An 80 year-old model sounds like a fashion ‘’fairytale’’! But style icon Carmen Dell’Orefice proves that working the runway as an octogenarian Is not only possible, but pretty damn fabulous. Born on the 3rd of June 1931 in New York, Carmen started modeling in 1945 at a very young age of 14.
She spent most of her time in foster homes and sometimes with other relatives because her parents were constantly breaking up and getting back together. In 1942 she reunited with her mother and moved back to New York City. Carmen and her mother were still very poor, despite modeling.
In 1946 when she had just turned 15, she was introduced to VOGUE by her godfather. At the time they had no telephones and VOGUE would send runners to their apartment to let her know about modeling jobs. Carmen was making a name for herself in the industry, but due to malnourishment photographers had to pin back dresses and stuff her body with tissue.
She appeared in the 1947 issue of VOGUE as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella. She then covered the November 1948 issue of VOGUE, working with noted fashion photographers (of that era) Irving Penn, Francesco Scavullo, Norman Parkinson and Richard Avedon.
In the early 1950’s she met and married Bill Miles. He would pick up her weekly modeling checks at her agency and only give her $50 (R350.00) of them. They had a daughter named Laura, but it wasn’t long before they called it quits. She then met photographer Richard Heimann and married him only six months later.
In 1960’s she was photographed by Melvin Sokolsky for HARPER’S BAZAAR. The iconic image titled Carmen Las Meninas is world famous and has been collected internationally. Carmen retired (after her third marriage) in the mid-sixties after 20 years as a model. She continued to appear in magazines, only now as a socialite.
Things did not go as well as she they thought they would. Desperate, she decided to return to modeling in 1978. She returned to her old agency, Ford, Hoping to work as an agent, but they turned her down flat. They assumed she was trying to revive her modeling career and convinced her that, at forty-seven, her future was behind her. Lacking other options, she did modeling sporadically, mainly catalogue work.
It wasn’t until her old friend Norman Parkinson ran into her at a party and decided to take a gamble. He flew her off to Paris for French VOGUE. The new portfolio revealed a new Carmen; sexy, silver-haired and sovereign. Ford did a volte-face and opened a new division specifically to handle her, and she began working with a new generation of photographers: Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, Peter Lindberg and Steven Meisel.
In 1985 and in her 50’s, she authored her best-selling book Staying Beautiful: Beauty Secrets and Attitudes from My Forty Years as a Model. She says that she doesn’t diet but confesses to have received a little help ‘’here and there’’ from the surgeon’s knife.
60+ years later Carmen continues to be without a doubt one of the best posers in the business and she hasn’t stopped working. While many a senior citizen is walking with a cane. The ageless elegant Dell’Orefice continues to strut the runway in her signature silver-haired glory, appearing for John Galliano in 2000, Hermes in 2004, and Alberta Ferretti just this year.
Today Carmen views life with equanimity and has the air of someone who is likely to be surprised by much. Oh, and she won’t be retiring any time soon. She may have ‘’earned the right to work part time,’’ as she recently told an interviewer, but she remains steadfast in her resolve to ‘’DIE WITH MY HEELS ON.’’
Check out a handful of images of the woman called ‘’The World’s Oldest Working Model.’’
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