Background and career
Christy Nicole Turlington Burns (née Turlington; born January 2, 1969) is an American fashion model. She first gained fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a supermodel. She represented Calvin Klein's Eternity campaign in 1989 and again in 2014, and also represents Maybelline. Grace Coddington, the long-time creative director of American Vogue magazine, has described Turlington as "the most beautiful woman in the world."
Turlington was born in Walnut Creek, California, the middle of three daughters born to Dwain Turlington, a pilot for Pan Am, and María Elizabeth (née Parker Infante), a flight attendant from El Salvador. She was raised in the Catholic faith of her mother along with her sisters and continued to practice the religion into adulthood.
She was discovered by local photographer Dennie Cody while she was riding a horse in Miami, Florida, where her father was working as a training captain for Pan Am. Turlington began modeling after school from age 14 to 16 and during summers while she attended Monte Vista High School in Danville, California.
After turning 18, she moved to New York City to model full-time, and later graduated from high school. She went back to school in 1994 and graduated cum laude in 1999 from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in comparative religion and eastern philosophy. As of 2014, she was a student at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Turlington has been featured in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Prada, Valentino, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Bally, Jason Wu, Max Mara, Escada, Michael Kors, and Maybelline.
