THE ART OF HOSTING SUPERMODEL STYLE

Claudia Schiffer invites us into her Suffolk home for a masterclass in elegant entertaining, stylish soirees and her enduring memories as one of the original supermodels

- ROSALIND POWELL

As one of the original and most indemand supermodels of all time, Claudia Schiffer has always been known as much for her professionalism as her beauty.

Having shot to fame in the late 1980s in a campaign for Guess?, by the age of 21 she was the world’s highest-paid model, fronting multimillion-pound initiatives and walking the runway for leading fashion brands such as Versace, Chanel, Chloé, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton.

Still luminous at 54, it’s no surprise that the indefatigable superstar has forged yet another successful career as a businesswoman: her entrepreneurialism has led her to diverse projects including designing ceramic and porcelain dinnerware collections with Vista Alegre and Bordallo Pinheiro.

Her second and most recent collaboration is named after her late mother Gudrun, who raised her daughter with Claudia’s late father Heinz in Rheinberg, a small town near Dusseldorf, before accompanying Claudia to Paris after she was talent-spotted by a model agent when she was 17.

Claudia is a devoted mother to her own children – Casper, 21, Clementine, 20, and 14-year-old Cosima – with film director Matthew Vaughn, her husband of 22 years. The couple raised their family at Coldham Hall, the stunning Tudor manor house in Suffolk where these pictures were taken and where the family will be celebrating Christmas and hosting their annual New Year’s Eve party for friends.