LOUDER THAN LIKES

A marie claire cover veteran, Celeste Barber was an easy choice to star on our 30th anniversary issue. Here, the celebrity satirist turned A-lister in her own right recreates iconic fashion moments – and then calls her friend Cindy Crawford to tell her all about it

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Celeste Barber is flinging jungle-print chiffon, billowing like wings from her bare navel, with Big Diva Energy to rival Jennifer Lopez. Barber - the funnywoman who skewers celebrity culture and beauty standards one granny pant-wearing, body-contorting, piss-taking clip at a time - is doing what she does best: parading and peacocking in front of the camera, unreservedly committed to the bit. Today, for marie claire, she’s re-creating some of the most iconic moments in fashion history: she’s a near-naked gazelle channelling Bella Hadid in spray-on Coperni; she’s on all fours crawling down the runway like fashion roadkill Carrie Bradshaw; she’s Cindy Crawford laughing riotously with her supermodel besties Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista for Versace autumn/winter 1991.

A comedian who parodies supermodels who is also on a first-name basis with those supermodels? So culturally resonant is her work that she’s become a star in her own right, and now finds herself in the same rooms as the very people she built her career spoofing.

Over the past 12 months Barber's been spreading those palm-frond couture wings metaphorically as well. A trained actor whose first love was the stage, she’s gone back to her roots with a sellout comedy tour across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and regional Australia. The show, which she says is inspired by her lifelong dream to be a backup dancer for Janet Jackson. She launched a beauty brand, Booie, with business partner and P.E Nation co-founder Claire Greaves. And, yes, she’s marie claire's 30th birthday cover star, helming the mag for the third time.