(WHAT’S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY?

Before Dutch models like Doutzen Kroes, Marloes Horst, Bregji Heinen, Luna Bijl, and Birgit kos were even thought of in the world of fashion, Karen Mulder set the runways ablaze decades prior and captivated designers and fans alike with her sophisticated classic beauty and gentle girl next door charm.

I need to be myself
I can’t be no-one else
I’m feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic
You can have it all, but how much do you want it?

You make me laugh
Give me your autograph
Can I ride with you in your BMW?
You can sail with me in my yellow submarine

Like Mulder’s fellow supermodel contemporaries of the time, she too came from humble beginnings in her home country of Vlaardingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. With her short hair and braces, Karen never thought of herself as beautiful growing up and couldn’t fathom the idea of ever becoming a model.

“No-one ever told me I was beautiful,” she recalls. “When I was 14, I was out riding my bicycle with my best friend and she said, ‘You know, you’re really pretty.’ I was so surprised, I almost fell off my bike!”

By the age of 17, Karen was completely engrossed with all things fashion and beauty. Unbeknownst to Karen, friends had submitted snapshots of her to the Elite modeling agency’s Look of The Year competition. Karen didn’t raise too many objections as she saw it as a joke and didn’t entertain any hope of winning.

But to her surprise, when she returned from a vacation with her family, there was a letter waiting, informing Karen she was one of 50 girls selected for the contest. Before she’d knew it, she had come in second place in the world finals and snagged a lucrative modeling contract with Elite.

Her parents were not thrilled with the prospects of Karen becoming a model and forgoing a white collar profession:

“My father didn’t want to hear about it at all,” says Karen. “I had to get a degree, either as a physician or a pharmacist. But I was really bad in maths, and school always bored me terribly. So, for me, becoming a model was a way of escaping the whole thing.”

A few weeks later, Karen was already living and working in Paris, being booked by top fashion magazines like Elle, Vogue, and Marie Claire. In just her second year, Karen was already walking the catwalks for some of the biggest names such as Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Versace, and Giorgio Armani.

You need to find out
‘Cause no-one’s gonna tell you what I’m on about
You need to find a way for what you want to say
But before tomorrow

‘Cause my friend said he’d take you home
He sits in a corner all alone
He lives under a waterfall
Nobody can see him
Nobody can ever hear him call
Nobody can ever hear him call

In 1991 at the age of 21, Karen’s modeling career skyrocketed as she landed a contract with GUESS and scored her first cover for the Vogue UK March 1991 issue photographed by Patrick Demarchelier.

Throughout the 1990s, Karen continued her meteoric fashion glory, walking for everyone from Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Versace, Chloé, Fendi, Christian Dior, etc. She modeled for Victoria’s Secret for five consecutive years, appeared in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit in 1997 and 1998 and graced countless magazine covers.

Karen even had the honor of working with some of the worlds greatest fashion photographers at the time including Javier Vallhomrat, Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier, Bruce Weber, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Arthur Elgort.

At the height of her career she was earning up to £10,000 (over $13,000 USD today) a day and making millions a year:

“I think I’m very lucky in life and I think you have to live the moment. You should not live in the future. You should not live in the past. It’s about living today, this very second.”

But everything wasn’t as it seemed when in 2001 on a French Television show, Karen suffered a mental breakdown, claiming she was sexually abused by powerful men in the fashion industry and even loved ones. Karen was checked into a psychiatric hospital. The following year, Karen went into a coma after she overdosed on sleeping pills in an apparent suicide attempt.

Karen rebounded a bit in 2004 as she launched her music career which was minimally successful and had a daughter in 2006, walking her last fashion show in 2007 at the Dior Autumn/Winter 07/08 Couture Collection in Paris.

Since then, Karen Mulder has lived in relative obscurity far from the limelight, appearing in a few foreign TV shows and rarely speaking to the media. It’s as though she’s the model that everyone wants to forget, a black eye on the fashion industry, serving as some “a-ha the dark underbelly of modeling and what just relying on your looks can get you” moment.

It’s odd how society views troubled men from women. For someone like Kurt Cobain or Layne Staley, we laud their hardships; their troubles and suffering humanizes them, and we see ourselves in their pain. They become heroes immortalized by musical greatness. But that’s hardly the case the other way around.

Karen Mulder as a person and model was in a total class by herself. Among her peers in the fashion industry, she was known as the “Blonde with Class,” “The Face of her Generation,” and “The Dutch Valkyrie.” You can see in old clips on YouTube, just how much casual fans, agents, and designers loved Karen.

She was so charming, her personality was upbeat and she had a childlike innocence about herself. She seemed so kind and loving, and I think that’s what attracted others to Karen most. People genuinely seemed perplexed meeting Karen for the first time. It’s like her exceedingly good looks and modeling occupation, didn’t match her down to earth personality.

“She’s a very kind, nice person and she just does the job like a job,” says Jackie Modlinger. “She doesn’t wake up in the morning and say, Oh I’m a supermodel.”

Seeing Karen glide down the runway was a thing of beauty. She wasn’t a lifeless mannequin with a blank stare. She had personality, sex appeal, and grace in her walk. Her hips would sway to and fro as she dazzled the audience with her classical beauty and the epicurean silhouette of her curves.

“I think you can see a girl’s personality very much on the runway. You can tell some girls are very strong, some girls are very soft and sweet, and some girls are very shy, and some girls want to be sexy.”

Karen’s covers and editorials left such an impact when I saw them for the first time. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She had this air of sophistication and sensuality in her photos. But it wasn’t haughtiness or arrogance. It was an aura of genuine authenticity, warmth and inspiration.

She was so incredibly special. In the supermodel heyday, she was in a class by herself and there’s no one like her even now. Her beauty and spirit had a way of enveloping you. She could mesmerize a crowd effortlessly. I don’t think there was another model quite magnetic like Karen. She’s was completely different.

I feel like a normal human being, like anyone else, I don’t feel like I’m any different, like when I left Holland 8 years ago. It’s just that being in the spotlight or having your picture taken or being in interviews, it impresses people sometimes, they go ‘wow.’ I don’t know, I’m the same as before.

You need to find out
‘Cause no-one’s gonna tell you what I’m on about
You need to find a way for what you want to say
But before tomorrow

The late 80s and 90s era of the supermodel were extraordinary. It was to fashion and beauty what Grunge and Britpop were to music during those decades. I don’t think there will ever be anything quite like it again and there will never be another Karen Mulder.

In the Oasis: Supersonic documentary, Noel expressed how their hit debut single was about passion, the love he and Liam had for one another as brothers and the love of family. Ultimately that’s how I feel about Karen. She personified love, humanity, and passion.

Sometimes you have to breakout, never look back and do the extraordinary to feel alive. Karen would often times say, “I’m just me” as a response to her puzzling appeal. “I think she can be identifiable as the girl next door as well as a supermodel, says Modlinger, “and that’s her strength.”

‘Cause my friend said he’d take you home
He sits in a corner all alone
He lives under a waterfall
Nobody can see him
Nobody can ever hear him call
Nobody can ever hear him call

People couldn’t quite get the appeal to Nirvana and grunge in the states, and it was probably the same with Oasis and Britpop in the UK, but both were a force. Karen had that same force, a seismic shock wave sending a passion of love throughout the atmosphere, breaking every barrier of sound known to man, she’s supersonic!