Supermodel from the 80s and 90s Tatiana Patitz has died at the age of 56

German model Tatiana Patitz, famous for being part of the group of “original supermodels” in the 1980s and 1990s and who appeared in a video by musician George Michael, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, her agency said, confirming information from Vogue. .

“Tatiana passed away this morning in California,” where she was staying, she replied in an email to AFP Corinne Nicholas, founder and president of Manhattan-based modeling agency on New York’s Fifth Avenue, The Model CoOp.

She did not reveal the circumstances of this disappearance at the age of 56, according to New York fashion magazine Vogue, which revealed the information.

Famous German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who died in 2019, has always been a favorite of Tatiana Patitz and has photographed her since the 1980s. His founder said on Twitter that she was “deeply saddened by the passing of Tatjana Patitz, an old friend of Peter” and “(wanted ) bowing before Tatiana’s kindness, inner beauty and amazing intelligence.

Born in Germany, raised in Sweden, and based in California, Tatiana Pattiz “has always been an icon of European elegance, like meeting Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti,” she declared to her own magazine Anna Wintour, sponsor of Vogue.

She was part of an elite group of “original supermodels” of the 1980s and 1990s, along with models Estelle Lefébure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington. The six women appear in a famous 1988 beach photo shoot by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue (“White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu”).

Tatiana Pattiz, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and Cindy Crawford also appeared and lip-synced George Michael’s vocals in the iconic music video for “Freedom!” “90” by the British singer-songwriter who passed away in 2016.

Tatjana Patitz was “the quietest and perhaps the most intense of the original supermodels,” she told Vogue, echoing a statement the model made during a 2020 interview: “I never sold my soul.”