Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/403159
photography by justin bare (crawford and skrebneski). styling by robert behar/opus; hair by yiotis panayiotou using oribe; Makeup by shane paish/walter schupfer using dior; nails by whitney gibson using chanel; photography assistance by alex alMeida and paul rae; hair assistance by osvaldo delgado; video by nardeep khurMi; sitting editor: danielle yadegar; special thanks to anne kiM They're doing a documentary, so I'm the host of the documentary…. I also still do a lot of work in Madison, Wisconsin, at the American Family Children's Hospital, which is where—it's not the exact hospital where my brother Jeff was treated [before he passed away]—that hospital doesn't exist anymore—but this is a new hospital that he would've gone to. I took my daughter there this fall because I host a reunion of cancer survivors every five years there [through a program called Kids With Courage], and we also do hospital visits. And it was just so great for Kaia to see that. It was really like I was passing the baton to her in a way, or starting to pass the baton, and just teaching her that she's had a very privileged childhood, which comes with responsibility as well. Do you still model? Yes. For me, every time I'm in front of the camera, I'm modeling. So whether I'm sell- ing skincare or doing Michigan Avenue magazine, to me that's modeling. I still am able to put my skills to use—maybe with a little more retouching, but you know what I mean. I didn't realize you were a bowler. What is your high score? 212. Terrific. When did you start bowling? I had it in P.E. At DeKalb High School, you can take bowling as first semester of P.E. if you have a car to drive yourself to the bowling alley, which I think is hilarious. But it's funny because I rarely bowl, but once in a while, someone will have a bowling birth- day party or something, and it's amazing that it actually comes back to me. You also know I bake, because I used to bring food to your studio. I remember that. My best is strawberry rhubarb. If I want to get on my husband's good side, I make strawberry rhu- barb pie. It's been 30 years since you graduated from high school. That's just mean to say that it's been 30 years. [Laughs] I'm sorry. If you went back and saw your 18-year-old self today, what sort of advice would you give yourself? You know, I think I would [tell myself ] two things. One is, you're good enough. I think young people— and adults—are plagued by our insecurities. [Mine was] coming to Chicago and coming to your studio and going to New York, and worrying that I didn't belong or I didn't deserve to belong, or whatever. You did that when you first started, but you certainly don't seem insecure now. I think we all get better at our coping mechanisms, don't you think? [Laughs] Absolutely. The other thing I would tell my young self is to just let loose a little bit more and have fun. I was very cautious and careful—which probably helped lead to the career that I had—but there were a few times I could have had a little bit more fun. Also, for me coming from such a sheltered small town, going to the big city and being around all that craziness of the '80s, it was easier for me to put my nose in a book and just kind of block it all out. I didn't quite know how to navigate it, so I just chose not to. But looking back, I was like, Maybe I should have gone on Armani's boat for a week, or do things that [I didn't do because] I was afraid of feeling out of my league or in an uncomfortable situation. Look, in the end it worked out for me, and I have a great life. Actually Rande has brought more [of that out in me]; he's fun, and I feel safe having fun around him, so I'm almost doing some of those things. We used to go to the South of France every summer with his friends, and I would be like, That's my one week a year that I dance on top of a table every day at lunch. Good girl. I probably should have done it when I was 20 and things weren't jiggling so much. [Laughs] I could still pull it off at 35 or 40. Well, you did. Yeah, well, now I'm not doing it anymore. [Laughs] Unless I know there are no cam- eras around. Does Rande take pictures of you at stuff like that? No, I think we're both at the point right now where we want to live the moment more than document it. That's what I tell people. Do not photograph me. There's a time in everyone's life where you don't have to be photographed anymore. You know what? You still look great. My grand- mother, both my grandmothers, are still living, which is amazing. My 92-year-old grandmother came with me to Europe last year, and she looks beautiful. I think we are the hardest judges of our- selves, which is unfortunate, because other people see the beauty of a life well lived. Right. We take in every little detail. So how do you manage being a mother with being an entrepreneur, and all that goes with that? How do you make time in your life? Well, the great thing about having kids is you don't have to figure out your priorities anymore because you're looking at them. It's kind of great because it does prioritize your life in a whole new way. And you learn to say no more. I agree that you can have it all; I just think it's really hard to have it all at the same time. So I just don't do as many extracurricu- lar things, because I always have something better to do, which is being home with my family. MA Photographer Victor Skrebneski famously told a new-to-the-biz Cindy Crawford to ignore the industry people telling her to remove her now-world-famous beauty mark. 112 michiganavemag.com