Nadège Du Bospertus: forgotten supermodel

She walked miles of runaways. Her smile shone from pages of Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire. She was a face of Chanel, Escada, Fendi, Strenesse, Levi’s and Missoni, just to name a few. Unique beauty, with dark skin and short hair, she was one of the supermodels, Gianni Versace’s and Giorgio Armani’s muse, and yet not many remember her name these days.

Nadège Du Bospertus was discovered in 1988, in Paris by a young photographer who sent her pictures to a modeling agency. She was 21. The offer was so tempting that she decided to stop studying economics for a year and try modelling instead.

“If it works, I’ll stay and if not, I’ll go back to school”, she said. The school was soon forgotten as just four months later the French Greek girl found herself in LA shooting a shampoo ad campaign.

Her first magazine editorial was for the cover of the July 1989 issue of 20 ANS, photographed by Barbro Anderson.

One day she came to Milan for a fashion week. The driver turned out to be a charming Italian. So charming that she ended up spending an entire weekend with him. They fell in love and decided to stay together. Three months later Nadège realised that she was pregnant and 9 months later gave birth to their first son (they now have three, Luigi,Daniel,and Mathias).

Her wedding was a fairy-tale dream. Carla Bruni was her made of honour and Christian Lacroix made the wedding dress.

“I’ve never dreamed of being a model or an actress, but always – of being a mum, having kids and family” was her answer to a question why she decided to leave the world of fashion.

Nadège lives in Milan, with her beautiful family. She didn’t quit modelling, though. Apart from being a judge on Italia’s Next Top model, she also opened and closed the spring-summer 2009 Dsquared2 show in Milan. 

Photo sources: Vogue US November 1992, Vogue US June 1992, Vogue Italia January 1992, TFS