RAQUEL ZIMMERMANN
Exemplifying all the colorful pantomime charm of silent film era great Charlie Chaplin while exuding the elegance and chameleon-like versatility of Linda Evangelista, Raquel Zimmermann, a native of Bom Retiro do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has been a stalwart, inspiration, and friendly presence in the ever changing, fast paced world of high fashion since debuting in 1999. Yet this illustrious 20 year fashion journey, too, had its humble beginnings in a young rock ‘n’ roll soul, who was far more preoccupied with strumming away to her favorite Legião Urbana songs on guitar than being bogged down in makeup and dresses.
Threw you the obvious
And you flew with it on your back
A name in your recollection
Down, among a million same
As a carefree child with hardworking parents, Raquel described herself as a bit of a rascal, frolicking in nature, climbing trees, racing bikes, and being virtually indistinguishable from her older brother: “I had a very happy childhood, with an older brother and a younger sister. I was a rascal. Novo Hamburgo is very green and I was always able to play outside. Although my life is now very different, my childhood was stamped on me as I still love natural surroundings the most.”
Raquel as a child also sung in her church’s choir, was a girl scout, and wanted to be a ballet dancer, taking up the performative art for a year. Raquel recounts taking guitar classes at the age of six years old with her classmate and friend Renata, both thinking they were the coolest kids around and hilariously carrying around guitars that were bigger than they were:
“I loved music and took guitar classes with my friend when I was 6. It was Raquel and Renata: the couple Ra and Re. We used to make up songs and it was so cool! We would walk around with our guitars that were bigger than we were. We used to play musica sertaneja (kind of country music). Pense em mim, chore por mim, liga pra mim, não, não liga pra ele. We used to play at school, in front of all the other kids.”
Difficult not to feel a little bit
Disappointed and passed over
When I look right through
To see you naked, but oblivious
And you don’t see me
Yet as Raquel got older, the same height that would lead to an international career, was at first a hindrance, making her awkwardly standout among her classmates, unfortunately becoming a target of nick names and name calling. “School was a low point. When I was 11, 12 the girls were already wearing little dresses, with curves. About 13, 14 years old. I was the ugly duck. I was always hiding. I used to wear my father’s shirts, really big ones. I’ve always had a bad posture. Because I was much taller than the other girls.”
But at the age of 14 years old, the wheels of fate began to turn, as classmates would compare Raquel to fellow Brazilian model Shirley Mallmann and encouraged Raquel Zimmermann to give her hand at modeling because of her height. Raquel never even fathomed becoming a model, yet her interest was peaked and she was eventually scouted in Sao Paulo at the age of 15. Shortly after, Raquel was already in fashion epicenters like Tokyo, Japan, Milan, and Paris.
Raquel’s parents naturally had their apprehensions about their daughter venturing out oversees alone and not waiting to finish school, Raquel in hindsight, too, agreed with her parents, lamenting not completing her education before becoming a model: “My parents were a bit against me being a model. They thought I should finish school, and I think they were right. I studied until the 8th grade. They wanted me to be a teacher. And for me, that was a good idea back then.”
Speaking very little English, having to mime to communicate, being homesick, and missing her family back in Brazil, Raquel almost called it quits while on a casting to a Giorgio Armani show where there were 200 girls, all tall, beautiful, and thin. “The line was around the block and it was cold. I was tired and I really missed my family. At that time, I thought: ‘Raquel, do you really want to do this?’” Raquel, usually calling on the strength and wisdom of her grandfather in her time of need, gathered up her courage and determination and said:
“‘No, Raquel. You will wait in this line, you’re doing the casting and you’re booking this show!’ And that’s what happened. My first show in Milan was for Giorgio Armani. I’ll never forget. Armani himself chose me.”
Raquel’s big break finally came after arriving in New York in 1999, having a chance meeting with legendary photographer and a man she would regard as her fashion godfather, Steven Meisel. “In 1999 I came to New York, I immediately fell in love with the fast dynamics of this city. Shortly after I arrived there, Steven Meisel saw a Polaroid of me and shot me for the cover of the Italian Vogue. From there, it started correctly.”
“When I was chosen for the job, people told me he was the greatest photographer and my career would change.”
Along with gracing both back to back covers for the Vogue Italia August and September issues photographed by Steven Meisel, some of Raquel’s first fashion shows were for Balmain, Chanel, Loewe, Emporio Armani, Sonia Rykiel and several other big names like Isabel Marant, Givenchy, Versace, and Valentino. Her incredible momentum would carry over on to the 2001 season as she walked for everyone from Christian Dior to Guy Laroche!
