Krissy Taylor
Encyclopedia
Early life and career
Taylor was born in Miami and lived in South Florida with her parents and two older sisters. Taylor’s foray into the modeling world was largely due to being supermodel Niki TaylorNiki Taylor
Nicole Renee "Niki" Taylor is an American model.-Early life:Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Ken and Barbara Taylor, a highway patrol lieutenant and a photographer, respectively. She was raised in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and attended Cooper City High School...
's younger sister. At age 11, Taylor began going to shoots with Niki, and photographers began to include her in photos. Her first shoot with sister Niki appeared in Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
. She soon signed with her sister’s modeling agency in New York, IMG.
At age 13, after accompanying Niki to castings for the Fall Shows in Milan, the designers impulsively fitted Taylor, and she walked the runways alongside Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
, Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington Burns is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She has worked on dozens of modeling contracts with companies including Maybelline Cosmetics and Versace. Turlington starred in her fashion documentary Catwalk and Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped...
, and Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer is a German model and occasional actress, who reached the peak of her popularity during the 1990s, initially due to her resemblance to Brigitte Bardot. Schiffer is one of the world's most successful models, having appeared on over 500 magazine covers...
. Thereafter, Taylor began getting calls to work solo. Taylor had amassed an impressive résumé of credits, including ELLE
Elle
Elle may refer to:*Elle, Central African Republic*Elle , a fashion publication*Ellé, a river in France*Elle , a female given name*Elle , a Sri Lankan game similar to baseball*Ælle of Sussex, a Saxon king...
, Italian Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
, YM
YM
YM or Ym may refer to:* YM , an American teen magazine* YM , a selective growth medium which is a combination of yeast and mold* .ym, the Atari ST/Amstrad CPC YM2149 sound chip format...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, and Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
. She had 13 covers to her credit, and appeared on Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. She also did the 1994 Spring Collections in New York, landing eight shows, including Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
.
Her last photo shoot was with sister Niki Taylor for the July/August 1995 cover of Ocean Drive
Ocean Drive (magazine)
Ocean Drive is a magazine that reports on fashion, society, entertainment and celebrities in Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States. The magazine has been referred to as "the Bible of South Beach" due to its coverage of nightlife and VIPs. Suzy Buckley is the Editor in Chief. The magazine's...
magazine.
Death
On July 2, 1995, Niki Taylor found Krissy lying unconscious on the floor of their family's home in Florida. After attempts to revive Taylor by her family and authorities failed, she was rushed to Memorial Hospital West and pronounced dead at 5:39 a.m. She was 17 years old.Taylor was known to have had allergies that congested her upper respiratory system
Respiratory system
The respiratory system is the anatomical system of an organism that introduces respiratory gases to the interior and performs gas exchange. In humans and other mammals, the anatomical features of the respiratory system include airways, lungs, and the respiratory muscles...
and she used Primatene, an over-the-counter epinephrine
Epinephrine
Epinephrine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. It increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, dilates air passages and participates in the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system. In chemical terms, adrenaline is one of a group of monoamines called the catecholamines...
inhaler, to combat shortness of breath. While epinephrine can cause cardiac arrhythmia, it was impossible to prove she had taken any just prior to her death.
The official cause of death was an acute asthma attack
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
complicated by sudden cardiac arrhythmia. However, she had no prior history of asthma, and no symptoms of a heart condition. Uncertain of the medical examiner's diagnosis, the Taylor family hired independent experts to study tissue samples of Taylor's heart muscle, and concluded that the more likely cause of her death was a rare cardiac disease called arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia , also called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy , is an inherited heart disease....
.
Taylor’s mother, Barbara, is now involved with the Cardiac Arrythmias Research and Education (CARE) Foundation.