Reclusive Claudia Schiffer made a rare public appearance in Paris, looking every inch the statuesque former supermodel as she stepped out to attend the funeral of a Dior executive, and RadarOnline.com has the photos.
The 56-year-old German beauty stunned in a chic black minidress, completing the elegant look with a black Dior handbag and matching kitten heels.
The ageless beauty also wore her signature platinum-blonde hair in long waves.
In fact, Schiffer still looked remarkably similar to her 1990s runway heyday, after skyrocketing to fame with her 1989 breakthrough as the bombshell face of Guess Jeans.
However, her rare public sighting was for a heartbreaking reason: she attended the funeral of Mathilde Favier, Global Director of Public Relations for Christian Dior Couture. She died unexpectedly at the age of 57 after being involved in a car crash in Western France on August 17.
Schiffer does not currently work among Dior’s starry list of celebrity ambassadors, but has maintained close friendships within the fashion industry after dramatically scaling back her modeling career in the 2000s.
She was seen being helped down the stairs of Paris’ Church of Saint-Sulpice by designer Gilles Dufour, who also lent an arm of support to legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve.
Other prominent guests included France’s First Lady Brigette Macron, Princess Caroline’s son, Pierre Casiraghi, and his socialite wife, Beatrice Borromeo, a Dior brand ambassador.
Schiffer began to disappear from the public eye after her 2002 marriage to British film producer Matthew Vaughn.
That same year, the couple put down roots at Coldham Hall, a sprawling 14-bedroom country estate tucked away in the English countryside of Suffolk, while maintaining a residence in London.
The couple’s eldest son, Casper, was born in 2003, followed by their daughter, Clementine, in 2004 and another daughter, Cosima, in 2010.
Schiffer recalled the couple’s decision to leave London and raise their children full-time in Coldham Hall after battling the paparazzi following her on school runs.
“We used to live in London, and when (my kids) started school, there was a lot of attention and paparazzi at the gates,” she told Vogue in 2018. “We decided to move to the countryside, where they can have a kind of normal life. We are trying to keep them away from everything for as long as possible until they, one day, voice what they want to do.”
Schiffer famously came out of semi-retirement to help close out the Versace Spring/Summer 2018 Tribute Show to Gianni Versace, near the 20th anniversary of his murder.
She was joined by four other supermodels of her day, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen and Carla Bruni, as they trailed behind Gianni’s sister Donatella, who took over the brand following his assassination at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan outside of his Miami mansion.
“We stay in contact through various ways, whether that’s Instagram, email or over the phone. And whenever we are in the same place at the same time, we try to hook up, although sometimes that isn’t easy,” Schiffer told Vogue about staying in touch with her fellow models. “But I think that bond and connection we share will probably never stop. It feels like a high school reunion whenever I see Cindy again.”