, saying
"I have been disappointed that fashion magazines
have been supporting this trend of social media stars to set our style standards."
Those bold comments sent Gigi Hadid's mom, Yolanda Hadid, into protective mama mode. Taking
to Twitter, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star clapped back at Romijn, writing,
"Kind, hard working and they accomplished more at half your age in the fashion industry."
Instead of apologizing, Romijn blamed the outlet for misrepresenting her. She told People Magazine,
"I just couldn't believe that she got so involved. [...] Her daughters' names never
came into the original conversation. I was speaking purely about how fashion
shouldn't be following social media. Fashion should be leading the way."
Romijn also took to Twitter to message Jenner and
Hadid directly. Calling the story clickbait, she wrote,
"Never talked smack about you. Both amazing & beautiful."
Rebecca Romijn's controversial comments may have upset Yolanda Hadid, but they
did get support from one supermodel: Stephanie Seymour. When Vanity Fair asked Seymour whether
she agreed that influencers shouldn't be considered supermodels, she mused,
"They are completely different than we were. ​​[Kendall and Gigi] are beautiful girls,
and I support all of them, but they need their own title."
Her suggestion?
"B--ches of the moment."
Jenner wasn't impressed by the joke. Taking to her app, via E! News, the former reality
star fired back at Seymour. She noted that she used to look up to Seymour as a model and said,
"No one is trying to steal Stephanie Seymour's thing,
or trying to be her. [...] When I'm older, I'm going to be so nice to
anyone who's trying to do the same thing as me [...] That's the classy way to behave."
Seymour then walked her comments back a bit. On Instagram,
she argued that her comments had been playful and insisted,
"There were no names mentioned, and NO ill intent involved. [...] A supermodel is a supermodel. I
respect and admire all these women in my industry, in particular Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner."
After "America's Next Top Model" made its way to Hulu, Tyra Banks' more questionable
behavior in those old episodes came under fire. And according to Janice Dickinson's account,
she wasn't just inconsiderate towards contestants. As Dickinson told Film On following her exit,
Banks was apparently rude to her on a regular basis during her four-season
stint on the series. She also claimed Cover Girl had the final say in who won each season.
Years later, Dickinson gave another interview about "ANTM." On a 2015 episode of "Oprah:
Where Are They Now," she apologized for her prior remarks about Banks.
"I've said some pretty bad things in the past because I had been
fired. I was very hurt that I'd been fired and so I acted out."
It seems the water wasn't totally under the bridge. On a 2021 episode
of the "Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef" podcast, she said,
"Sitting next to Tyra for hours and hours can be daunting because she didn't really like me."
Dickinson did appear to acknowledge that she dished it out a bit, too,
noting that she didn't see Banks as her boss, but went on to claim that
the series host and EP simply doesn't get along with other women in general.
The '90s was the golden age of supermodels. There were huge names
taking the industry by storm — think Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington,
Claudia Schiffer — and two of the biggest were Kristen McMenamy and Linda Evangelista.
However, despite all that star power, Donatella Versace told Love magazine in 2010,
"It was a time when designers were afraid of models with fame."
According to her, there was a question of whether or not the designs would
be overshadowed, but she was ready to embrace the star power. As she put it,
"Fame on fame means more fame!"
Gianni Versace was on board, and as Donatella told the outlet, she relished in the backstage
drama between the supermodels. McMenamy and Evangelista were especially prone
to catfights and Donatella was often asked to referee, which she did gladly. She told Love,
"Between [Kristen] and Linda, it was like watching a movie that never ends."
The legendary designer remembered one spat in particular where the
two supermodels apparently butted heads over the hair on their heads. Donatella shared,
"Kristen had arrived with black roots in blonde hair, and Linda arrived with black
roots in blonde hair; and both of them went mad, both saying they were first."
When Paulina Porizkova was tapped to replace Twiggy on "America's Next Top Model" in 2007,
she couldn't have imagined she'd be dropped just a
year later. Porizkova herself broke the news on "The Late Late Show."
"I was fired by America's Next Top Model on my birthday. They timed it well."
She continued,
"I wasn't aware of [my ego] until I was told by the producers that I have an ego problem."
The supermodel then told Access Hollywood that
she had butted heads with Banks over punctuality. She lamented,
"I must admit I was having a little bit of an issue with Tyra being late for every judging."
What's more, Porizkova also claimed that Banks never once spoke to her. As for Banks,
she responded with an official statement, saying, per The Cut,
that it simply came down to budget cuts. She elaborated,
"We've had to make significant cuts in every area of the production and,
unfortunately, Paulina was a casualty of these cuts."
The pair eventually made up when they posed together at
a 2019 Sports Illustrated party. Porizkova shared the snap on her
Instagram and praised Banks for how she had handled their on-set feud. She wrote,
"While I was happily b--ching to anyone who'd listen,
she kept her cool, and didn't stoop to my level [...] Thanks for the lesson, Tyra."
Way to put the "aww" in "model."