Tatiana Patitz, who was among the original supermodels of the 80s and 90s, passed away after a battle with breast cancer when she was only 56 years old.
Petitz was born in Hamburg to an Estonian mother and a German father, and moved with them to Sweden at a young age. She began her career at the age of 17, when she signed up for the competition of the international “Alit” agency and won third place. Petitz was part of the iconic supermodels cover of British “Vogue” magazine from January 1990 alongside Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington, and later appeared in George Michael’s music video for the song “Freedom”.
The famous cover (photo: Peter Lindbergh for “Vogue”)
Tatiana chose to settle in California, at a certain distance from the industry, and in 2004 she gave birth to her son – Jonah Johnson – whom she described as her source of happiness. Anna Wintour paid tribute to her: “Tatiana was always the symbol of European chic. She was less conspicuous than her colleagues – more mysterious, more mature and less attainable, and that was her charm.”