Claudia Schiffer is a German model and creative director of her own clothing label. Schiffer
rose to popularity and became a household name during the early 1990s as one of the
world's most successful models. In her early career, she was said to resemble Brigitte
Bardot. She appeared on more than 1000 magazine covers and continues to front global campaigns
for luxury fashion and fragrance houses. In 2002, Forbes estimated her net worth at about
US$55 million.
Early life Schiffer was born in Rheinberg, Germany, a
small town 15 km northwest of Duisburg. She is the daughter of Gudrun and Heinz Schiffer,
a lawyer. She has two brothers, Stefan and Andreas, and one sister, Ann Carolin.
Schiffer said she was popular in high school, but she has revealed that, because she was
so tall, she became very shy and did not want to be noticed. She was also subjected to jealousy
by others as she came from a wealthy family that was well-known locally. Schiffer is fluent
in three languages – German, English and French.
She originally wanted to become a lawyer and used to work in her father's law firm. She
later dropped these aspirations when, in October 1987 at 17, she was spotted in a nightclub
in Düsseldorf by Michel Levaton, the boss of Metropolitan Model Agency who signed her
up to become a model. Modeling
Schiffer completed her education and then began to work as a model. She flew out to
Paris for a trial photo shoot and soon after she appeared on the cover of French Elle after
being well received in Paris. In the early 1990s, she starred in the highly publicised
Guess? Jeans campaigns. Paul Marciano said in E! Forbes Top 15 Supermodel Beauties Who
Made Bank, "Guess name became really much more known around the world because [of] Claudia".
After several other magazine appearances including the cover of British Vogue shot by Herb Ritts,
Schiffer quickly achieved supermodel status and was selected by Karl Lagerfeld to become
the new face of Chanel. She went on to become world famous, instantly recognisable with
her blue eyes, blonde hair and tall figure, standing at 1.81 m.
Schiffer appeared on the November 1999 millennium cover of Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses".
Named as one of the most beautiful women in the world, her ability to appeal to a global
audience has assured an internationally successful career spanning more than 25 years. Schiffer
was the first model to make the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New York Times
and People and has appeared numerous times on covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle,
Cosmopolitan and Time. Schiffer has appeared on the catwalk for numerous fashion houses,
including Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Valentino.
As well as endorsing luxury brands, Schiffer has appeared as the face of high street retailers
including Mango and Accessorize, and had her ears pierced for the first time specially
for the 2006 Autumn/Winter Accessorize campaign. She has also featured in commercials for Pepsi
and Fanta. From her appearances in a 1998 Citroën advertisement she allegedly earned
£3 million. Schiffer still holds a contract with L'Oréal and is one of their longest
standing ambassadors. Karl Lagerfeld photographed Schiffer for a
Dom Pérignon campaign, around 17 years after her first appearance for Chanel. Schiffer
has appeared in recent campaigns for Chanel, YSL, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dolce & Gabbana.
Most recently she appeared as the face of the Chanel A/W11 Eyewear Campaign She is signed
to a few agencies solely for her modelling interests including d'management group in
Milan, 1/One Management in New York City and Marilyns in Paris. Her mother agency is Model
Management in Hamburg. Schiffer was a judge on Fashion Fringe in 2011. In 2012, she posed
again for Guess black and white ads marking the brand's 30th anniversary.
Claudia Schiffer Cashmere Schiffer launched her eponymous cashmere collection
during Paris Fashion Week in March 2011. The Autumn–Winter 2011 season saw her fashion
design debut and has been followed by a Spring–Summer 2012 collection. The collection is sold globally
in department stores and high-end boutiques. Schiffer is the creative director of the brand.
