Niki Taylor, one of the defining faces of 1990s fashion, is returning to the runway later this week at the Mott50 Edition & Coolibar Sun Safe Soirée fashion presentation in New York City.
The 50-year-old model, who rose to prominence as a CoverGirl campaign star and appeared on multiple Vogue covers, will share the rooftop showcase on Thursday, Sept. 18 with Puerto Rican actress and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.
Taylor’s career began as a teenager. She landed her first magazine cover for Seventeen at 14 and became one of the youngest Vogue cover stars at 15. By May 1996 she had six magazine covers in a single month — including Vogue, Allure, Elle, Marie Claire, Self and Shape — and went on to front campaigns for major brands such as L'Oreal, Gap, Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Her work in the early 1990s placed her among a generation of models widely credited with reshaping fashion imagery; she appeared on a 1992 group Vogue cover alongside Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and other leading models of the era.
Taylor’s return to public-facing runway work is part of a broader shift in fashion toward featuring models across a wider age range. In an interview last year with the Daily Mail, she said age is “more about your state of mind and what’s inside” than appearance, adding, “As long as you feel good and healthy, you can pretty much take on anything.” Taylor has described herself as “timeless” rather than “ageless.”
Her recent projects include a CoverGirl campaign shot at home, which she said was filmed by her husband, Burney Lamar, on an iPhone after she transformed her house into a set. She has also appeared in a campaign for Talbots.
Taylor has balanced a public career with family life. She is the mother of four children: twin sons Jake and Hunter, from her marriage to Matt Martinez, and daughter Ciel and son Rex with Lamar, whom she has been married to for more than a decade.
Her life has also included periods of loss and recovery. In 1995 her younger sister Krissy, who had also modeled, died of heart disease at 17. Taylor has spoken publicly about that grief, notably in a 2014 interview on Oprah’s program. In 2001 she survived a near-fatal car crash in Atlanta. She has said those experiences influenced her charity work; she supports the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association.
Industry observers say the inclusion of established models in recent advertising and runway presentations reflects changing commercial priorities as well as a growing appetite among brands for broader representation. Taylor has said she has seen the industry move toward greater diversity in age and body types “for years,” and she welcomes that progress being reflected in campaigns.
The Mott50 Edition & Coolibar Sun Safe Soirée is billed as a rooftop presentation focused on sun-protective fashion and lifestyle. Torres, who has acted and held the Miss Universe title, is scheduled to join Taylor on the runway. Organizers have promoted the event as part of a series highlighting sun-safe apparel and late-summer fashion.
Taylor’s return to the runway comes as the fashion industry continues to grapple with how best to balance heritage names and new faces in advertising and events. Her participation in the Sept. 18 presentation underscores both her ongoing public profile and a wider trend of models extending their careers well beyond the decades in which they first became famous.
Representatives for Taylor did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.