Death of Tatjana Patitz, the star supermodel of the 90s, at 56

She was part of the Big Six, the biggest models at the dawn of the 90s. German model Tatjana Patitz, famous for being part of the group of "original supermodels" of the 80s-90s featured in a video of the musician George Michael died Wednesday at age 56, his agency said, confirming information from Vogue magazine.

"Tatjana died this morning in California", where she resided, replied Corinne Nicolas, founder and boss of the modeling agency on Manhattan's 5th Avenue in New York, The Model CoOp.

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

Renowned German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who died in 2019, had always been Tatjana Patitz's favorite and had photographed her since the 1980s. His foundation said on Twitter that it was "deeply saddened by the passing of Tatjana Patitz, a long-time friend of Peter" and "(wanted) to bow before Tatjana's kindness, inner beauty and incredible intelligence".

A mix of Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti, according to Anna Wintour

Born in Germany, raised in Sweden and based in California, Tatjana Patitz "has always been the symbol of European chic, like the meeting of Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti", declared to her own magazine Anna Wintour, patron of Vogue.

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She was part of the elite group of "original supermodels" of the 1980s-90s, along with models Estelle Lefébure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington.

The six women appear in a famous photo taken on a beach in 1988 by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue (“White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu”).

Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford also appear and lip-sing to George Michael's voice in the famous music video for the title "Freedom!"

'90” by the British singer-songwriter who died in 2016. Tatjana Patitz was the “calmest and perhaps the most intense of the

,” Vogue told Vogue, echoing a statement the model made during a 2020 interview: “I never sold my soul”.