Emily Mack
Janice Dickinson is many things: a reality TV personality, a businesswoman, an author, a mother, and of course, a famous model.. but was she really the world’s first supermodel? It’s a claim put out by Dickinson herself that’s propelled her career for decades. In fact, she says she coined the term in 1979.
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But is it true?
Supermodel Janice Dickinson
Born in Brooklyn but raised in Hollywood, Florida, Janice Dickinson returned to New York City as a young woman to pursue a career in modeling. It was the early 1970s, and though Dicksinon had won a national modeling contest, she struggled to land jobs.
“It was hideous,” Dickinson later said of that era’s modeling scene. “My look wasn’t the look that was selling. Eileen Ford told me my lips were too ethnic.” Although Dickinson is of Polish descent, her darker features stood amongst the sea of blondes — which worked for her in Europe.
Lorraine Bracco, who was Dickinson’s friend, put her on with her then-boyfriend, the fashion photographer Jacques Silberstein. From there, Dickinson secured an agent and found early success modeling overseas in Paris. By the time she returned to New York in 1978, Dickinson had established a reputation and was earning $2,000: well above the standard modeling rate.
Though Eileen Ford had rejected Dickinson all those years ago, she did eventually end up at Ford Models, modeling for their JVC camera campaign. But she did not stay for long. Quickly, Dickinson became one of 20 Ford models to leave the agency for Elite Model Management: the uber successful upstart by John Casablancas.
Before long, Dickinson was — what we now call —a supermodel. Her celebrity extended far beyond the elite world of fashion as Dickinson landed every major magazine cover: Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and even Playboy. From there, came the ad deals with major brands like Revlon and Christian Dior, and a reality TV career. One of those exploits, an Oxygen show called The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency followed Dickinson after she opened her own agency in 2005.
Much of the promotion for The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency doubled down on the claim that Dickinson was in fact the world’s first supermodel. No doubt Dickinson was, and is, a supermodel. But the idea that she was the first is simply untrue.
For decades, Dickinson has said that she invented the phrase back in 1979. “I was the world’s first supermodel, having coined the term in 1979… Look it up. I’m in the dictionary,” she told Glenn Beck in 2005. And in a 2015 Oprah special, she recounted the story in more detail:
“There have been other models before me that have been great legends and iconic beauties, but back in 1979 when I was working my ass off doing editorial, runway, spokesperson, catalog and advertising, none of the other girls were doing that. I was doing every job that I could to get my hands on money, so I could have money… [My agent] said, ‘You are working night and day. You are going to get ill. Who do you think you are? Superman?’ I said, ‘No, I’m Supermodel.'”
— Janice Dickinson via ET
Certainly, it’s possible — likely even — that Janice Dickinson was the first supermodel to actively and directly market herself using the phrase. She’s curated a cocky pop culture persona so tied to that identity, and to its semantics.
But she is, simply put, not the first supermodel. That rare breed has roots dating back to the late 19th century.
The History of So-Called Supermodels
First of all, what is a supermodel? Generally, a model whose work — in addition to modeling — includes multi-million dollar partnerships with popular brands and designers. Naturally, these beautiful women are also cover girls, gracing the front pages of all the major magazines.
But the word “supermodel” existed long before glossies and endorsement deals. In 1891, the word appeared in The Strand Magazine in an interview with the artist Henry Stacy Marks. He was describing how the people who sit for his paintings, regular models, are often drunk and falling asleep. Then there are the better, “super” models.
A more modern interpretation of the word came in 1942 in the Chicago Tribune. The article, by Judith Cass, was titled “Super Models Are Signed for Fashion Show.” Later that year, the agent Clyde Matthew Dessner published the term in his how-to guide for the modeling business. From then on, the term popped up sporadically in various papers and journals. Perhaps the earliest woman to embody the distinction was Lisa Fonssagrives, a Swedish model who posed throughout the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. But that classification was mainly in retrospect. Wilhelmina Cooper was another early example.
Then, in 1967, The Salisbury Daily Times referred to Twiggy as a supermodel. And Twiggy was, inarguably. (Sorry, Janice!)
During the late ’70s, when Janice Dickinson came to prominence, the word “supermodel” was not still not popular. Its mainstream use was not solidified until the 1990s when supermodels were everywhere, in and on everything: Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchenm, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Elle Macpherson, Kate Moss, Tatjana Patitz, Claudia Schiffer… And lucky for Dickinson, she managed to capitalize off the sudden model obsession, linking up with Banks for multiple seasons of America’s Next Top Model before launching her own various TV ventures.
Many, or most, supermodels burn fast and bright. And say what you will, but Dickinson is in it for the long haul. A super quality.
