'Not an identity': Cindy Crawford on transcending modelling to become a brand

Cindy Crawford in Los Angeles on June 5, 2024. Three decades ago she invented the modern playbook by which the current generation of professionally beautiful people flourish. Photo: The New York Times

When Cindy Crawford walked into a lounge in the Santa Monica Proper Hotel on a morning in early June, her vibe was immediate: comfortable, professional, direct.

No artifice. No entourage. Just her longtime publicist Annett Wolf, who made a brief introduction and disappeared, leaving Crawford at the head of a table set with a display of the products from her Meaningful Beauty line of skin and hair care, a US$400mil (approximately RM1.8bil) brand she introduced 20 years ago.