People forget Anna Nicole Smith was first famous for being the startlingly beautiful model who starred in Guess jeans campaigns in the early 1990s. In 1992 the voluptuous native Texan virtually wiped out the grunge fashion movement with her uncanny resemblance to two iconic all-American pin-ups, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield. Her '50s starlet curves were the antithesis of the catwalk waifs of the day and were a gamble that payed off for Paul Marciano, President of Guess. He signed up the 24-year-old days after she won a Playboy Magazine cover contest. Initially he used the ads for West coast-only campaigns, encouraged by jeans sales and a media frenzy (Anna Nicole had replaced Claudia Schiffer), he made the campaign go global in fashion magazines and Anna Nicole became a star. Rewind this and the tale is less glamorous. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, Anna Nicole dropped out of school to work in a chicken shack, got pregnant, had a son and worked as a stripper. While stripping she met billionaire Howard Marshall II, age 88, the richest man in Texas. He paid for a boob job, which led to the Playboy cover. He died. She battled to claim his fortune, taking roles in low budget cleavage flicks and reality shows which hinted at her drug dependence. In 2006, her 20-year-old son died while visiting her in hospital three days after having a daughter. Smith died a year later.
