Background

Schiffer was born in Rheinberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, a small town 15 km northeast of Duisburg. She is the daughter of Gudrun and Heinz Schiffer, a lawyer. She has two brothers, Stefan and Andreas, and one sister, Ann Carolin.

Schiffer said that she was popular in high school, but felt socially overshadowed by the other girls in her class. She has revealed that because she was so tall, she became very shy and did not want to be noticed. She was also subjected to jealousy by others as she came from a wealthy family that was well-known locally. Schiffer became fluent in English and French.

She originally wanted to become a lawyer and used to work in her father's law firm. She later dropped these aspirations when, in October 1987 at seventeen, she was spotted in a nightclub in Düsseldorf by Michel Levaton, the boss of Metropolitan Model Agency who signed her up to become a model.

Modelling and fashion


She completed her education and then began to work as a model. She flew out to Paris for a trial photo shoot and soon after she appeared in the cover of French Elle, after being well received in Paris. After several other magazine appearances, she quickly achieved "supermodel" status when she was selected by Karl Lagerfeld to become the new face of Chanel. Schiffer went on to become world-famous, recognizable with her blue eyes, blond hair and tall figure, standing at 1.80m (approx. 5 ft 11 in.).

In the early 1990s, she starred in highly publicized Guess? jeans adverts in North America which created essential publicity for Schiffer. Paul Marciano said in E! Forbes Top 15 Supermodel Beauties Who Made Bank, "Guess name became really much more known around the world because [of] Claudia". Soon after appearing in the campaigns, her name was launched worldwide, appearing on five magazine covers in the United States and seven covers around Europe. Schiffer joined Thomas Zeumer's Metropolitan Models and was contracted to model for Revlon. She also became involved in modeling for several catalogs. Schiffer has done catwalk modeling for Versace, Jil Sander, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren and Valentino. Schiffer as the first model to make the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New York Times and People. She has also appeared many times on covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Tank MagazineTime. 

Schiffer has also been the face of Spanish clothes store, Mango and Accessorize, where she had her ears pierced especially for her Autumn/Winter 2006 Accessorize advertising campaign in 2006. Schiffer still holds a contract with L'Oréal and Ebel watches, and her billboard picture for Kenar has also hung over millions of tourists at Times Square. Since 1990, she has created a swimsuit calendar each year which she stars in and designs herself.

Schiffer later appeared in advertisements for Pepsi, and has danced with a cartoon version of Mickey Mouse in advertisements promoting Fanta for an estimated $2 million. From her appearances in a 1998 Citroën advertisement, she earned a reputed £3 million. Karl Lagerfeld filmed her for a Dom Perignon campaign, some ten years after her first appearances in Chanel adverts.

She is signed to several agencies, including 1/One Management in New York City, Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment in London for her non modelling interests, and her mother agency 'Model Management' in Hamburg.

Personal life


Schiffer in 2009

Schiffer dated magician David Copperfield for about five years from 1994 until 1999. They first met in 1993 at one of Copperfield's stage shows, where he invited her on stage to take part in his 'Flying' illusion, and he then subsequently sawed her in half during a joint appearance on German television. Throughout their relationship, she often joined Copperfield in his stage shows as a "special guest assistant" in a number of illusions, including being levitated, guillotined and sawed in half. Following the end of her relationship with Copperfield, she had a relationship with Tim Jefferies.

On 25 May 2002, she married the film producer Matthew Vaughn in Suffolk.Vaughn bought her a tortoise. On her wedding day, many journalists and 200 onlookers gathered to see her in her wedding dress. She was married in St. George's church in the village of Shimpling. The wedding reception was held at Schiffer's Elizabethan mansion.

Schiffer and Vaughn have three children: son Caspar Matthew Drummond (born 30 January 2003, Westminster, London), daughter Clementine Drummond (born 11 November 2004, Westminster), and a second daughter, Cosima Violet (born 14 May 2010). The family lives in London. During her spare time, Schiffer enjoys horse riding, painting, playing tennis and skiing.

Schiffer had two significant problems with harassment in the past. In 2002, an Italian kitchen porter was arrested after making nine visits to Schiffer's £5 million Suffolk mansion near Bury St Edmunds, attempting to see her. Charges against him were dropped however, as he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He believed that the Pope had told him to marry Schiffer. In 2004, a Canadian man was accused of harassing Schiffer, also at her mansion in Suffolk. He called at her mansion in the hope of seeing her. He also repeatedly left letters at her home.