The Original Supermodel Did Not Chase the Icon Life — She Accidentally Built It
Lauren Hutton did not set out to become a model. She did not set out to become an actress. And she definitely did not set out to become one of the women who would change the entire money system of modeling. But in a new CBS Sunday Morning profile with Anthony Mason, the original supermodel looks back at the wild, accidental, beautifully unruly life that made her an icon.
Before the covers, before the contracts, before the phrase “supermodel” even knew how expensive it wanted to be, Hutton was a young woman with a gap-toothed smile that agencies did not quite know what to do with. Several said no. Eileen Ford eventually said yes. And that yes helped open the door to one of the most recognizable modeling careers of the last century.
As the face of Revlon, Hutton became the highest-paid model of her time, changing the economics of the industry in the process. She also became one of American Vogue’s most enduring cover presences, bringing a different kind of beauty into the mainstream: direct, believable, imperfect, glamorous, and very much alive.
But the best part of the CBS profile is that Hutton never talks like the modeling was the whole point. For her, New York was a gateway. Modeling was the passport. The real fantasy was the world — Africa, travel, wild places, risk, beauty, and the kind of life that refuses to sit politely in one room.
That is where the story gets big. Hutton talks about living among communities including the Kalahari bushmen, building a life around movement, and surviving a devastating motorcycle accident in 2000. Even when the low points come up, her answer is pure Lauren: she would do it again in a second.
There is something fabulous about that kind of refusal to regret. Not because everything was easy. Not because every decision was perfect. But because Hutton seems to understand that a life fully lived is rarely neat, and the best stories usually arrive covered in dust, danger, glamour, and a little nerve.
Present-day developments: Lauren Hutton’s story still lands because it is not just about fashion history. It is about a woman who was told she was wrong for the room, then ended up changing the room, charging more to enter it, and leaving whenever the world outside looked more interesting.
Watch CBS Sunday Morning’s Lauren Hutton Feature
CBS Sunday Morning’s Anthony Mason sits down with Lauren Hutton for a career-and-life-spanning profile on modeling, Revlon, Vogue, travel, survival and the adventures that shaped her.
