It's been 24 years since this gorgeous girl died... another angel that leaves the planet too soon... she was only 26 years old.
I receantly watched the movie about her.. it's called Gia starring a very young Angelina Jolie as Gia, a young model's tormented life. (YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE).
I'd like to dedicate this post to her since she died this month.. november 18th, 1986. Rest in Peace Gia Marie Carangi.
Gia Marie Carangi was often nicknamed as America’s first supermodel along with Janice Dickenson and Beverly Johnson, during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
She was born in Philadelphia as an only daughter. Her childhood was troubled due to her parents unstable marriage and the domestic abuse her father adminsitrated to her mother.
Gia grew as a rebellious teenager; in high school you'd see her hanging out with the "Bowie clique", David Bowie's androgynity fans. She'd hang out at gay clubs and send flowers to random girls in her classes, no matter their sexual orientation.
Gia first came to New York at the age of 17, when photographer Maurice Tannenbaum, spotted her dancing in a local club, he later arranged meeting with Wilhelmina Cooper, the famous agent. Wilhelmina literally faint when she saw Gia. There was something special about that girl’s appearance that was making her real. In the world where smiling, delicate blondes were iconic, Gia was a total outsider.
She did campaigns for Dior, Diane Von Furstenberg, Lancetti, Versace and Cosmopolitan, Bazaar, Vogue covers and editorials. She worked with greatest photographers of the time; Patrick Demarchelier, Avedon, Irving Penn, Denis Biel, Andrea Blanch, Chris von Wangenhaim, Stan Malinowski...
Carangi was a regular at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club. She usually used cocaine in clubs, but later began to develop a heroin addiction.
In October 1978, Carangi did her first major shoot with top fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim. Wangenheim had her pose nude behind a chain-link fence with makeup assistant Sandy Linter. Carangi immediately became infatuated with Linter and started to pursue her, though the relationship never became stable. This next image features her both the first time they met.
On March 1, 1980, Carangi's agent, Wilhelmina Cooper, died of lung cancer. Devastated, Carangi started abusing drugs and so the years went on and she got worse. She went from cocaine, to heroin and to even heavier stuff. Photographers dropped her, agents wouldn't sign her, magazines quit contacting her... she finally landed Cosmopolitan's cover in 1982; and that was her last shot.
Though in social circles often referred as party girl, people who knew Gia describe her as lonely girl, with self-destruction as biggest sensitivity. The irony was that sensibility of hers made her different from the rest, and in the same time along with lack of love carried away her to heroin addiction.
Carangi was diagnosed with AIDS, which was a newly recognized disease at the time. As her condition worsened, she was transferred to Philadelphia's Hahnemann University Hospital. Her mother stayed with her day and night, allowing virtually no visitors.
On November 18, 1986 at 10 a.m., Carangi died of AIDS-related complications. She was 26 years old. Her small funeral was held on November 21 in Philadelphia. Nobody from the fashion world attended.
"Life and death, energy and peace. If I stop today it was still worth it. Even the terrible mistakes that I made and would have unmade if I could. The pains that have burned me and scarred my soul, it was worth it, for having been allowed to walk where I've walked, which was to hell on earth, heaven on earth, back again, into, under, far in between, through it, in it, and above."
-Gia Marie Carangi
Alexander McQueen for Target 
Valentino for GAP
Lanvin for H&M
