"Gia"

She was the world’s first supermodel, who paved the way for Naomi, Cindy, Claudia and the supermodels we know today. Her life story is the classic ‘rag-to-riches’ and she appeared on the runways of Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent and Armani, (to name just three). Her struggle to cope with this ‘new life’ led her to taking heroin, which dragged her down into ‘rags’, and eventually Aids, which she died from Aids-related complications at the young age of 26. She was Gia Carangi.

Gia was born on 29th January, 1960, in Philadelphia. She was the third and youngest child of Joseph Carangi, who was a restaurant owner, and Kathleen Carangi, who looked after the home and the children. Gia had two older brothers. Her father was Italian and her mother was Irish and Welsh, which accounted for Gia’s unusual but beautiful features. Her mother left the family home when Gia was only 11 years old, because the marriage was unstable and violent. This made Gia feel abandoned, her relatives describing the little girl as spoiled and shy.

Gia found the ‘attention’ she so longed for at high school by joining “the Bowie kids”, a group who were obsessive fans of David Bowie, even copying his “defiantly weird, high-glam” style. The group would hang out in Philadelphia’s gay clubs and bars, which suited Gia’s “tomboy persona”.

At the age of 17, Gia was a pretty high-school student, 5ft 8ins in height, with 34-24-35 stats and dress size 8-10. She would help out at her father’s restaurant, working behind the counter, and she did her best not to miss a David Bowie concert.

In 1978, a local photographer asked Gia to pose on the dance floor, and she was soon featured in newspaper ads. Gia’s dark Italian beauty stood out in contrast to the ‘typical blonde hair, blue eyes’ models that were the norm. Gia moved to New York, where she signed with Wilhelmina Models.

Gia’s first major shoot was published in October 1978, and it was with the top fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim. The pose was nude behind a chain-linked fence with make-up artist Sandy Linter, whom she became infatuated with. By the end of her first year in New York, Gia was a well-established model. Describing her journey into the Model World, Gia 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”.

Gia also ‘became’ a new kind of wild child. Sometimes she would wear no make-up, dress in men’s clothes and she had a real attitude on her, she ‘took no sxxt’ from the dignitaries of the fashion industry. Gia was a lesbian (or some said bisexual). She would walk out of photo shoots because she didn’t feel like doing them or “wasn’t in the mood”. Unfortunately, Gia didn’t hide her use of recreational drugs, which some believed showed her deep unhappiness. At 5 years old, Gia was sexually abused by a man, only once but it was enough to traumatise her. Then her mother left when Gia was 11, and she never got over this feeling of abandonment.

Gia soon became a favourite model for fashion photographers. Francesco Scavullo, Arthur Elgort, Richard Avedon and Denis Piel all ‘loved’ photographing Gia for fashion magazines, such as Vogue (British, Paris and American) and multiple issues of the Cosmopolitan. Gia also appeared in advertising campaigns for the high-profile fashion houses, including Armani, Christian Dior, Versace and Yves Saint-Laurent.

Gia was a regular at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and was soon addicted to heroin. This addiction began to affect her work, as she started to have violent temper tantrums, falling asleep in front of the camera, and she would walk out of photo shoots to buy drugs. The heroin addiction became such a problem, that even airbrushing the photos couldn’t get rid of the needle marks where Gia had shot up the heroin.

As quickly as she rose to fame, Gia was ‘dropped’ from fashion shoots. Her addiction had led her into trouble with the police, and ‘fashion industry friends’ didn’t want to be associated with her. Gia did a 21-day detox program, but the ‘sobriety’ was short-lived, and she was taken into custody being under the influence of alcohol and drugs whilst driving.

Gia was determined to make a comeback and signed with Elite Model Management in 1981. However, she was still on drugs and Sean Byrnes (Scavullo’s long-time assistant) said later of Gia: “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”.

After 1984, Gia seems to have 'given up'. She declared herself penniless in order to get treatment on public welfare. Six months later, when she came out of treatment, Gia went straight back on the heroin.

A year later, Gia was taken into hospital. She had been sleeping rough and in the rain. She had also been badly beaten and raped.

Gia was now showing symptoms of pneumonia, but blood tests proved that she had Aids related Complex (ARC), which was the precursor to Aids itself.

Gia Carangi died on 18th November, 1986. She was the first woman to be diagnosed with Aids.

"Modelling is a short gig", Gia.