German model Tatjana Patitz, famous for being part of the group of “original supermodels” of the ’80s and ’90s who starred in a video by musician George Michael, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, her agency said with and confirmed information from Vogue magazine.
“Tatiana died this morning in California,” where she resided, told AFP in an email Corinne Nicolas, founder and head of modeling agency The Model CoOp on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue in New York.
According to New York fashion magazine Vogue, which revealed the information, she did not reveal the circumstances of her disappearance at the age of 56.
The renowned German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who died in 2019, had always been Tatjana Patitz’s darling and had photographed her since the 1980s “Peter” and “[wanted to]bow to Tatjana’s kindness, inner beauty and incredible intelligence”.
German-born, Swedish-raised and California-based Tatjana Patitz “has always been the symbol of European chic, like Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti meeting,” Vogue patron Anna Wintour told her own magazine.
She was part of the elite group of “original supermodels” of the 1980s-90s, along with models Estelle Lefébure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. The six women appear in a famous photo taken on a beach by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue in 1988 (“White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu”).
Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford also appear and sing to George Michael’s vocals in the famous music video for “Freedom!”. “90” by the British singer-songwriter who died in 2016.
Tatjana Patitz was the “quietest and perhaps most intense of the ‘original supermodels,'” Vogue told Vogue, echoing a statement the model made during a 2020 interview: “I never sold my soul.”