Good question ! I looked up wikipedia and it stated that Cindy Crawford moved to New York in 1986 at the age of 20 and signed with Elite Models and was a huge success almost immediately. She was well known in fashion circles by the time this movie was filmed in the summer of 1986. By the time the movie was released in 1987, she was very well known and was on numerous magazine covers almost every month.
Interesting sidebar: She'd been dubbed "Baby Gia" early in her career due to her resemblance to Gia Carangi.
Sadly, by the time this film was released, Carangi had already died of AIDS.

whoops ! I think I typed 1996 and 1997 instead of 1986 and 1987. I corrected my mistake but you're right ! The media and TV started really started talking about "supermodels" in the 90s

Too bad the movie was released in 1987.
The modern age of supermodels began with the 90s, that's when Crawford became a household name along with Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and some others.

Good question ! I looked up wikipedia and it stated that Cindy Crawford moved to New York in 1986 at the age of 20 and signed with Elite Models and was a huge success almost immediately. She was well known in fashion circles by the time this movie was filmed in the summer of 1986. By the time the movie was released in 1987, she was very well known and was on numerous magazine covers almost every month.