Claudia Schiffer Poses Naked for First Vogue Cover in 25 Years, Aims to Recognize ‘Sexualities, Bodies and Older Women’

Twenty-five years after her first Vogue cover, Claudia Schiffer returned to the magazine’s Italian edition to pose nude at 48. In the photo, she poses both with and without clothes, most notably a black blazer jacket.

Schiffer stands in a towering pail of black heels while holding the jacket behind her, covering herself with a black clutch and pair of neon green heels. In another photo, she takes her own self portrait and dons nothing but the pair of black heels and the jacket, surrounded by the lettering “Claudia by Claudia.”

Also included in the photo shoot was Stephanie Seymour, 51, who marked her 32nd-year Vogue anniversary and posed for similar shots taken by photographer Collier Schorr.

The photos are meant to be a tribute to Helmut Newton’s self-portraits but inject a women-only perspective into the concept, as Schiffer and Seymour control the narrative, with Schorr, who’s known for exploring identity and gender in her works, behind the lens.

“When you are photographing women such as Stephanie and Claudia, who are literally like the walking lexicons of fashion gesture in photography, there are things they will and will not do,” the American photographer said. “There’s not one thing that you see in these photographs that Claudia didn’t want to do — if she didn’t want to do it, she changed it.”

“Because of who I am and who they are, I think these shoots are about women’s acknowledgement of their own sexuality,” Schorr said. “And is very different to the representation of desire, which is always connected to the maker of the picture. I think this was about Claudia, Stephanie’s and my relationships with our sexualities and bodies, and about being seen as older women.”

Schiffer, who is mom to son Caspar, 16, and daughters Clementine, 14, and Cosima, 8, recently discussed aging and motherhood with InStyle. “Age should be celebrated and revered. I feel 48, and I’m proud of it. There’s a reason we have cakes and parties on birthdays, and I feel the same way about getting older each year as I did when I was a child,” she said.

She also spoke about their future careers in whatever they choose to do. “I will encourage whatever [my kids] want to do, as long as they try their best and work hard at it,” she said. “Having me as their mum is a double-edged sword when it comes to modeling: It may get them through the door, but they will be under far more scrutiny.”

Schiffer and Seymour’s issue of Vogue Italia hits newsstands on Aug. 6.

Photo credit: Pascal Le Segretain / Staff / Getty