Dell'Orefiche, Carmen

Carmen Dell'Orefiche was born into a poor family of violinist and ballerina. Her father was Italian, and her mother was Hungarian. Soon after the birth of the daughter, the parents divorced, and Carmen remained to live with her mother. Mother wanted her daughter to continue her career, so the baby was engaged in ballet. The demanding and ruthless ballerina-mother was unhappy with her daughter's appearance: "she could say in passing that my ears looked like the seats of a sedan, and my feet - like flippers." About herself, Carmen said this: “I have always been an ugly duckling. I was the tallest and most skinny, I had braces on my teeth. The boys could not stand me. ”

But her mother raised her alone, after the divorce of her parents, no longer meeting anyone. Sometimes she had so hard that she gave Carmen for several weeks, and sometimes months, to a boarding school . But no one forbade the baby to dream; and she dreamed. She dreamed of a better future - a career as a ballerina . However, rheumatism suffered in childhood changed the fate of the girl.

Carmen was 14 years old, by the way, it was the 1945th year, when one day, returning from a class on a bus , a young woman met her and offered to try as a model. The fact is that the woman’s husband was a photographer for the famous fashion magazine Harper's Junior Bazaar named Herman Landshoff, who needed new faces. The girl, hesitating, agreed and took part in the shooting. After some time, the photographer sent mother Carmen photographs and an apology letter that she could not publish them, since her daughter was not very photogenic, offering the prospect of a new attempt at shooting a few years later, when the girl grew up. But fate again intervened in the person of the godfather Del'Orefiche, who showed photographs of Carol Philips, his friend, the beauty editor of Vogue. The girl seemed very photogenic to her, and she decided to show the pictures to the chief editor - Diana Vreeland . A week after this event, the girl received a proposal for a shoot. “On my first day at Vogue, I posed for photographer Clifford Coffin. The next day I worked with Horst P. Horst. On the third day - with a man in a military uniform and a cap, who turned out to be Irwin Penn, then - with Cecil Beaton. It seemed to me that this conveyor would never stop. ” In the same year, Erwin Blumenfeld took Carmen pictures for 7 pages of Vogue. The girl signed a contract with the magazine, according to which she earned 7.50 dollars per hour.

In 1946, Carmen Dell'Orefiche starred with supermodel Dorian Lee for the December Vogue, posing as Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella.

In October 1947, her photograph appeared on the cover of Vogue. This event made Carmen one of the four youngest models in the history of the magazine.

Carmen herself was not enthusiastic about this photo: “I clearly remember how, getting off the bus, I saw a pile of magazines tied with a rope near a newsstand. Looking at her image, burst into tears. I just hated this picture: my hair was tied in a bun, and I looked like a boy. "

Despite this work, life was not like a fairy tale. He and his mother often lacked even food. But time passed, and her face began to appear on the covers of fashion magazines more and more often. Her earnings increased to 10-25 dollars per hour.

To save on travel, Carmen Dell'Orefiche got to work on roller skates, earned extra money by sewing clothes. Among her clients was Dorian Lee and her younger sister Susie Parker.

“Mom raised me alone. We lived without hot water and an elevator. There was not enough money. We were forced to lay a sewing machine so that there was something to pay for the apartment, and in order to pay the electricity bills, we had to collect and put a quarter of a dollar into the envelope with great efforts.
But I am grateful to fate for the experience. After all that has been transferred, even a slight feeling of hunger for a long time makes you again take care of money and life in general. ”

In 1963, Carmen called the agency and said that she had decided to leave the modeling business: she was aware that the age of 30 is the threshold for the model, and she was 32.

“I worked almost without interruption until the third marriage. The next 15 years of my life I devoted to raising my daughter and only occasionally participated in the filming and defile.
In 1963, I called Eileen and asked her not to give me orders. She asked: “For how long?” I said that forever. Eileen laughed in response. And she was right. ”

In 1978, Carmen Dell'Orefiche met with an old friend, photographer Norman Parkinson, at the presentation of his album “Sisters Under the Skin”.

It was Norman who returned Carmen Dell'Orefiche to the world of fashion with the words: “You know, you look quite good for an old wallet. How about some photos for the magazine? Let's go to Paris. ” Since her third marriage was long over, and her daughter was completely independent, she agreed.

Usually women try to hide the influence of years on their appearance, but in the case of Carmen, everything goes wrong. On the advice of Norman, the already graying Carmen Dell'Orefiche did not become young and hide her age with natural shades of hair, but completely whitened them and henceforth the silver hair crown became her trademark.

