Carmen Dell’Orefice – great model

Carmen Dell’Orefice is a successful American model. She is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the podium model with the longest career, actress, author of the book Staying Beautiful: Beauty Secrets and Attitudes from My Forty Years As a Model, Doctor of Arts.
Carmen was born on June 3, 1931 in New York. She was born into a poor family of a violinist and a ballerina. Her father was an Italian and her mother was a Hungarian. Shortly after the birth of the daughter her parents divorced, and Carmen stayed with her mother. The mother wanted her daughter to continue her career, so the baby was involved in ballet. Carmen said she was always the ugly duckling. She was very high and skinny, and had braces on her teeth. Carmen dreamed of a ballerina’s career. Carmen attended classes of Russian choreographer Vyacheslav Svoboda who was familiar with her parents and agreed to teach her for free. However, rheumatism changed the fate of the girl.

When the girl was 14 years old, she met a young woman on a bus who offered to try her hand as a model. The woman’s husband was Herman Landshoff, a photographer for the famous fashion magazine Harper’s Junior Bazaar. The girl agreed and participated in the photo shoot. After a while, the photographer sent Carmen’s photos to her mother and said he could not publish them, because her daughter was not very photogenic. Her godfather showed pictures Carol Phillips, his friend, beauty-editor of Vogue. So, Carol liked the girl and decided to show pictures chief editor – Diana Vreeland. A week after the girl received an offer. In the same year, Erwin Blumenfeld took her photos for 7 Vogue pages. She signed a contract with the magazine and earned $ 7.50 per hour.
In 1946, Carmen starred together with supermodel Dorian Leigh for Vogue December as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella.
In October 1947, her photo appeared on the cover of Vogue. This event made Carmen one of the four youngest models in the history of the magazine.
Despite her work, life was not like a fairy tale. She and her mother didn’t have enough money even for food. But time passed, and her face began to appear on the covers of fashion magazines more often. Her earnings increased to $ 10-25 per hour.

In 1963, Carmen decided to leave the modeling business because she was already 32 years old.
In 1978, Carmen met an old friend, photographer Norman Parkinson at the presentation of his album Sisters Under the Skin. It was Norman who returned Carmen to the fashion world. He offered her to go to Paris and she agreed.
In 1981, Norman Parkinson made a series of photos for the May issue of the magazine Town & Country. The shooting took place at the National historic manor house Hearst Castle.
In 1993, Carmen starred in the film The Age of Innocence by Martin Scorsese.
In 1996, the model starred in an episode of the film Sunchaser by Michael Cimino.
In 1998, Carmen was shot for Vanity Fair Italia. In the same year, she played a cameo role in Woody Allen’s Celebrity.
In 1999, the model signed a contract with the cosmetics company Lancaster.
In 2000, Carmen participated in the John Galliano fashion show for fashion house Christian Dior.
In 2004, the model participated in the Hermes show Fall-Winter 2004-2005.
In 2009 the model starred in an advertising campaign for Rolex and took part in shooting for Vogue Paris.
In 2010, the model posed for the October cover of the German magazine Madame.
On June 3, 2011 Carmen celebrated her 80th anniversary.
On July 19, 2011 the model was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the University of Arts in London. In the same year the model posed for the December cover of Italian magazine Amica.
In 2012, Carmen participated in the fashion show fall-winter collection Norisol Ferrari and Marimekko at the New York Fashion Week. She starred in an advertising campaign Missoni for Lindex.
Salvador Dali once described Carmen as his muse.

Personal life
In the early ’50s, she married Bill Miles. But he saw only a profitable investment in his wife. Bill took her money and gave only $ 50 per week. After the birth of their daughter Laura couple divorced.
In 1958, Carmen met photographer Richard Hayman and 6 months later they were engaged. Carmen was quite happy – she wanted a family and children … But when she told her husband that she wanted to leave the modeling business for the sake of her dreams, he filed for divorce.
In the mid-60s Carmen married her third husband, a young architect Richard Kaplan. The third marriage lasted for nine years.
In 1980, broadcaster David Susskind made a proposal. Unfortunately, he suddenly died of a heart attack before the wedding.

“To summarize my career, it should be said that the most unexpected and wonderful experiences in my life occurred when I was open to everything new. Although I do not pretend to have eternal life, but my life I want to live in happiness, and meet death in high-heeled shoes! ”

Carmen Dell’Orefice – great model