In 2002, Raquel would once again grace the cover of Vogue Italia shot by Steven Meisel, and saw her first commercial success with Valentino’s Fall/Winter ad, also photographed by Steven Meisel. Raquel also walked her first of three Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows in 2002. By the end of the 2002 fashion season, Raquel had easily walked in a hundred or more shows in her first two years.
But I threw you the obvious
Just to see if there’s more behind
The eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy
Despite her hard earned success, Raquel was on the verge of burnout in 2004 until Raquel’s fashion godmother, Miuccia Prada gave Raquel a much needed push by featuring her in an upcoming Prada show and campaign: “It was precisely in 2004, when I was going through a phase of few jobs and almost gave up on the profession. I thought about returning to Brazil and studying. I thought it was time to change.”
By February of that year, Raquel’s star had arrived, as she opened for Prada’s Fall 2004 Ready-to-Wear show and landed major campaigns for Escada, Prada, and Versace, all photographed my Steven Meisel! That same year, Raquel would go on to walk for major names such as Balenciaga, Celine, Chanel, Chloe, D&G, Fendi, Lanvin, Michael Kors, Miu Miu, and Viktor &Rolf!
By the mid 2000s, Raquel Zimmermann was a fashion powerhouse, starring alongside Doutzen Kroes in 2005 for Gucci’s Fall 2005 Campaign, scoring Chanel’s Eyewear Resort 2006 campaign, Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring Summer 2006 campaign, and Dior’s Eyewear Spring Summer 2006 Campaign. When Raquel wasn’t lighting up the runways or being featured in fashion campaigns, she was routinely working with greats like David Sims, Inez and Vinoodh, Mikael Jansson, Mario Testino, and Steven Meisel for Vogue Paris.
Raquel was also a hit commercially, amassing campaigns for Louis Vuitton Resort 2006, Max Mara Spring Summer 2006, and Viktor & Rolf for H&M. Raquel also had some of her most iconic runway moments for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, walking in Versace’s Spring Summer 2006 Show, Dior’s Haute Couture Spring Summer 2007 Show, and Alexander McQueen’s Spring Summer 2008 fashion show.
Raquel Zimmermann was such a force on the runways that she eventually caught the eye of the great Karl Lagerfeld, where she had the honor of opening for Chanel’s Spring 2007 Couture Show, walking arm in arm with Lagerfeld in Chanel’s Fall 2007 Couture Show, opening for Chanel’s Resort 2008 show on a Los Angeles Airfield, and one of my personal favorites, opening for Karl Lagerfeld’s Spring 2008 Ready to Wear Show, where models actually walked on a neon rainbow runway! Raquel and Lagerfeld even became good friends over the years, becoming a major inspiration in Zimmermann’s life:
“What I like about fashion is that it’s connected to the cultural world. Each designer has it. Some travelled, got an inspiration. Or they met someone, or read a book. People have this image, ‘Wow! Karl Lagerfeld.’ But he’s such a sweet, friendly, funny person. And he’s really connected to culture, art, travelling. I had the pleasure to work with him many times. He’s not as technical as Steven Klein or Steven Meisel. He’s more of an idea, a moment, taking a picture and that’s it. Quickly. He’s more about having a good time.”
After more than a decade in the fashion industry and having one of the most decorated careers a top model could dream of and reaching icon status, Raquel Zimmermann began to transition from being a full time model to enjoying downtime riding horses, going to museums, spending time in nature, and skateboarding for a time, but after a bad fall, she began to learn to surf. But her life would undergo another major change, when acclaimed film director David Lynch, suggested Raquel practice Transcendental Mediation while shooting for a Gucci Campaign:
“Transcendental Meditation changed my whole lifestyle in a year. And one big change happened four months ago when I realized I had to quit smoking. It was something that I’ve been carrying with me through all my modeling career cause I thought smoking would keep me thin and I started to realize all these challenges, these things were good things, so stop smoking. It’s something that made me proud to be a non smoker and to take care of myself.”
“Now I wake up and before I used to wake up and the only thing I could think about was how I needed a coffee to get out of bed and how I needed to watch the news that thing already starting the day with that stress and the worries and everything was a problem. And now, I wake up, always in a light mood, and I do my meditation and it makes me feel, it’s funny like when I meditate I feel this excitement like what is the day going to be like today. It’s almost like how people say, ‘Live every day of your life like if it were the last day?’ That’s the feeling I get like today is the day and all these things that I can do today! And it’s like an excitement feeling but at the same time it’s like calming. And now more and more, I know it’s been a year now, I really start to feel this blissful feeling, and it comes and you’re like, ‘wow.’ You know, it’s beautiful.”
