The Great Pretender

Throughout history, the dynamic marriage of artist and muse has borne works of brilliance and beauty. Natalia Vodianova role-plays five of fashion's most legendary models.

Lauren Hutton
When the South Carolina-born beauty moved to New York in 1966, she was turned down by every agency except Ford. "Incredibly Eileen said she'd take me on, providing I had my nose fixed and my teeth capped," she recalled to Vogue in 1973. "I promised I would, once I had the money, but inside I was figuring it would take me a long, long time to get around to it—if ever."

Twiggy
At sixteen, Lesley Hornby was declared "the face of '66" by the U.K.'s Daily Express. With eyes like saucers, long lashes, and an impossibly slender figure, the Cockney pixie catapulted to the molten center of the cultural Zeitgeist. Diana Vreeland, then Vogue's editor in chief, called her perfection: "This strange, macabre little bit, like a waif, came to see me in New York with hair like cornsilk, the most wonderful skin and bones."

Marisa Berenson
The American-born, European-bred '70s It girl was known as "the Queen of the Scene" for her presence at the world's chicest happenings and hot spots. She parlayed modeling into a stellar acting career, starring in Death in Venice (1971), Cabaret (1972), and Barry Lyndon (1975).

Veruschka

Née Vera Gottliebe Anna Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort, the expressive East Prussian model, actress, and art-world darling had a certain mystique that captured the attention of Salvador Dalí, Peter Beard, and Richard Avedon, who proclaimed she was "the most beautiful woman in the world.…Being beautiful in her way demands something, and you must extend yourself to meet the challenge or know that a kind of splendor is lost to you forever."

Jean Shrimpton
After meeting on a set for a cornflakes advertisement, "the Shrimp" and photographer David Bailey proceeded to have a years-long love affair that led to a broken engagement. "She was my total muse—I didn't want to look at another model," he said. At 22, she caused a stir (and ignited the Mod mini craze) at the 1965 Melbourne Cup by turning up in a microdress with bare legs, an act London's Evening News & Star defended: "Surrounded by sober draped silks and floral nylons, ghastly tulle hats and fur stoles, she was like a petunia in an onion patch."