Jerry Ford died on August 24th

Jerry Ford, who founded the Ford Modeling Agency with his wife, Eileen, in 1946, died Sunday at the age of 83 in Morristown, New Jersey. His daughter Katie Ford told the New York Times the cause of death was complications from endocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. Ford is credited with turning modeling into a true profession and establishing the business practices by which it operates today. He introduced a system for collecting fees for models and agents. He also was the first to create contracts for models to exclusively represent certain brands and earn much higher fees. Lauren Hutton signed the first such contract negotiated by Ford with Revlon in 1974. Ford's agency managed the biggest models for decades, including Christie Brinkley, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Brooke Shields. In the book Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, Ford says, "I’m not from New York. I thought models were the most incredible things in the world.”

1994: Supermodel dance party

We haven't seen this many supers in one place since an Issac runway way back when. Spotted are Naomi, Claudia, Kate, Stephanie, Helena and Christy all living it up on a roof-top terrace.

Highlights:

- Janice Dickinson's narration and praise of Naomi's awesomeness.

- Naomi speaking Italian and French sporadically, even though no one else is.

- The stuffed animal that Naomi calls her best friend and her lover, we're wondering if he's still around.

- The phrase "vodka...straight up" coming from Kate when asked what she's drinking.

- Stephanie Seymour's white lace gloves.

Supermodels not Super enough...

Stephanie Seymor, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford were beaten out for the September Vanity Fair cover by a certain Carla Bruni-Sarkozy–but they still get plenty of action inside the issue.

Fabolous Job Michael Thompson!!! W Magazine with Christy Turlington

While we're on the subject of the Supermodel Comeback - which we think will be in the news for a while yet - it's worth pointing out Christy Turlington's stunning new shoot in the August issue of W magazine, titled "Champion". The 39-year-old knockout, who as we mentioned has been re-signed as the face of German fashion house Escada, poses as a "Greco-Roman warrior-goddess" for photog Michael Thompson in old-school black-and-white. Talk about classical beauty - obviously all that yoga and being married to Ed Burns agrees with her.