Tatjana Patitz, One of the Original Supermodels, Has Died

[no1novice]

Tatjana Patitz, One of the Original Supermodels, Has Died


Tatjana Patitz. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, August 2012

Tatjana Patitz, the quietest and perhaps the most intense of the original supermodels, has died. She was 56.

“I never sold my soul,” Patitz said in a 2020 interview. Born in Hamburg to an Estonian mother and German father, she moved with her family to Skanör, an idyllic seaside town in the South of Sweden when she was quite young. In 1983, as a 17-year-old tomboy and competitive horse rider, she entered an Elite Model Contest in Stockholm. She placed third in Sweden. The prize was a trip to Paris and a limited-time contract. But, as Vogue wrote in 1988, “a star was not quickly born. Tatjana found no work for a year.”


Tatjana Patitz in Jean Paul Gaultier.

Tatjana Patitz in Jean Paul Gaultier. Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, August 1989
Tatjana Patitz in Claude Montana.

Tatjana Patitz in Claude Montana. Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, August 1989

Enter Peter Lindbergh, the fairy godfather of Patitz’s career. The German photographer, noted for his unretouched images and preference for a “natural” beauty look, would shoot Patitz for the famous image, “White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu,” in 1988, and again for British Vogue’s January 1990 supermodels cover. When George Michael saw that issue, he invited the same cast of “girls” to appear and lip sync in his “Freedom ’90” music video.
Tatjana Patitz Original Supermodel Has Died
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, August 2012

One of the original supermodels, Patitz never seemed to be part of “the pack.” In part that’s explained by her choice to make her home not in New York or Paris, but in California, where she could be closer to nature and her animals. Geography aside, there was a certain element of mystery to Patitz’s beauty, something in the gentle oval of her face and the shape of her eyes that spoke of self-possession and passion. “Tatjana was always the European symbol of chic, like Romy Schneider-meets-Monica Vitti,” remembered Anna Wintour, chief content officer of Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue. “She was far less visible than her peers—more mysterious, more grown-up, more unattainable—and that had its own appeal.”
Estelle Lefebure Karen Alexander Rachel Williams Linda Evangelista Cgristy Turlington and Tatja Patitz.

Estelle Lefebure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista, Cgristy Turlington, and Tatja Patitz. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, August 1988

Patitz’s allure was womanly and knowing, not that of the wide-eyed ingenue, and with her training as an actor, she was a force to be reckoned with. As she told Vogue in a 1988 profile, “Tatjana: Million Dollar Beauty,” “people always said that I looked special; that I didn’t look like anyone else. And I was going to make it because of that.”
Tatjana Patitz in Gianfranco Ferr.

Tatjana Patitz in Gianfranco Ferré. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, December 1989

Tatjana Patitz had long-standing working relationships with Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, and Patrick Demarchelier, who often shot her on location. Her more recent appearances in Vogue were family affairs. The model was reunited with her peers for “Good Jeans,” a supermodels-in-denim story shot by Annie Leibovitz. In 2012, Patitz and her son Jonah Johnson were captured in a pastoral idyll at home on their ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley by Lindbergh. Again in 2019 the mother and son made an appearance in a Tina Barney portfolio. Speaking of her son last year, she declared, “Jonah is my source of happiness.”
Tatjana Patitz in a Marc Jacobs dress and A La Vieille Russie earring with her son Jonah Johnson.

Tatjana Patitz in a Marc Jacobs dress and A La Vieille Russie earring with her son Jonah Johnson. Photographed by Tina Barney, Vogue, December 2019
Tatjana Patitz in a dress by Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

Tatjana Patitz in a dress by Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, August 1987
Tatjana Patitz in Gianfranco Ferr.

Tatjana Patitz in Gianfranco Ferré. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, July 1989
Tatjana Patitz in Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis.

Tatjana Patitz in Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, September 1989
Tatjana Patitz in Ralph Lauren.


Tatjana Patitz in Ralph Lauren. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, October 1989
Tatjana Patitz in a Michael Hoban for North Beach skirt Ralph Lauren scarf Barry KieselsteinCord belt.

Tatjana Patitz in a Michael Hoban for North Beach skirt, Ralph Lauren scarf, Barry Kieselstein-Cord belt. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, October 1989


Cindy Crawford Tatjana Patitz Helena Christensen Linda Evangelista Claudia Schiffer Naomi Campbell Karen Mulder and...

Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder and Stephanie Seymour, all in Gianni Versace. Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, December 1991
Tatjana Patitz in Calvin Klein.

Tatjana Patitz in Calvin Klein. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, November 1994
Image may contain Tatjana Patitz Human Person Fashion Premiere Clothing Gown Apparel Robe and Evening Dress

Helmut Lang, fall 1994 Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Image may contain Tatjana Patitz Clothing Apparel Suit Coat Overcoat Human Person Shoe Footwear and Female

Hermès, fall 2001 Photo: Condé Nast Archive
This image may contain Human Person Clothing Apparel Sleeve Long Sleeve Fashion and Plant

Etro, fall 2019 Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com

This image may contain Clothing Apparel Robe Fashion Evening Dress Gown Human Person Skirt Tatjana Patitz and Dress



Vivienne Westwood, fall 1994 Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Topics
Obituary
Tatjana Patitz



www.vogue.com/article/obituary-tatjana-patitz

[constancespry]

Wow, that’s young. She had such a unique face, lovely to look at. I wonder if it was an illness or the same as Stella Tennant.

[funky]

In the German news outlets they write about an illness. But nothing is confirmed as of yet.

[greysfang]

She was beautiful.

[sputnik]

wtf? talk about out of leftfield. she was gorgeous and had such an elegant, distinctive face.

[lindsaywhit]

What a face! No fillers, no bloated lips, lived in and so gorgeous.  Fifty-six is shockingly young.

[waterslide]

Yeah, definitely left field. This is really sad.

I remember when I was in junior high that I really wanted my name to be Tatjana.

[tulip]

She was really beautiful. So sad. As a 56 year old, I will agree that it is way too young to die.

[no1novice]

She was one of my heros, unique looking, I was so shocked to hear this & thought I might be the only one who remembered her.

[charmedhour]

Page Six reporting her cause of death was breast cancer.

[faithanne]

Sounds like they had this obituary ready to go, so it must have been expected. RIP, she was such an enigmatic beauty.