“We used to be culled by the creatives in the industry. The models of my time were chosen because there was something the artists felt compelled to interface with. Now it’s how many followers you have.”
Harlow was a member of the second wave of supers in the nineties,following Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell down the runway,after being discovered in the crowd of a Cure concert in Toronto when she was 15 years old.
More than 25Vogue covers followed,campaigns for Tiffany&Co,Versace,Chanel and DKNY and runway bows beside Karl Lagerfeld,Valentino and Gianfranco Ferre.
While Harlow welcomes greater diversity in the fashion industry,it’s the shift from celebrating talent to championing commerce that challenges values nurtured in a self-described hippie upbringing.
“I mourn some things about the way the industry was. It was a boutique industry. When I started Mr Givenchy was still at Givenchy. The masters still owned their houses. There was a different sense of what the creation was for. Now there is more of a consumer thrust to everything.”
Harlow sees designer Alexander McQueen,the subject of the NGV’s summer blockbuster,as a victim of the same pressures. McQueen died from suicide in 2010,aged 40. Having appeared in McQueen’s memorable spring 1999 show where she was sprayed by paint with robot arms,Harlow was the gala opening’s special guest.