Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LOS ANGELES: Tatjana Patitz, one of the supermodels dominating the fashion industry in the 80s and 90s, commanding huge payouts for photoshoots, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, her agent said.
The German-born Patitz was one of a few ladies of the time whose appearance and sense of fashion drove them to worldwide fame beyond modelling.
The Model CoOp, Corinne Nicolas, who heads a Manhattan-based business, told AFP that Patitz passed away in California on Wednesday morning. Nicolas said that Patitz had been ill but gave no details.
Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Patitz appeared in the music video for George Michael’s 1990 hit song “Freedom!”
Tatjana was different from other supermodels
According to Vogue magazine, despite her distinguished professional company, Patitz had always seemed different from other supermodels.
The soft oval of Patitz’s face and the shape of her eyes, which spoke of passion and self-possession, was described as having a certain air of mystery by the magazine. It stated that Patitz’s attractiveness was “womanly and knowing, not that of the wide-eyed ingenue” and that she was a force to be reckoned with thanks to her acting skills.
Born in Hamburg, Patitz was born in Hamburg and later moved to a small Swedish town with her German father and Estonian mother at an early age. Her breakthrough in modeling came in 1983 when she won a limited-term contract and a trip to Paris. She later settled in California, where she was photographed in recent years around her ranch near Santa Barbara with her son, Jonah.
Lindbergh’s foundation Twitter account paid tribute to Patitz, “We would like to salute Tatjana’s kindness, inner beauty, and superior intelligence…She will be immensely missed.”
