About
Helena Christensen is a Danish-Peruvian creative force whose résumé stretches far beyond the runway. Born on Christmas Day 1968, she became one of the defining supermodels of the 1990s, walking for fashion’s biggest houses and fronting campaigns for Victoria’s Secret, Revlon and countless Vogue covers. Today she balances modelling with roles as a photographer, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and, as of early 2025, Global Artistic Director for Danish interiors giant BoConcept, where she helps shape furniture collections and brand imagery.
Alongside commercial work, Christensen’s personal photography has appeared in galleries and in her co-founded title Nylon, a magazine she helped launch in 1999 that blended fashion, music and youth culture. Her eye for storytelling also fuels climate-awareness projects with Oxfam and regular collaborations through her creative studio Stærk & Christensen.
Before Fame
Christensen grew up in Copenhagen with a Danish father, Fleming, and a Peruvian mother, Elsa, often spending school holidays in Lima. The mix of Nordic order and Latin vibrancy shaped her curiosity for travel, photography and design. At sixteen she thought she was entering a small charity fashion show and ended up crowned Miss Copenhagen; a year later she won Miss Denmark 1986 and represented her country at the Miss Universe pageant in Panama.
The visibility propelled her to Paris, where she shared cramped model apartments, learned French on castings and polished the confident walk that soon secured editorials for Elle and runway spots for Chanel and Versace. By the early 1990s she had relocated to New York, signed a multi-year Revlon contract and become one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels, helping the brand’s televised fashion show turn into a global spectacle.
Trivia
Christensen’s career is packed with pop-culture footnotes. In 1990 she appeared opposite Chris Isaak in Herb Ritts’s black-and-white video for “Wicked Game,” rolling across volcanic sand in what MTV later called one of the sexiest clips ever; the video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1991 and still enjoys heavy nostalgia rotation.
A lifelong water lover, she regularly posts chilly Scandinavian sea plunges and under-ice swims that go viral for their fearless spirit. In 2024 she fronted the first campaign for Danish scalp-care line Hårklinikken and unveiled her Rouje Spring 2025 shoot in New York, proving her modelling star is still very much in demand.
Her creative curiosity spills into publishing, too: during Copenhagen Fashion Week 2024 she and longtime collaborator Camilla Stærk launched the art-photography book In My Dream Last Night…, a visual diary of their friendship. That same year she signed on to design limited-edition homewares through Stærk & Christensen and to guide BoConcept’s furniture lines, blurring the boundary between fashion and interiors.
Family Life
Family remains Christensen’s grounding force. Her mother’s Peruvian cooking and storytelling brought South American warmth into their Danish apartment, while her father’s calm nature encouraged her early passion for photography.
In the early 1990s she shared a home with INXS front-man Michael Hutchence; later she spent five years with actor Norman Reedus, and in October 1999 they welcomed son Mingus Lucien Reedus. Today Mingus is a musician, and Christensen jokes that after his recent college graduation “free rent is up,” though the two remain close and often swap creative ideas.
Away from cameras she divides her time between a plant-filled Manhattan loft, a Catskills retreat and frequent trips to Copenhagen and Lima to stay connected with extended family and her cultural roots.
Associated With
Throughout the 1990s “supers” era she shared runways and photo shoots with Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington, friendships that still bring cameo appearances on one another’s social feeds and nostalgic fashion reunions. Her Nylon days placed her at the intersection of fashion and indie music, paving the way for collaborations with designers such as Alexander McQueen and photographers Annie Leibovitz and Peter Lindbergh.
Christensen’s creative network now stretches across industries: she photographs refugees for UNHCR projects, partners with Camilla Stærk on multidisciplinary design, appears in campaigns for brands such as Rolla’s denim and mentors emerging Danish designers through her BoConcept role. And of course, her iconic appearance alongside Chris Isaak forever links her to one of rock’s most memorable slow-burn anthems.
