21 Jun 2011

80 year old supermodel - Carmen Dell’Orefice

Carmen Dell'Orefice - still working the catwalk at 80 - has a stamina that would shame models a quarter of her age, along with a grace that belies an often turbulent life.


I am more than a little apprehensive. A young model in a strop is bad enough, but an older, grander one with more than 60 years' experience and photographs by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton and Horst P Horst to her name is altogether more worrying. The Carmen Dell'Orefice of legend, with the knife-edge cheekbones, startling blue eyes and signature cloud of white hair, has about her the sort of hauteur that suggests she might easily have an icily Snow Queenish way with a withering put-down.


While a younger girl might cry off for something as lame as a broken fingernail, Dell'Orefice isn't going to let aching feet and tiredness come in the way of an assignment. Some of today's models are wont to turn up for shoots looking like filthy, sleep-deprived crack whores, but she arrived immaculately turned out.


What soon becomes clear is that she feels highly privileged still to be doing a job that started with her first Vogue cover at the age of 15. She has had five more since, with recent career highlights including a catwalk appearance in Jean Paul Gaultier's first show for Hermès in 2004 and John Galliano's Dior haute couture show in 2000. And to think that her sceptical mother dismissed her as an ungainly child with 'ears like sedan chairs and feet like coffins'.
It took an astute fellow bus passenger, all those years ago, to see potential beyond the ears and feet. Journeying back from a dance class in New York, she was spotted by a woman whose husband was a photographer for Harper's Bazaar. Test pictures were duly taken, after which a letter was sent to her mother. 'It said I was a very polite young lady but, unfortunately, at this time, I was totally unphotogenic,' she recalls. But her godfather was having none of it. He contacted a friend who worked for Vogue. 'Two weeks later, I did my first shoot for Horst.'
"I don't believe in funerals. I believe in celebrating life, and showing people, while they're alive, how much I care about them. " CDO.

***





U osamdesetoj godini, ona je možda jedna od najlepših žena na planeti, jedna od najtalentovanijih i najiskusnijih manekenki koje rade i dan-danas.
Karmen del Orefiće (Carmen Dell’Orefice) je rođena 3. juna 1931. godine u Njujorku. Majka joj je bila Italijanka, a otac Mađar. “Otkrila” ju je jednog dana, dok se vraćala sa časa baleta, žena poznatog fotografa Hermana Landshofa (Hermann Landshoff). Tada je imala samo trinaest godina. Njene prve slike napravljene su na Džons plaži. Ona ih je smatrala čistim promašajem, ali uz pomoć njenog kuma, koji je mislio drugačije, biva zapažena. Sa petnaest godina, potpisala je ugovor za “Vogue” za 7,5 dolara na čas.
I pored toga, ona i majka su bile veoma siromašne. Nisu imale telefon, pa su zaposleni morali svaki put da “dotrčavaju” do nje, kad im je bila potrebna. Bila je jako neuhranjena pa su morali svaki put na snimanjima da joj sužavaju odeću. Ona i majka su kasnije zarađivale novac prodavajući odeću koju su same šile, ali i dalje nije bilo dovoljno za pristojan život. Majka ju je često slala u domove, sve dok ne bi skupila dovoljno novca da iznajmi ponovo sobu za njih dve.
Godine 1947. dobila je povišicu na 25 dolara na sat. Pojavila se na naslovnoj stranici magazina “Vogue” i tako ušla u istoriju kao jedna od najmlađih manekenki koje su ikada izašle na naslovnici ovog magazina.

U karijeri je radila sa dosta prestižnih fotografa kao što su Irving Pen (Irving Penn), Frančesko Skavulo (Francesco Scavullo), Norman Parkinson (Norman Parkinson) i Ričard Avedon (Richard Avedon). Bila je fotografisana za “Harper’s Bazaar” 1960. godine. Njena fotografija “Carmen Las Meninas” je postala poznata širom sveta. Karmen je takođe postala i Dalijeva (Salvador Dalí) muza.
Kasnije je krenula da zarađuje na katalozima i reklamama za donji veš 300 dolara na sat, što ju je učinilo najplaćenijim modelom pedesetih godina. 1953. godine pridružuje se modnoj agenciji “Ford”. Pojavljuje se na revijama Džona Galijana (John Galliano) 2000. godine, takođe 2004. kod Ermea (Hermes), kao i 2011. kod Alberte Fereti (Alberta Feretti).

U ljubavi nije imala puno sreće kao ni sa novcem. Udavala se tri puta, i najduže bila u braku devet godina. Sada živi sama u Njujorku i ima jednu ćerku.

Poznat je njen citat: “Ne verujem u sahrane. Verujem u slavljenje života, i pokazivanje ljudima koliko ti je stalo do njih dok su živi.”

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5 comments:

Mina - Fashion Affairs said...

Fenomenalna je!

Marija - Victima Perfecta said...

Text je super ;) a ona izgleda odlicno!!!

The Fire Inside Me said...

svaka cast :)

fashionare said...

uma lição de vida e força!!!!

Unknown said...

Boginja

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