When one imagines a supermodel in today’s day and age, green juices, leggings and glossy pilates kits may spring to mind.
But go back a few decades to the 90s, and the brief changes dramatically. It was cigarette-wielding Kate Moss partying all night, It-girl Naomi Campbell never snapped without a glass of bubbly, and Linda Evangelista, always photographed in a sea of neon lights at nightclubs.
And while it was famously brutal – with a diet culture so stringent it sparked the now famous, wince-worthy slogan ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ – it seems it’s still not as bad as today’s ‘boring and miserable’ catwalk lifestyle.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, 90s model Mickey Monroe – who was with the now legendary Storm Management when it first kicked off – admitted that while the era came with its flaws (including a heavily documented drinking and drugs culture) the models of today seem not just unhappy, but less healthy than their predecessors.
Glasgow-born Mickey, 57, came down to London when she was 17 and said it kicked off an era of what felt like ‘one big party’ for her.
With a distinct bleached-blonde cut, she graced the covers of Honey and Blitz, as well as i-D magazine, before stopping at 25 and going into the fashion world. She has now ended up in the wellness industry.
Although Mickey no longer works in modelling, she recalls the era fondly.
‘I often say that to friends of mine, that we just didn’t realise how good it was – how easy it was,’ she shared.
‘There was no responsibility. You just kind of turned up there and it was all fabulous, and it was all a bit more like blow-up, you know what I mean?’
It’s a sentiment echoed by other industry veterans. Just last week, Yasmin Le Bon said she has seen the charisma slowly drift out of catwalks.
Model Mickey Monroe told the Daily Mail that ‘we didn’t realise how good it was’ in the 90s, adding, ‘There was no responsibility. You just turned up and it was all fabulous’
‘It’s a different way of working. When I first started, I’d be stopping and talking to the audience, and you’d be twirling around, taking off your jacket, and showing how clothes moved, but also laughing and enjoying yourself,’ she told the Telegraph.
‘Now they can be very serious; the models walk fast and look straight ahead and don’t smile. Sometimes we were having too much fun… it was a great time, and I am glad I was there.’
Mickey said that she used to go out dancing every night – because ‘back then you had to’.
‘I wouldn’t even dream about staying in, I wouldn’t even think about it,’ she explained. ‘There wasn’t a box set to watch, you know what I mean? Back then, there wasn’t any kind of, like, other source of entertainment. You didn’t sit around watching TV.
‘No Netflix, no phones or anything. So there wasn’t another kind of, like, distraction. There was only going out and meeting people, and it was an essential, you know.
‘In the late 80s and the early 90s, there were bars on King’s Road, and it was still a really cool place to be. And you’d just go down there every night, and everyone, it’d be full of all the models, and hairdressers and people like that.
‘You know, I said to my son – I used to work so hard to be cool. I had to get in nightclubs!’
And she stressed that while the drinking and drugs is what often gets brought up when one imagines 90s party culture, it was much more about the general laissez faire mood of the decade.
‘I’m not advocating the sort of hedonistic and that everyone was on drugs kind of lifestyle, because obviously it wasn’t like that. It’s more of a mindset,’ she added.
‘Back in the day, you went out. You wore what you wanted, you were your own person, you went out. People were dancing on tables, having a great time. You didn’t think about it.’
Now, she feels that models are simply not having fun – too worried about putting forward a curated, glossy image devoid of any individuality.
She continued: ‘They’re all so moody, and this Fashion Month, I just kind of thought, oh my god, if I see another one of them stomping down the catwalk with that ridiculous walk that they do now.
‘We used to have a pit at the bottom of the stage and around the side of the catwalk, and you’d had all the photographers there – and the designers used to always say, “smile, for God’s sake, interact with the audience”.
‘And that was part of the whole thing, was, like, being more individual and interacting with the audience. Instead, now it feels like it’s quite robotic. People expected you to be a person.
‘It’s very, very different now… I can hardly tell the models apart.’
Mickey feels like in 2026, rather than being spotted out and about at the latest clubs, there is a pressure to be seen in the newest sporty gear – something she ‘wouldn’t dream’ of doing even today, although she is herself a yoga teacher now.
Indeed, the average supermodel routine is heavily focused on wellness trends.
In 2018, Barbara Palvin Sprouse – who was a Victoria’s Secret Angel – offered a glimpse into her morning – which featured high-intensity workouts (sometimes up to ten times a week), infrared sauna sessions and periods of a ‘Keto’ diet.
Elsewhere, Bella Hadid recently told Marie Claire about how she never skips face plunging and lymphatic drainage.
It’s a far cry from Kate Moss, who used to say she could ‘drink all night’ and slept in her make-up.
‘People didn’t walk around in the 80s and 90s in gym clothes,’ Mickey continued. ‘I mean, that just wasn’t cool.
‘That whole, “look at me and how sporty and fit I am” – just, what? I mean, I’m a yoga teacher now, and I have a wellness business but I wouldn’t dream of going out in a pair of leggings.
‘And that whole thing about sort of being caught on camera with your matcha, you know, like, really trying to enforce a narrative. And I suppose maybe the narrative that we enforced back then – it seemed like it was more anti-establishment. Now people are afraid.’
Because models and influencers seem so glum these days, Mickey (pictured today) said, they don’t spark a charisma
Because of that, ‘no one’s really interested in finding out about modern models’ lifestyles – what is there to find out about?’
Mickey also feels that while the pressure to be stick thin was rampant in the 90s, things today are not better – and in fact, sometimes feels worse now.
‘There’s always been a diet culture in modelling,’ she said. ‘I mean, we used to – especially around the shows – your agency would say to you, “okay, everybody, you’ve got to stop eating now”. But I don’t think that anyone at that time was nearly as thin as they are now.’
Mickey admitted that even now – as an older model – there are still expectations that models should be slim. However, she thinks it’s ‘just gone completely crazy’.
‘I wouldn’t like to be one of those young girls now with the Ozempic and having that kind of pressure of, “look, take these pills and you’ll be thin in a month”, or whatever it is,’ she explained. ‘I think that the standard definitely appears to be a lot thinner. And being so, so, so miserable… that vibe translates.’
Because models and influencers seem so glum these days, Mickey continued, they don’t spark a charisma.
‘Sometimes I look at them and think to myself – who would want to go on a night out with you?
‘It’s like they’re trying to portray this absolutely perfect lifestyle. But who wants that?
‘Back then, everybody just wanted to dance and have a great time. And now, do people even dance?
‘It’s not the same… there’s not a dance culture that there was back then. Now, I mean, you look at some of those models, you think, God, imagine, you know, you’d snap in two if you went out to a rave.’
Mickey says that however, there are a few distinct positives in the modelling world today.
‘There’s a whole kind of Me Too thing – the kind of casting couch – that’s got to have gotten better, you know, that was around then.
‘And there were some agencies that were known for that. Not any of the agencies that I was in.’
She also feels that diversity of backgrounds, body types and faces has ‘improved 100 per cent’.
But despite that, she still worries about the state of the industry for young women today.
As an older model with the agency Mrs Robinson, she is frustrated with the notion that all women in their 50s are frumpy and matronly.
‘Where’s the cool older woman that’s still got it, that still wants to go out dancing, that still wants to have sex, and go on holiday, and buy cars, and do all these things?’ she said.
‘All over the industry that women are feeling this terrible pressure to look young. Why? What’s so great about that?’
Mickey now also runs her own wellness brand, Active Panda. It’s an industry she believes is too often seen as glossy and trendy when it is in fact rooted in ‘counterculture’. As well as offering yoga classes, she also provides personal coaching sessions.
