Shortly after her fiftieth birthday, Stella Tennant abandons us: a woman, a model, who has contributed to changing the concept of beauty in the Western world and has, certainly at an embryonic but already significant level, contributed to opening the debate on genderless aesthetics.
Stella Tennant is, for sure, one of the most famous models of the glorious 90s.
In the moment of greatest importance for the “model” profession, the catwalks were flooded with very long legs and celestial faces: tall, slender women with lean and toned bodies. So beautiful that they received the nickname of goddesses, like the nickname “Trinity” for top models Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. Next to them, Claudia Schiffer, Carla Bruni, Yasmeen Ghauri and many others crossed the world of fashion with the fatal cat walk.
Among these, Stella Tennant is certainly the architect of an ‘aesthetic revolution’ which, comparable to the way of Twiggy in the 60s, marked a turning point for the social and for fashion, which cannot really ignore the first factor: Twiggy he had big eyes and a small body, Stella, for her part, had a nose ring and very short hair.
Jeremy Scott, Moschino’s Creative Director, remembers Stella like this:
“Refined as a gazelle but also punk”.
It wasn’t the first time we saw a woman with short hair. It wasn’t the first time we saw a model with short hair. But in that context, at that precise moment when all the Goddesses on the catwalk were so addicted to classic feminine aesthetic canons, Stella Tennant managed to introduce a truly “punk” feminine beauty in the most primitive sense of the term: something that breaks the mold, it does not adapt or bend but it self-affirms, with strength and determination.
Stella was androgynous and freer from all prejudices that could occur when someone, by chance, looked at the face of a supermodel.
For this reason Stella was “also punk”, just as Jeremy Scott says.
Her haircut became famous under the name of Pixie cut: much more than a bob under the ear, it was a shaved head similar to the cuts of pop singers of the 80s. Very short in the back, with a little tuft that fell on the forehead on the front (already adopted by Twiggy, but become truly iconic with Roman Polanski and actress Mia Farrow‘s cut in Rosemery’s Baby).
Stella Tennant was short hair, toned body, androgynous beauty. But it was also the luxury that welcomed the unscrupulous and beautiful youthful rebellion, jaunty yet impetuous. Once, Steven Meisel himself recounts how he was almost shocked when Stella Tennant refused to take off her nose piercing on set. Probably that was one of the first times that fashion began to understand the individuality of the subject, and in this case of the model, who is not only a passive actor but helps to create a new image.
Now how many times do you happen to see “pieces of” in a fashion image? In an advertising campaign? Models hold their piercings, show their tattoos to the world (is there anything more personal?) And share their, personal, life story.
Donatella Versace greets Stella with a post on Instagram and talks about her brother’s love for the model: “She was Gianni’s muse for many years” he says, and adds “I can’t believe you’re gone”.
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Although Stella had retired from the runways after the motherhood of her first child, her appearances sometimes made the show a pleasant surprise.
This article is a reminder and a tribute to Stella Tennant, a punk gazelle that we will always remember.
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