carmen: on the runway of life

One Of America's First Supermodels Still Striding | NPR (audio interview)

" Weekend Edition Sunday, March 8, 2009 · Model Carmen Dell'Orefice has as many stories about fashion as there are designer frocks in her closet. She first appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine at the age of 15, and has made the cover five times since. Carmen Dell'Orefice will turn 78 in June, and she's still working it.

Dell'Orefice tells host Lianne Hansen why she's stayed in front of the cameras for so long. "

I absolutely love her beauty.....today! She was already obscenely beautiful back then, but now there's something about her face, her look, today that speaks of a great respect for looking and being the best that you can, but also to respect yourself as a human being, to acknowledge your limitations while striving to be the best version of you. Her face, her beauty as we see it in the glossies, seems distant and cool, but then she speaks and it all comes back down to earth and it's grounding in what she has to say about things - the fashion industry, being professional, changes, commerce, the Great Depression and today's recession, Michelle Obama's style, personal philosophies.

^ Left - Carmen, circa 1950s through the lens of Richard Avedon. Right - being all deliciously haughty today.

She has humility and grace of wisdom, the kind she or we are not necessarily born with but earn through life's trials, through living and experiencing. And that is far, far more valuable than the $30,000 couture gown Carmen may pose in for a Vogue cover.

Happy Birthday in advance, Carmen!