Cindy Crawford Opens Up on Her Supermodel Stardom to V magazine

V Magazine’s winter issue (available on newsstands November 14th), features a sultry black and white menswear spread starring the inimitable Cindy Crawford. In the shoot by photographer Sebastian Faena, the 47-year-old supermodel opens up about her daily life in Malibu and offers intimate details on her meteoric rise to supermodel stardom.

The spread has a distinctly outdoorsy vibe, as Crawford and male model Clement Chabernaud cavort in the rustic wild, keeping themselves warm with classic white button downs and comfy plaids (not to mention a good amount of body heat). The feature’s wild setting conveys that Crawford isn’t a city girl at heart; born and raised in a small town in Illinois, she moved to New York City as a young model to pursue her soon-to-be-explosive career.

It didn’t take Crawford long to cause a stir, appearing on the cover of Vogue at the tender age of 21. In addition to runway and print work, Cindy worked as a host on MTV’s House of Style and as a spokeswoman for Revlon and Pepsi. Reflecting on the time, Crawford explains that it was a “fun time to be a model.” She says, “MTV was bringing music and fashion and television together. It felt really fun, and we were all really busy and really making money.” As for what truly defines a supermodel, Crawford says, “what it means to me is that before us models were more two-dimensional—mostly nameless faces on magazine covers.”

She still remembers the moment when she first felt like a supermodel: “that Versace show when Naomi, Linda, Christy, and I all came out together…skipping and holding hands. It felt like the stars had aligned.” Talk about being known on a first name basis.

But even as she reveled in her stardom, Crawford began to plan for her future. She explains how, when she was younger, she often relied on trusted management or gut urges when deciding whether or not to pursue a project. While this method led to a diverse array of fun experiences, not every project worked out (she cites a movie that “was successful for me personally, but not successful in many other ways”). Cindy swears, “Choosing to do my exercise video was the beginning of making deliberate choices to do my own projects that were authentic to me.” While she has been building her business and working on personal projects for the last 15 years, Crawford still enjoys modeling, and insists that, “I’m a better model at 47 than I was when I was 22, although I wish I still had the body I had at 22!”

In addition to being a businesswoman and a model, Crawford is a mother to two children. Being a supermodel’s kid definitely has its perks; according to Crawford, her daughter was overjoyed when Harry Styles “stopped by to say hi when my kids and I were making pizzas.” Apparently Styles even taught the family a few tricks in the kitchen, gleaned from his former life working in a bakery. But being a model’s child isn’t all One Direction pizza parties; Crawford’s daughter, Kaya, recently followed in her mother’s footsteps, modeling for a Versace kids’ campaign. Here’s hoping Kaya’s career will be as multifaceted and illustrious as her supermodel mom’s.