’90s Vogue model Niki Taylor looks amazing as she sizzles at age 50 for new campaign

Niki Taylor was a top model in the 1990s.

The blonde with the radiant smile landed her first magazine cover for Seventeen when she was just 14-years-old.

In 1990, she won a coveted Vogue cover, becoming the second youngest person, at age 15, to take the front of the fashion bible. 

Taylor went on to grace the covers of Cosmopolitan, Allure, Elle, Marie Claire and Shape.

Campaigns for major brands like L’Oreal, Gap, Cover Girl, Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier followed, as well as appearances in dozens of fashion shows. 

And she had all the right friends: Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss included. 

Now the 50-year-old sensation has been seen in stunning photos for a campaign with de Boulle Diamond & Jewelry. 

Last year, Taylor explained that, for her, age is more about your state of mind and ‘what’s inside’ than your appearance. 

‘As long as you feel good and healthy, you can pretty much take on anything,’ she told the Daily Mail.    

For decades, there has been a serious stigma about aging within the fashion and beauty industries, with many models speaking out about feeling as though they had a ‘shelf life’. 

However, in recent years, that has begun to shift, with more and more models finding success later on in life. 

Taylor believes that this shift has been a long time coming, explaining that she has seen industry insiders making moves towards increasing diversity for years – a trend that she is happy to see is now being represented in advertisements and campaigns. 

‘It was unheard of to see a fashion model in her 30s back in the day. [But] it’s just a number, really! We’re all getting older, we’re all changing,’ she said. 

Still, Taylor joked that she prefers the word ‘timeless’ rather than ‘ageless’, noting that it better captures her views on aging. 

While she looks as though she hasn’t aged a day since her first CoverGirl campaign, her life has changed a great deal in the years that followed her history-making 1992 partnership with the brand.  

The supermodel is a mother to four children: twin sons, Jake and Hunter, whose father is her ex-husband Matt Martinez, and a daughter, Ciel, and son Rex with her husband of more than 14 years, Burney Lamar. 

She now balances her work as a successful model with her commitments at home in Nashville.

Though sometimes the two worlds collide, as they did with her new CoverGirl campaign, which she revealed that husband Burney helped her to shoot. 

‘This was the first time [that I’ve shot a campaign myself at home]… I transformed my house into a set!’ she shared. 

‘My husband helped me film it with my iPhone. I did hair and makeup. It was very cool. Then I just sent [CoverGirl] a whole bunch of stuff to edit.’

Taylor has also endured heartbreaking tragedy and difficult trauma over the years. 

In 1995, just three years after signing her first deal with CoverGirl, her sister and best friend Krissy suddenly passed away from heart disease at the age of 17. 

‘We were very close. We worked together. We did everything together. I miss her very much,’ the model said of the tragic loss during an interview with Oprah in 2014. 

Then, in 2001, Taylor herself was involved in a near fatal car accident in Atlanta, Georgia, while being driven by then-boyfriend Chad Renegar.

Renegar was apparently attempting to answer his phone when he lost control of the car and crashed into a utility pole. 

Over the years, she has spoken candidly about how she dealt with the loss of her sibling, and her recovery in the wake of her car crash, and today, she works closely with two charities that remain close to her heart in the wake of the tragedies. 

‘My charities that I love are the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association, those are personal to me,’ she explained.