The Daily Chronicle from De Kalb, Illinois • Page 20

20 DAILY CHRONICLE, DKalbSyeomor, III. Sunday, September 28, 1 986 Beautiful DeKalb product Cindy Crawford sits atop modeling world 1 By Dave Rossdeutcher Staff writer TO CONSIDER CINDY CRAW FORD your average 20-year-old would be comparable to saying "Casablanca" was just another movie or the Titanic was just another ship. Instead, sculptured out of a 34-23-33 figure is an international modeling sensation whose sizzling beauty could launch any number of ships and whose success in her current work could lead to television and movie offers. "You make it sound like I'm a big star, and I don't feel that way yet," Crawford said in a telephone conversation from her New York apartment, downplaying accomplishments uncommon for a typical DeKalb High School graduate. But with her many appearances in fashion magazines circulated worldwide, and what some in the.

profession consider the "top achievement" for a model a cover shot for Vogue it would be natural to assume that Crawford is one of the top models in the world today. John Casablancas, head of the New York-based Elite Agency which manages Crawford's modeling career, certainly wouldn't disagree. Appearing on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" several months ago, Casablancas boldly claimed Crawford would be the world's next top model. "That's when I thought, 'God, she really is said older sister Chris, 22, sitting with her mother, Jenny, and sister, Danielle, 16, in their DeKalb home. "It doesn't surprise me, although maybe so that she made it this big," said her father, Dan, an employee at a DeKalb glass company.

"I always had a lot of faith in her. Needless to say, I'm very proud." Even while the family back home gloats and beams with pride at her accomplishments, Cindy Crawford's work continues to warrant similar accolades from those in the profession: the August Vogue cover shot, an October cover shot on. Mademoiselle, appearances in Elle and countless other advertising and editorial spreads. Future possibilities include a second cover shot on Vogue and a January ap-pearance on cover of Cosmopolitan. "She's definitely one of the new important models," said Ann Veltri, Crawford's booking agent from the Elite Agency in New York City.

So important, in fact, that Crawford is compensated with top dollars a day and flooded with numerous requests daily for her services, Veltri said. "Almost every call that comes in, they ask for 'so and 'so and so' and Cindy Crawford," said Veltri, who also books assignments for another super-model, Paulina Porizkova. "It's unbelievable." IT WOULD BE EASY for Crawford to describe her lifestyle with the same adjective. If you had asked her two years ago what she would be doing now, she probably would have said, "going to school and studying computer engineering. "No, I didn't think I'd be in New York right now," Crawford admitted.

But after being honored as the co-valedictorian for the DeKalb High School Class of 1984, Crawford had opted to try and balance a budding modeling career and studying computer engineering in Northwestern University's School of Technology. "When she went to Northwestern things really started moving for her," said Jenny Crawford, a Sycamore bank employee. "She was busy a lot and going on a lot of trips. Also, the amount of money she was making was growing at the time. "I think that's when she decided she could make a very good living at this, at least for a while, and she could always go back to school." "For a while I tried to do both," Cindy said.

"But when you can't give either thing 100 percent, I felt like I was cheating on both. Casablancas didn't want her cheating on any possible modeling success, either. So, he had tried to get Crawford to move to New York in the summer of 1984, just after high school. But she refused and held off moving out east until February of this year. After dropping out of college, she had remained in Chicago, continuing to work for the Elite affiliate there and establishing a clientele with the likes of I.

Magnin and Ultimo. Respected fashion photographer Victor Skrebneski had also taken Crawford under his wing, and, as Crawford said, "taught me everything I know about modeling and make-up." With Skrebneski turning out "beautiful pictures," Crawford's face was turning up more and more. Not only was there the work for I. Magnin and Ultimo, but also Marshall Field's and Sears and cover shots for Chicago Tribune's Style section. "From our experience, one of the reasons Crawford is making it is because her coaching here by Skrebneski taught her to be a pro," Tribune fashion writer Genevieve Buck wrote in the July 30, 1986, Style section.

"True, she does happen to be a beauty whose looks range from sultry and glamorous to plain old pretty and wholesome. And her body is quite a bit better than an ordinary 10. "BUT SHE ALSO KNOWS how to move that body so that anything she puts on looks appealing, and she has learned to look into a camera with those brown eyes flashing or sim- mering. We've seen her turn some clothes that were duds into winners and some winners into spectacular photos." "Victor certainly believed in her," said Jane Stewart, president of the Chicago Elite agency. "He used her on about every project he worked on." Buck's article, called Crawford's success "inevitable." But the inevitable success she is now enjoying might not have come had she stayed in Chicago.

Jr "Certainly Cindy was the top model in Chicago," Stewart said, "and, if she had decided to stay in Chicago, she still would be the top model. There were always demands for her." However, Stewart stated quite frankly, "We never could've gotten her on the cover of Vogue." New York offered magazine editorial possibilities, Stewart said. Those pictorials, which carry no advertisers, and, thus, do not offer as much money, nonetheless present -excellent avenues of publicity for a model. "From that work, the theory Is, you'll get more work," Crawford said. New York was beckoning once again, and this time Crawford answered the call.

While she says there is "no such monster" as an average week for her, when in New York Crawford spends her days at any number of studios across the city. Current clientele include Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue. And if she isn't modeling for ads or catalogs, she might have appointments for editorial spreads or a fashion show. "New York is a bit overwhelming," she said. "But I'm finally starting to feel like I have my own niche." Which is not to say that Crawford didn't have a difficult time establishing a niche while growing up in DeKalb, either.

