Gia Carangi In The Shot That Was Used For The April 1979 Cover Of Cosmopolitan Magazine (Image Credit:) cosmopolitan.com
“The candle that burns twice as bright burns twice as fast.” That has always been one of my favorite quotes; but I don’t think I fully understood it until recently when I read the book Thing of Beauty by Stephen Fried which was about former supermodel Gia Carangi. Gia was of the most influential models of the late seventies, who had a huge influence on changing the whole direction of the fashion industry. This was even more impressive considering she was queer. She is often credited as the first supermodel; it seems she became a supermodel and went to the very top almost as soon as she was discovered. One of the reasons Cindy Crawford was first noticed was because of her resemblance to Gia; in the early days of her career, Cindy was called “baby Gia”. Unfortunately, Gia died tragically at the age of 26 from AIDS, one of the first women to do so. She had gotten the disease from dirty needles, because she was an on again off again Heroin addict for years. It seems that sometimes the people who shine the brightest are the most tortured.
Gia was born in 1961 to a working class Italian family and grew up in Philadelphia. When she was 18, a photographer spotted her on the street and took some pictures of her, which made their way to some modeling agencies. Gia was eventually called to New York to visit these agencies. Her “exotic ethnic” looks got her a contract on the spot. In the late 1970’s, the modeling business was looking for a new direction and a new look. Most often models had been blonde haired and blue eyed, models of color were just starting to be more accepted, but there were still few of them. Gia had a very Italian ethnic look with her olive skin, brown eyes, brown hair, and more “full” (in other words, normal for a woman) figure. She was an immediate hit, and went straight to the top of the business, being on the covers of magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan several times, and having shoots all over the world. She got an apartment in New York, and started to live the “model’s dream” life, partying with celebrities in exclusive clubs. She was labeled as one of the most beautiful women to ever hit modeling.
Gia was also very much in demand because of her androgyny. Many people who worked with her said she radiated sexuality in her pictures, but they were never sure of what kind it was, female, male, straight, bisexual, or gay—it was just an androgynous sexuality. Gia’s sexuality itself was quite complicated; those who knew her have described her as both a lesbian and a bisexual, and it seems she often straddled these lines; she was defined as either a lesbian with bi tendencies or a bisexual who leaned lesbian; depending on how you look at it. She almost never wore makeup when she wasn’t modeling, and dressed in jeans and cowboy boots. 
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