Here, I am, expecting just a little bit
Too much from the wounded
But I see, see through it all
See through, see you
Out of the amazing iconic cast of top fashion models of the 2000s, Raquel by many is regarded as the most versatile, daring, and wildly creative. From the runways, campaigns, covers, and editorials, Raquel could tap into any range of characters, emotions, concept or artistic vision, and bring the best out of the creatives around her.
Her work in many editions of Vogue Paris and Italia would leave any art student or photographer in awe of her creativity and adaptability. David Sims, Steven Meisel, and Inez & Vinoodh could always get the best out of Raquel, creating seminal work like David Sim’s Future Shock or his out of this world 2013 ad for Alexander McQueen, or Inez & Vinoodh’s lively editorial for Vogue Paris November 2011, or one of my personal favorites from Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia August 2011 where Raquel puts on the most whimsical, gender bending pantomime display like a fashion model meets Broadway Musical. The editorial is so masterfully done and it’s arguably some of the best emoting you can see from a model since Linda Evangelista.
Oh well, apparently nothing
Apparently nothing, at all
“She lives each story with intensity and can really bring to life the female characters that characterize the different collections of the brand.”
– Luis Fiod, creative director
“Raquel has the rare quality of mimicry. She could be a royal lady, a 15th century Spaniard, a rockabilly boy, a sexy goddess and even a elegant woman. And the synthesis of what we mean by ‘model.’”
– Saulo Fonesca, makeup artist
“The energizer model! I think she’s the only model of the last ten years who never goes out of fashion. It’s as though she never ages yet gets better-looking each season. Probably the most versatile model of all, she truly could be in any show. Her professionalism rivals any model and her timeliness is equal to Cindy Crawford’s, whose punctuality was legendary.”
– James Scully, casting agent
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t see me
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t see me
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t see me
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t see me
Outside of all the glamour and prestige of fashion modeling, Raquel Zimmermann is extremely humble and a down to earth person, a conscientious thinker who loves to read Kahlil Gibran, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Rudolf Steiner, Maharishi Mahesh Yogiand, and just like her rock ‘n’ roll style icon Patti Smith, Raquel prefers the laid back style of a simple t-shirt, jeans, leather jacket, and boots. “I’m at the stage where I want to live each day as if it were the last. I don’t plan for the future. Today I’m here and I want to make the most of it.”
A true to life allegory of a teen struggling to find their place in a disconcerting world and feeling invisible because of her appearance to harnessing a unique creativity and amiable inner-beauty, Raquel Zimmermann has “fashioned” a monumental career in a decades long journey and impacted an industry, designers, and colleagues profoundly along the way. A super-conscious mind, heart, and inspiration, a true thesis of love, Raquel Zimmermann.
You don’t see me
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t see me, at all
Super Love Unknown 
Sources:
harrietcamilla. (2007, Sep 29). Raquel Zimmermann, Queen of the Catwalks. Vanity Fair. https://forums.thefashionspot.com/posts/13235197/
ThiagoMello. (2010, June 24). A atriz da moda. Terra. https://forums.thefashionspot.com/posts/25340935/
Scully, J. (2008, May 9). Casting Agent James Scully’s All-Time Favorite Models. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2008/05/casting_agent_james_scullys_al.html
Nelson, K. (2011, January 1). Double Vision: Raquel Zimmerman & Aaron De Mey. W Magazine. https://www.wmagazine.com/story/twosomes-raquel-zimmerman-aaron-de-mey
(n.d.). (n.d.). Raquel Zimmermann. Elle Germany. https://www.elle.de/models/raquel-zimmermann
Lannelongue, M. (2007, March 5). Raquel Zimmermann Une Top Vraiment Modele. Elle France.
(n.d.). (n.d.). Raquel Zimmermann Abre Lounge Caras. CARAS.
Tavares, D. (2011, August). Garota Super Poderosa. Elle Brazil.
RaquelZimmermannTV. (2009, August 14). Raquel Zimmermann talks about the fashion world. [YouTube] Video. https://youtu.be/XpMqH0ybBPU
RaquelZimmermannTV. (2009, January 27). Raquel Zimmermann at Fantastico. [YouTube] Video. https://youtu.be/gox57AlXJdw
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