Media appearances
Schiffer has appeared in a number of films and music videos. Her first appearance in
film was in the children's movie Richie Rich in 1994 and then starred opposite Dennis Hopper
and Matthew Modine in The Blackout. She then went onto appear in Friends & Lovers, Black
and White in 1999, In Pursuit and Life Without Dick in 2001, and then Love Actually in a
semi-cameo role. Schiffer has made other cameo appearances in films including Ben Stiller's
Zoolander. Schiffer has appeared on several talk shows
such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, Late Show with David Letterman, Late
Night with Conan O'Brien, The Jonathan Ross Show, and sitcoms Dharma & Greg and Arrested
Development. She also appeared for Comic Relief in boyband Westlife's music video for Uptown
Girl and in 2000, she made a cameo appearance in Bon Jovi's video for "Say It Isn't So".
Schiffer has released four exercise videos, entitled Claudia Schiffer's Perfectly Fit,
which were successful and reached the best seller list. Schiffer has hosted the French
Fashion Awards and the World Music Awards in Monaco.
With fellow models Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Elle Macpherson, Schiffer was
joint owner of a chain of restaurants called the Fashion Café in 1995. Schiffer remains
a prominent figure in German society and helped present and carry the trophy with Pelé during
the opening ceremonies at the 2006 World Cup. She also presented Prince William with a polo
trophy in 2002. When talking about the model profession at
present, she said: "Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more."
Charity Claudia began her involvement with UNICEF
by becoming a member of the Arts & Entertainment Support Committee and is currently a UK Goodwill
Ambassador for the organisation. Claudia was also a spokesman for Make Poverty History
where she appeared in the powerful Click advertisement. In July 2005, she appeared as a presenter
at both the Berlin and Edinburgh Live 8 concerts. Personal life
Early in her career, Schiffer was romantically linked to a number of celebrities including
Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, Prince Albert of Monaco, and singer Peter Gabriel.
Schiffer was engaged to the magician David Copperfield for about five years from 1994
until 1999. They first met in 1993 at one of Copperfield's shows in Germany, where Schiffer
was invited on stage to take part in his flying illusion. While they were engaged, Schiffer
sometimes appeared on stage with Copperfield to act as his special guest assistant in a
number of illusions including being levitated, guillotined and sawn in half. In 1997, Copperfield
and Schiffer both sued Paris Match after the magazine claimed their relationship was a
stunt, that Schiffer was paid for pretending to be Copperfield's fiancée and that she
didn't even like him. In 1999, Schiffer won an undisclosed sum and a retraction from Paris
Match when a French court ruled that the magazine's story was false. Copperfield's publicist confirmed
that while Schiffer had a contract to appear in the audience at Copperfield's show in Berlin
where they met, she was not under contract to be his "consort".
Following her break-up with Copperfield, she had a short relationship with art dealer and
Green Shield Stamp heir Tim Jefferies. On 25 May 2002, she married the film director
Matthew Vaughn in Suffolk. Schiffer and Vaughn have three children: son Caspar Matthew de
Vere and daughters Clementine Poppy and Cosima Violet.
Schiffer had two significant problems with harassment in the past. In 2002, an Italian
kitchen porter was arrested after making nine visits to Schiffer's £5 million Coldham Hall
mansion near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, attempting to see her. Charges against him were dropped
however, as he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He believed that the Pope had
told him to marry Schiffer. In 2004, a Canadian man was accused of harassing Schiffer, also
at her mansion in Suffolk. He called at her mansion in the hope of seeing her. He also
repeatedly left letters at her home. In 2006, Schiffer and her husband were twice
spoken to by policemen from the local Suffolk force after a number of incidents involving
their two dogs, an Irish wolfhound and a German shepherd, and local people using the public
footpath across the grounds of their Coldham Hall home. These included severely mauling
a Jack Russell being walked on the footpath, chasing deer on the estate, intimidating people
using the footpath, and biting one of the local postmen.
In May 2014, up to 50 firefighters were reported to have responded to a fire at the home. A
number of outbuildings and stables, including a clock tower, were damaged in the fire, which
took crews more than two hours to extinguish. Right fire crews managed to prevent the flames
from spreading to the Grade I-listed hall. Filmography
Appearances in documentaries See also
Fashion Cafe References
External links Official website
Claudia Schiffer at the Fashion Model Directory Claudia Schiffer at the Internet Movie Database