Chris, who considers herself as much a friend as a sister, believes Cindy was resented by her peers. Jenny claims it's just that her daughter was "always mature" and "very strong-willed." PLAINLY, CHRIS SAID PEOPLE painted an inaccurate picture of her sister. "People thought she was stuck up, but she wasn't," Chris said, "ft's just hard for her to get to know people. She loves to keep to herself. She's so independent that she likes to do everything her way." Cindy's peers also had a hard time accepting her appearance on the front page of the DeKalb Nite Weekly, a television listings guide run by Northern Illinois University "Coed Calendar" innovator Frank Trebusak.

The paper usually features NIU coeds every week, but this particular issue had 16-year-old Cindy Crawford suited in a bikini on its cover. Roger Legel, a former Daily Chronicle photographer and current president of AFTERIMAGE media production services, had been using Crawford as a subject for his own work and, as he said, "to get her used to being in front of a camera." Legel saw something special in Crawford, who, at the time, was one I that she's not only pretty, but she also has brains." Cindy said her sister's diagnosis is probably right. Nevertheless, she said, people may have started to treat her as being "dumb," but as soon as they got to know her, "they find out you do more than four-letter words and you can speak in sentences." "Her intelligence is probably one of the reasons why she got. where she is," said her father. "Certainly she's a very pretty girl, but obviously there must be more to her than that.

I've seen a lot of pretty woman and all are not on the cover of magazines." In Cindy's case, there is also a certain charm. Busy schedules can make anyone ill-tempered, but those that work around her have seen only one side of Crawford. "She is one of the most special girls I have had the pleasure of working with," Stewart said. "She not only has tremendous exterior beauty but also interior beauty, and I think that's one reason why she's enjoying such extraordinary success. Her personality and self- assuredness sets her apart from the rest." "She's a gem," Veltri commented matter-of-factly.

"She's just great. She's easy-going, understanding and very agreeing. She also has a great 1 sense of humor. "And she's not jaded," Veltri added. MORE SCHEDULES LIKE THE one Crawford had a few weeks ago, however, could cause even the smoothest of gems to get a bit edgy.

First it was East Hampton, on Sunday and Monday, New. York on Tuesday, Miami on Wednesday, back to New York on Thursday, then off to Nice, France on Friday. "Sometimes it's crazy like that," Crawford said, not all too upset at the amount of traveling she has to do in the name of work; it is her journeys here and abroad which Crawford finds most exciting. "I've traveled to a lot of places," Crawford said. "But for every place I've been, there's a hundred more where I'd like to go." The number undoubtedly will be decreasing.

This year alone Crawford has been to Europe three times, Mexico twice and the Caribbean several times. Previous assignments have taken her to Bali, Japan and the Philippines. In the near future she may be headed to the Seychelles Islands off the coast of Africa. "I think I had been on an airplane one time before I started," Crawford said. "And now I think I must log at least 50,000 miles year.

So what could be missing from a life filled with youth, fame and pleasure? Crawford's boyfriend former DeKalb High quarterback and basketball star Bill Cordes goes to school at the University of Arizona and is something missing "on a day-to-day basis," she said, i She's sure there is something else but said she couldn't pinpoint it. "I like New York," she said, trying to convince no one in particular, except maybe herself. "I don't hate it like I thought I would. But I don't feel like it's my city yet. That's one thing that is missing." Crawford said she has tossed "millions" of ideas around in her head about what life after modeling will hold.

Nothing stands out. Like" the ballplayer in love with his work, Crawford expressed a desire to con- 1 tinue "supporting" herself In the current manner until the fun stops. "I don't feel like I've chosen a' career," she said. "I always ask myself what I'm going to do when I row up. This is just something that's an opportunity now that I'd be foolish not to take advantage of.

"The money is great. The travel is great. And it's fun." Who could ask for more? of 15 DeKalb High School girls who were members of a "teen board" at a DeKalb clothing store. Trebusak saw some pictures Legel had taken and wanted use them in an issue of the Nite Weekly. Legel asked Crawford, and she consented.

"Danielle and I were laughing about that recently," Crawford said, chuckling again at the thought of it "I had a good time doing it. But it was humiliating when it came out, because I caught so much flack at the high school." "I think every guy at Northern had put the picture of her on their dorm walls," Danielle added with a laugh from the living room chair in DeKalb. But even at that time, Crawford said she wasn't thinking seriously about modeling. Yet, she was still 16 when she began talking to modeling agents, her mother recalled. Cindy had gone to a hair-cutting exposition sponsored by Clairol, and the Clairol representatives had liked what they saw.

So much so, that they wanted to take Cindy back to New York, Jenny remembered. But Cindy had lied about her age to enter the Chicago show. Clairol had wanted hair at least 18 years of age. After discovering Cindy was only 16, the Clairol representatives suggested she stay in high school and gain modeling experience, Jenny said. IT GAVE HER AN incentive.

Dan Crawford recalled knocking on agency doors in Chicago with his daughter and loaning her money for preliminary photo sessions. "She paid it back befor the ink was dry," he said. "I thought Cindy was the most introverted of all (my daughters)," Crawford went on. "But she had that inner confidence it would take for a kid to go into Chicago and get the job done." At 17, she joined the Elite Agency. As a member of the "new faces" division the first step of three up to the "Elite" division where she is now enlisted Crawford was earning $85 an hour, Stewart said.

"We were certain she was something very special as we were- testing her, taking some of the early pictures," Stewart said. "More and more she appeared extraordinary." Chris said her sister approached the modeling profession with ques-' tlons about the stereotype that would be cast. Those that didn't know her intellectual side just might consider her another "stupid blond" (or brunette), and this worried Cindy, Chris said. "She didn't want that attached to Chris explained. "And, I think, still in her career now she tries her hardest for people to know -1 if 1.