Norman Parkinson took 6 shots of the model for Vogue Paris. After that, the photographer showed their editors to Town & Country, where he was told: "This is exactly what we lacked."

In 1981, Norman Parkinson took a series of photographs of Carmen Dell'Orefiche for the May issue of Town & Country magazine. The shooting took place at the Hearst Castle National Historic Estate.

In the late 1980s, TV presenter David Susskind proposed to her, but in 1987 he died of a heart attack - and again it did not work out “happily ever after.” In the same year, Carmen Dell'Orefiche returned to the modeling business.

“After the divorce, I began to think about the career of a fashion magazine editor or a model agency manager. After I myself allowed my career to roll back, I could not imagine that it would resume. ”

• In 1993, Carmen Dell'Orefiche starred in the movie “The Age of Innocence” by Martin Scorsese .
• In 1996, the model participated in the autumn-winter fashion show of the Mattiolo couture collection. In the same year, she starred in the episode of Michael Cimino's film “The Sun Catcher” .
• In 1998, Carmen Dell'Orefiche starred for Vanity Fair Italia . In the same year, she played a cameo role in Woody Allen's film “Celebrity” .
• In 1999, the model signed a contract with the cosmetics company Lancaster .
• In 2000, Carmen Dell'Orefiche participated in the John Galliano fashion show for Christian Dior Fashion House.
• In 2004, the model participated in the Hermes fall-winter 2004-2005 show. Also took part in the fashion show Moschino, Pierrot, Donna Karan .
• For the spring-summer 2009 season, the model starred in the Rolex advertising campaign, also participated in the filming for Vogue Paris , the photographer was Bruce Weber .
• In 2010, the model starred for the October cover of the German magazine Madame .
• June 3, 2011 Carmen Dell`Orefiche celebrated its 80th anniversary .
• July 19, 2011 the model was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the University of the Arts in London. An exhibition of Vogue covers was also organized with Carmen Dell`Orefiche and some photographs from her personal archive. In 2011, the model starred for the December cover of the Italian magazine Amica .
• In 2012, at Carnival Fashion Week in New York, Carmen Dell`Orefiche took part in the fashion show of the Norisol Ferrari and Marimekko fall-winter collections. She starred in the Missoni for Lindex ad campaign.

Over her long career, she managed to present almost every famous brand (Moschino, Lancaster, Rolex, Target, Chanel, Missoni for Lindex, Banana Republic, Elizabeth Arden, GAP, etc.) and work with the most famous photo masters of her era: Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, Norman Parkinson, Irwin Penn, Gleb Deryuzhinsky, Francesco Scavullo, Erwin Blumenfeld, Cecile Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindberg, Steven Meisel.

The work of Melvin Sokolsky entitled "Carmen Las Meninas" has received worldwide fame.

Salvador Dali once called Carmen his muse.

Carmen Dell`Orefiche starred for the covers of Vogue Paris, Vogue US, Marie Claire US, Harper's Bazaar US, Vanity FairItalia, Town & Country, Madame, V Magazine, Amica, Elle Italia and others. She took part in the shows of John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gauthier, Donna Karan, Isaac Mizrahi, Guy Mattiolo, Rossella Giardini, Cynthia Rowley, Thierry Mugler and others.

The model released the book “Be Beautiful: Secrets and Tricks I Learned Over 40 Years of Working as a Model . ”

After the 80th anniversary of Carmen Dell`Orefiche continues to participate in shows, act in films for advertising campaigns.

Despite an enviable career in the fashion world, Carmen remained too inexperienced and trusting in her life.

In the early 1950s, she married Bill Miles . It seemed to her: this is what she always strove for. But as the prose of life showed, he needed something else. In his wife, he saw only a profitable investment. Bill took her money and gave out $ 50 a week out of it. After the birth of Laura’s daughter, the couple divorced.

In 1958, Carmen Dell'Orefiche met photographer Richard Hayman, and after 6 months they became engaged. Carmen was completely happy - she wanted her family and children so much ... But when she informed her husband that she wanted to leave the modeling business for her dream, he filed for divorce.

In the mid-60s, Carmen Dell'Orefiche married for the third time. Her husband was the young architect Richard Kaplan . The third marriage lasted for nine whole years.

There is an adult daughter.

• Selfie, Daphne