Tatjana Patitz, a Vogue model whose rise in the fashion world ushered in the era of supermodels in the 1980s and 1990s, has died at 56.
She gives the news to the American magazine directed at Anna Wintour.
Raised in Sweden by an Estonian mother and a German father, Patitz began posing at 17: "She's always been the European symbol of what is chic," said Wintour, comparing the model to "a mix between Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti ".
Tatjana, the most reserved of the catwalk divas, had not chosen New York, London or Paris as a base, but a ranch in California in the Santa Ynez Valley where Peter Lindbergh, her mentor since the beginning, had photographed her with her son Jonah.
It's with Jonah her last public picture of her taken by Tina Barney in late 2019. Speaking about her child last year, Patitz said she was her "fountain of happiness" .