Gia Carangi | |
|---|---|
 Carangi in 1982 | |
| Born | Gia Marie Carangi (1960-01-29)January 29, 1960 |
| Died | November 18, 1986(1986-11-18) (aged 26) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Cause of death | AIDS-related complications |
| Occupation | Model |
| Years active | 1978–1983 |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1] |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Agency | Wilhelmina Models Ford Models Legends Elite Model Management |
Gia Marie Carangi[2] (January 29, 1960 – November 18, 1986) was an American supermodel, considered by some to be the firstsupermodel.[3][4] In 2023, Harpers Bazaar ranked her 15th among the greatest supermodels in the 1980s.[5] She was featured on the cover of numerous magazines, including multiple editions ofVogue andCosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for fashion houses includingArmani,Dior,Versace andYves Saint Laurent.[6]
After Carangi became addicted toheroin, her career rapidly declined, which ultimately led her to quit modeling in 1983. In 1986, at age 26, she died ofAIDS-related complications. Believed to have contracted it from a contaminated needle, she became one of the early notable women to die of the virus.[3] Her life was dramatized in the television filmGia (1998), directed byMichael Cristofer and starringAngelina Jolie as Carangi.
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Carangi was born on January 29, 1960, in Philadelphia, the third and youngest child of Joseph Carangi, a restaurant owner, and Kathleen Carangi (née Adams), a homemaker. She had three older brothers, one of them was from her father's previous marriage and one younger half-brother. Her father was Italian, and her mother was of Irish and Welsh ancestry. Joseph and Kathleen had an unstable, violent marriage, ultimately leading Kathleen to abandon the family when Carangi was eleven years old. Gia was described as "needy and manipulative" by relatives who recalled her as spoiled and shy as a child and a "mommy's girl" who did not receive the motherly attention that she desired. Those who knew Gia blamed her "fractured childhood" for the instability and drug dependence that plagued her adult life.[4] Carangi was sexually abused when she was 5 years old, an event which traumatized her.[7]
In her adolescent years, Carangi found the attention she sought from other teenage girls, befriending them by sending flowers. While attendingAbraham Lincoln High School, Carangi bonded with "the Bowie kids", a group of obsessiveDavid Bowie fans who emulated Bowie's "defiantly weird, high-glam" style. Carangi was drawn to Bowie for his fashion preferences and his ambiguousgender play and outspoken bisexuality. One of Carangi's friends later spoke of her "tomboy persona", describing her relaxed openness about her sexuality as reminiscent of the character Cay in the filmDesert Hearts (1985). Carangi and her "bi-try Bowie-mad" friends hung out in Philadelphia's gay clubs and bars. Though she's associated with the lesbian community, she did not want to take up "the accepted lesbian style."[4]
After being featured in Philadelphia newspaper ads and being discovered by Sondra Scerca in Maurice Tannenbaum's hair salon,[8] Carangi moved to New York City at the age of 17, where she signed withWilhelmina Models.[9] Her first major shoot, published in October 1978, was with top fashion photographerChris von Wangenheim, who had her pose nude behind a chain-link fence with makeup artist Sandy Linter. Carangi immediately became infatuated with Linter and pursued her, though the relationship never became stable.[10] By the end of 1978, her first year in New York, Carangi was already a well-established model. Of her quick rise to prominence, described byVogue as "meteoric",[9] Carangi later said, "I started working with very good people, I mean all the time, very fast. I didn't build into a model, I just sort of became one."[11] Carangi was earning half a million dollars in a year at the height of her career.[5]
Carangi was a favorite model of various fashion photographers, including Von Wangenheim,Francesco Scavullo,Arthur Elgort,Richard Avedon andDenis Piel. Well-integrated within the fashion world, she had the selection of several photographers, most notably Scavullo.[12] Carangi was featured on the cover of many fashion magazines, including the April 1979 issue ofBritish Vogue, the April 1979 and August 1980 issues ofVogue Paris, the August 1980 issue ofVogue, the February 1981 issue ofVogue Italia, and multiple issues ofCosmopolitan between 1979 and 1982.[6] During these years, she also appeared in various advertising campaigns for high-profile fashion houses, including Armani, André Laug, Christian Dior, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent.[6] At the height of her career, Carangi was most known in modeling circles by only her first name.[4] During this time, she also appeared in theBlondie music video for the single "Atomic".[13][14]
A regular atStudio 54 and theMudd Club,[15] Carangi usually used cocaine in clubs.[16] After her agent, mentor and friendWilhelmina Cooper, died of lung cancer in March 1980, a devastated Carangi began using drugs and developed an addiction to heroin.[16][17] Carangi's addiction soon began to affect her work; she had violent temper tantrums, walked out of photo shoots to buy drugs, and fell asleep in front of the camera. Scavullo recalled a fashion shoot with Carangi in the Caribbean when "she was crying, she couldn't find her drugs. I literally had to lay her down on her bed until she fell asleep."[18] During one of her final location shoots for AmericanVogue, Carangi had red bumps in the crooks of her elbows where she had injected heroin. Despiteairbrushing, some of the photos, as published in the November 1980 issue, reportedly still showed visible needle marks.[19][20]
