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Gia Carangi

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Gia Marie Carangi (January 29, 1960, Philadelphia, PA – November 18, 1986, Philadelphia, PA) was an American fashion model during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Carangi, who was of Italian, Welsh and Irish ancestry, was widely considered the first "Supermodel". Cindy Crawford, who also appeared on the covers of several fashion publications during Gia's time, was later referred to as "Baby Gia", due to her resemblance to Gia. Carangi was also the first to present unusual poses, facial expressions and gestures. She is credited by many at the upper echelons of fashion to have created a new style of modeling, emulated by models since then to the present.

Carangi was featured on the cover of many fashion magazines, including Vogue, April 1, 1979; Vogue Paris, April 1979; American Vogue, August 1980; Vogue Paris, August 1980; Italian Vogue, January 1981; and several issues of Cosmopolitan between 1979 and 1982.

After becoming addicted to drugs, Carangi's modeling career rapidly declined. She later became infected with HIV and died in Philadelphia. Her death was not widely publicized and few people in the fashion industry knew of it. Carangi is thought to be one of the first famous women to die of AIDS.​
Carangi, who was known in modeling circles just by her first name, had a turbulent childhood. Her parents fought frequently, and she was given little attention.

Carangi moved from Philadelphia to New York City at the age of 17, and quickly rose to prominence. She was the favorite model of many eminent fashion photographers, including Francesco Scavullo, Arthur Elgort, Richard Avedon, and Chris von Wangenheim, and she posed for photos in many countries. By the end of 1978, Carangi was already a well-established model. Carangi did modeling for these designer and cosmetic firms: Body Basics, Christian Dior, Cutex, Diane von Fürstenberg, Giorgio Armani, Lancetti, Levi's, Maybelline, Perry Ellis, Versace, Vidal Sassoon and Yves Saint Laurent

Carangi was a regular at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club. Carangi usually only used cocaine in clubs but later began to develop a heroin addiction.

In October 1978, Carangi did her first major shoot with top fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim. Wangenheim had her pose nude behind a chain-link fence with makeup assistant Sandy Linter. Carangi immediately became infatuated with Linter and started to pursue her, though the relationship never became stable., Carangi's agent, Wilhelmina Cooper, died of lung cancer. Devastated, Carangi started abusing drugs. Scavullo recalled a fashion shoot 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."

By 1980, Carangi began having violent temper tantrums, walking out of photo shoots, and even falling asleep in front of the camera. In the November 1980 issue of Vogue, Carangi's track marks from heroin can be easily seen. For three weeks, she was signed with Eileen Ford, who soon dropped her.

In 1981, Carangi enrolled in a 21-day detox program, and started dating a college student, Elyssa Golden. The Carangi family, along with her mother, had suspected that Golden had a drug problem. Carangi soon began using again. She moved out of her mother's house and in with some friends, once again entering a detox program.

Her attempt to quit drugs was shattered when news that good friend and fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim had died in a car accident. It is said[weasel words] that Carangi locked herself in a bathroom for hours, shooting heroin. In the fall of 1981, she looked far different from the top model she once had been. However, she was still determined to make a comeback in the fashion industry. She contacted Monique Pillard (who was largely responsible for Janice Dickinson's career), who was hesitant to sign her.

For her second time, Carangi received the harsh treatment she skipped last time. Nobody would book her. Desperate, she turned to Scavullo. She landed a Cosmopolitan cover, a gift from Scavullo. Shot in the winter of 1982, it would be her last cover.

In West Germany, a budding fashion industry was being created. Although seen as tacky by the designers from New York, Paris and Milan, the Germans were willing to pay 10,000 marks a week to shoot Carangi abroad. However, no one in the States would book her. In the spring of 1983, she was caught with drugs in a shoot in Africa. Her career was over.

After pressure from her family she entered a drug-rehabilitation program again at Eagleville Hospital. After six months, she was released from the program and moved back to Philadelphia, where she seemed to be getting her life back on track. She started taking classes in photography and cinematography. But, three months later, she had vanished once again, and had returned to Atlantic City, and started shooting heroin again. She slept with men for money and was raped on several occasions. She soon became sick with pneumonia, and her mother came and checked her into a hospital in Norristown, Pennyslvania.

Carangi was diagnosed with AIDS, then a newly recognized disease. As her condition worsened, she was transferred to Philadelphia's Hahnemann University Hospital. Her mother stayed with her day and night, allowing virtually no visitors.


