Carmen Dell’Orefice, the 82-year-old Top model reveals the secrets to her lasting success While most models have a short career window, the legendary Carmen Dell’Orefice has been strutting her stuff for nearly 70 years (the knee replacement notwithstanding). Here she tells the secret of her lasting success ‘I want to show the world what it is to be a so-called natural beauty’ ‘Being on the cover of Vogue at 15 meant nothing to me,’ confesses Carmen Dell’Orefice. She doesn’t mean to sound ungrateful; it was more that she was baffled by it all. ‘I never really understood what it was they were looking at, what they saw in me,’ she shrugs. Whatever it was, she’s still very much in possession of it; Carmen has been modelling – albeit with a few brief attempts at retirement – for almost 70 years now. At 13, she was spotted by the wife of a photographer, getting off a bus in her native New York City; the following year, she sat for Salvador Dalí – who gave her a painting in addition to the $7 she officially earned for modelling for him – before going on to work with the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century, including Cecil Beaton, Norman Parkinson and Richard Avedon. And at an age when many of her contemporaries are long forgotten or sadly deceased, she is still fronting campaigns for luxury brands such as Rolex and walking the runway for Gaultier, Galliano and Mugler. ‘I’ve had more covers in the past 15 years than I had in all the years before that’
Harper’s Bazaar 1957 Photograher: Richard Avedon
“I wanted it to be triumphant”, says Carmen, speaking of her first shoot with Richard Avedon, done to showcase the 1957 couture collection for harper’s bazaar. “I wanted to prove that Dick could use me as effectively as he had my predecessors like Dovina and Dorian Leigh.” As shown in this image, the grace and confidence that Carmen had developed through ballet and swimming were apparent although she actually thinks that the low heels made her feet look unattractive in this position. But is was Avedon idea to jump so she jumped for him.