In November 1980, Carangi left Wilhelmina Models and signed withFord Models, but she was dropped within weeks. By then, her career was in a steep decline. Modeling offers soon ceased and her fashion industry friends, including Sandy Linter, refused to speak to her, fearing their association with her would harm their careers. In an attempt to quit using drugs, she moved back to Philadelphia with her mother and stepfather in February 1981.[21] Carangi underwent a 21-day detox program, but her sobriety was short-lived.[22] She was arrested in March 1981 after she drove into a fence in a suburban neighborhood. After a chase with police, she was taken into custody where it was later determined she was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. After her release, Carangi briefly signed with a new agency, Legends, and worked sporadically, mainly in Europe.[23]
In late 1981, although still using drugs, Carangi was determined to make a comeback in the fashion industry and signed withElite Model Management. While some clients refused to work with her, others were willing to hire her because of her past status as a top model. Scavullo photographed her for the April 1982 cover ofCosmopolitan, her last cover appearance for an American magazine.[4][6] Sean Byrnes, Scavullo's long-time assistant, later said, "What she was doing to herself finally became apparent in her pictures. ... I could see the change in her beauty. There was an emptiness in her eyes."[24]
Carangi then mainly worked with photographerAlbert Watson and found work modeling for department stores and catalogs. She appeared in an advertising campaign forVersace, shot by Richard Avedon. He hired her for the fashion house's next campaign, but during the photo shoot, in late 1982, Carangi became uncomfortable and left before any usable shots of her were taken.[25] Around this time, Carangi enrolled in an outpatientmethadone program but soon began using heroin again.[26] By the end of 1982, she had only a few clients that were willing to hire her. Carangi's final photo shoot was for German mail-order clothing companyOtto GmbH in Tunisia;[27] she was sent home during the shoot for using heroin. She left New York for the final time in early 1983.[28]
Carangi spent most of her modeling earnings on drugs, and spent the final three years of her life with various lovers, friends, and family members inPhiladelphia andAtlantic City, New Jersey. She was admitted to an intense drug treatment program at Eagleville Hospital in December 1984.[29] She was in intense therapy and was able to stay sober for 7 months. After treatment, she got a job in a clothing store, which she eventually quit.[30] She later found employment as a checkout clerk and then worked in the cafeteria of a nursing home. By late 1985, she had begun using drugs again and was engaging in prostitution in Atlantic City.[31] She had cancelled the meetings with her therapist, bought as much heroin as she could, and attempted suicide.[32]
In December 1985, Carangi was admitted to Warminster General Hospital inWarminster, Pennsylvania with bilateralpneumonia. A few days later, she was diagnosed withAIDS-related complex.[33] Carangi was hospitalized in October 1986, feeling weak.[32] On October 18, she was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.[34] Carangi died at the Hahnemann Hospital of AIDS-related complications one month later, on November 18, 1986, at the age of 26.[35][3] Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. No one from the fashion world attended.[4] However, weeks later, fashion photographerFrancesco Scavullo, Carangi's friend and confidant, sent aMass card when he learned of her death.[36]
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2003 | The Self-Destruction of Gia | Self | Archive footage, posthumously released |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2009–2011 | 20 to 1 | Self | Archive footage, posthumously released, episode: Sizzling Superstars, Adults Only 20 to 1: Sizzling Supermodels |
| Music video | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Artists |
| 1980 | Atomic | girl with goggles | Blondie |
Carangi's rise to fame as an androgynous brunette in an industry full of blue-eyed blondes is believed to have started heroin chic.[32] Carangi is often considered to be the firstsupermodel,[3][4] although that title has been applied to others, includingMargaux Hemingway,Audrey Munson,[37][38]Lisa Fonssagrives,[39][40]Dorian Leigh,[41]Twiggy,Jean Shrimpton,[42]Cheryl Tiegs andJanice Dickinson.[43] ModelCindy Crawford, who rose to prominence the year Carangi died, was referred to as "Baby Gia" because of her resemblance to Carangi.[44] Crawford later recalled, "My agents took me to all the photographers who liked Gia:Albert Watson,Francesco Scavullo,Bill King. Everyone loved her look so much that they gladly saw me."[9] Additionally, Carangi, whose sexual orientation has been reported as either lesbian or bisexual, is considered a lesbian icon and is said to have "epitomized lesbian chic more than a decade before the term was coined."[4][10] Argentine modelMica Argañaraz has often been compared to Carangi, whom she considers a beauty icon.[45][46]
Carangi's life has been the subject of several works. A biography of Carangi byStephen Fried titledThing of Beauty—taken from the first line ofJohn Keats' famous poemEndymion—was published in 1993.Gia, a biographical film starringAngelina Jolie, debuted onHBO in 1998. Jolie won aGolden Globe Award and aScreen Actors Guild Award for her performance, among other accolades. A documentary titledThe Self-Destruction of Gia, released in 2003, showcased footage of Carangi, contemporary interviews with Carangi's family and former colleagues, including Sandy Linter, and footage of actress-screenwriterZoë Lund, herself a heroin addict, who had been commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi's life at the time of her own death of drug-related causes in 1999.[47][48]
Carangi is commemorated on theAIDS Memorial Quilt on block #5949, block #3505, and block #4113[49]
Baumann, Sacha Lanvin.Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined an Era. 2016.
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