On November 18, 1986 at 10 a.m., 26-year-old Gia Carangi died.

Her funeral was held on November 21 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. Nobody from the fashion world attended. However, weeks later, Scavullo sent a Mass card when he heard the news. A biography of Carangi by Stephen Fried called Thing of Beauty was published in 1993. A biographical film, Gia, debuted on HBO in 1998. Angelina Jolie starred in the title role.

In 1996, actress-screenwriter Zoë Tamerlis, herself a heroin addict who died of drug-related causes in 1999, was commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi's life. This version of Gia was not produced, but after Tamerlis' death, footage of her, photographers, Carangi's family, and Sandy Linter discussing her life was incorporated into a documentary entitled The Self-Destruction of Gia.​







[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25152449@N06/3226908704/"]Vogue August 1980 6 | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]
 

haitiangurl95

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GORGEOUS ! She strangely ( physically!) reminds me of Whitney in some of her photos ! She is to me the TRUE definition of a perfect model : she is photogenic , she has charisma , she has allure AND she was breathtaking ! R.I.P :love:
 

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“Life and death, energy and peace.
If I stop today it was still worth it.
Even the terrible mistakes that I made
And would have unmade if I could.
The pains that have burned me and scarred my soul,
It was worth it,
For having been allowed to walk where I’ve walked,
Which was to hell on earth, heaven on earth, back again, into,
Under, far in between, through it, in it, and above.” — Gia
 

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“Now I have a great lust for life, and I love life, and it’s a wonderful feeling. And I think that I had to go through that, in order to have this feeling that I have right now.” — Gia Carangi
 

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Would have loved if you hadn't posted the pics of her high as a kite, but thanks for posting.
 

bluelewdgurl

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“Gia’s mother came to visit her in New York as often as she could, often coming in to do the laundry. “In the beginning, we were both sort of star-struck,” Kathleen says. Her daughter’s life was a far cry from the social scene in Lower Bucks County, where Kathleen and Henry Sperr had joined the local Corvette club to meet new people. “She would tell me all the stuff that most women want to know about models … which one had hips that went on forever, which one had the pimpIes,. which one did Quaaludes to get the starry looks in her eyes, which one was a real dog. She went on the most fantastic trips, and she always called from wherever she was. She met an Italian prince in Capri. He took her all around. He loved her, he wanted a photo of her. Finally she just ripped a picture out of a magazine and wrote on it ‘Eat your heart out, Gia.’ Jack Nicholson tried to get her to meet him in his room. I was in New York that week. I was making slipcovers for her sofa and she came back from this party and she said, ‘Can you believe it, I just turned down Jack Nicholson?’
“Still, I worried because I knew how fragile she was and I had this vision of her becoming this Marilyn Monroe type.”
But much of the time, Gia was alone.”
- thing of beauty
 

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“You know what I think? I think there’s a reason for everything. And I think that there’s a plan for everyone. And I think that god has a big plan for me. Just not in this life” — Gia Carangi
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“Once upon a time…
in a kingdom far, far away…
there lived a young girl…
whose hair was made of gold.
When the people
in the village saw her, they said…
“Oh, how beautiful she is.”
Once upon a time,
there was a very pretty girl…
who lived in a beautiful box
and everybody loved her.
“Once upon a time,
there was a girl with golden hair…
who went to live
in a beautiful house.”
But the people in the village
were very poor…
and every night, they crept
into the house where the girl slept…
and they cut off a piece
of her golden hair…
and they sold it for money.
“She’ll never even notice,”
they said.
And so, all the gold
was gone from her head.
“And the people said…
‘Oh, she’s not beautiful at all.’
And they took her from
the beautiful house…
and they drove her
into the street.
And she went away…
and she never came back.
And soon,
people became hungry again…
and they went back into
the beautiful house…
Iooking for gold,
but there was no one there.
” — Gia Carangi, 1960-1986, Model, one of the first famous women to die of AIDS.
 

Petite fraise

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This just proves that physical beauty is nothing without inner peace. Gia was absolutely beautiful. Models from that era look so much better than models today.
 

PRINCESS KIDA

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YASSS!!!!

I love her! She was so raw and edgy! If she was still alive, Janice Dickenson wouldn't even existed after the late 80's. I don't think there's any model that can capture her energy in these photos.
 

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