Carmen Dell'Orefice
Encyclopedia
Carmen Dell’Orefice is an American model
and actress, born in New York
, NY. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She covered Vogue at the mere age of 15, and has been modelling ever since.
In 1942, Carmen reunited with her mother and moved to New York City. At the age of 13, while riding a bus to ballet class, she was approached to model by the wife of photographer Herman Landschoff. Her test photos, taken at Jones Beach, were a “flop” according to Carmen. Her godfather though introduced her to Vogue
, where Carmen signed a contract for $7.50 per hour in 1946 at age 15. Carmen became a favoured model of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld
who took her first Vogue cover in 1947. She appears in the December 15, 1947 issue of US Vogue as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella along with supermodel Dorian Leigh
, actors Ray Bolger
and Jose Ferrer
.
Despite modeling, Carmen and her mother were poor. They had no telephone and Vogue sent runners to their apartment to let Carmen know about modeling jobs. She roller-skated to assignments to save bus fares. Carmen was so malnourished that famed fashion photographers Horst P. Horst
and Cecil Beaton
had to pin back dresses and stuff her body with tissue. Carmen and her mother were also accomplished seamstresses and made extra money making clothes. One of their customers was Dorian Leigh. Carmen would later become best friends with Dorian’s younger sister, model Suzy Parker
. Together they would be bridesmaids at Dorian’s second wedding to Roger Mehle in 1948.
In 1947, Carmen got a raise to $10–$25 per hour. She appeared on the October 1947 cover of Vogue, at age 16, one of the youngest Vogue cover models ever (along with
Niki Taylor
, Brooke Shields
, and Monika Schnarre
). Carmen was also on the November 1948 cover of Vogue. She worked with the most famous fashion photographers of the era including Irving Penn
, Gleb Derujinsky, Francesco Scavullo
, Norman Parkinson
, and Richard Avedon
. Carmen was photographed by Melvin Sokolsky for Harper’s Bazaar in 1960. The iconic image titled Carmen Las Meninas is world famous and has been collected internationally. Sokolsky also photographed Carmen for the classic Vanity Fair Lingerie campaign in which Carmen obscures her face with her hand. She also became Salvador Dali
’s muse.
Despite early successes at a very young age, modeling agent Eileen Ford
refused to represent her and Vogue lost interest in her. After doctors prescribed shots to start puberty, she instead started working for catalogs and lingerie, making $300 per hour. It was then that she joined Ford in 1953.
In 1958 she met photographer Richard Heimann and married him only six months later. She decided to retire and he promptly left her.
Her third marriage was to a young architect, Richard Kaplan, in the mid-1960s. Their marriage lasted nine years. Desperate, she decided to return to modeling in 1978 and continues to work to this day. In the 1990s and 2000s, she modeled for Isaac Mizrahi’s clothing line at Target
, as well as Cho Cheng
and Rolex
. Carmen is featured regularly in their advertising campaigns appearing in Vogue
, W
and Harper’s Bazaar
.
In the late 1980s, Carmen was engaged to television talk-show host David Susskind
. He died before they were married.
In 1993, a neighbor introduced her to Norman F. Levy, who was Bernard Madoff
’s best friend. He was her boyfriend for several years.
In June 2011, Carmen celebrated her 80th birthday.On July 19, 2011 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London
, in recognition of her contribution to the fashion industry. The university also presented a dedicated retrospective exhibition curated by illustrator and long-term friend David Downton
, showing Carmen’s Vogue covers, some of her finest modelling moments, and photographs from her personal archives.
In 1994, with what little money she had left, and with money from boyfriend Norman Levy, she invested with Madoff. For twelve years, Ruth and Bernie Madoff and Carmen and Norman Levy were a “foursome”, traveling and partying together on lavish yachts.
Levy died in 2005, at age 93, and Madoff was the executor of his will, which had $244 million in assets, according to Carmen. Madoff further used this money to lure in about 13,500 individuals and charities. She continued to regularly have dinner with the Madoffs after Levy’s death.
In December 2008 a 68-year-old friend, who invested her life savings with Madoff, telephoned Carmen to inform her that she too had been swindled. Carmen said, “For the second time in my life, I’ve lost all of my life savings.”.
In April 2009, Carmen was interviewed for Vanity Fair
magazine’s story “Madoff’s World”. Photographs of Carmen and photographs she took of Madoff appear in this article.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and actress, born in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, NY. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She covered Vogue at the mere age of 15, and has been modelling ever since.
Early life
Carmen’s parents were Italian and Hungarian. They were constantly breaking up and getting back together. Because of this, Carmen lived in foster homes and sometimes with other relatives.In 1942, Carmen reunited with her mother and moved to New York City. At the age of 13, while riding a bus to ballet class, she was approached to model by the wife of photographer Herman Landschoff. Her test photos, taken at Jones Beach, were a “flop” according to Carmen. Her godfather though introduced her to Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, where Carmen signed a contract for $7.50 per hour in 1946 at age 15. Carmen became a favoured model of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld
Erwin Blumenfeld
Erwin Blumenfeld was a famous American photographer of German origin.In the 1930s, he published collages mocking Adolf Hitler. In 1936, he emigrated to Paris. With the German occupation, he was interned in a concentration camp in 1940 because he was Jewish...
who took her first Vogue cover in 1947. She appears in the December 15, 1947 issue of US Vogue as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella along with supermodel Dorian Leigh
Dorian Leigh
Dorian Leigh was an American model and one of the earliest modelling icons of the fashion industry. She is considered one of the first supermodels and was well known in the United States and Europe.-Biography:Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, Texas, to George and Elizabeth Parker...
, actors Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
and Jose Ferrer
José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...
.
Despite modeling, Carmen and her mother were poor. They had no telephone and Vogue sent runners to their apartment to let Carmen know about modeling jobs. She roller-skated to assignments to save bus fares. Carmen was so malnourished that famed fashion photographers Horst P. Horst
Horst P. Horst
Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann who chose to be known as Horst P. Horst was a German-American fashion photographer.-Early life:...
and Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
had to pin back dresses and stuff her body with tissue. Carmen and her mother were also accomplished seamstresses and made extra money making clothes. One of their customers was Dorian Leigh. Carmen would later become best friends with Dorian’s younger sister, model Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles.She appeared in several Revlon advertisements, but...
. Together they would be bridesmaids at Dorian’s second wedding to Roger Mehle in 1948.
In 1947, Carmen got a raise to $10–$25 per hour. She appeared on the October 1947 cover of Vogue, at age 16, one of the youngest Vogue cover models ever (along with
Niki Taylor
Niki Taylor
Nicole Renee "Niki" Taylor is an American model.-Early life:Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Ken and Barbara Taylor, a highway patrol lieutenant and a photographer, respectively. She was raised in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and attended Cooper City High School...
, Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
, and Monika Schnarre
Monika Schnarre
Monika Schnarre is a Canadian model, actress, and television host.A native of Scarborough, Ontario, Schnarre was discovered by Toronto's Judy Welch Modeling agency. She achieved international recognition at the age of 14 when she won the Ford Models "Supermodel of the World" contest in 1986,...
). Carmen was also on the November 1948 cover of Vogue. She worked with the most famous fashion photographers of the era including Irving Penn
Irving Penn
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.-Early career:Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from which he was graduated in 1938. Penn's drawings were published by Harper's Bazaar and he...
, Gleb Derujinsky, Francesco Scavullo
Francesco Scavullo
Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.-Biography:...
, Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson, CBE was a celebrated English portrait and fashion photographer.-Biography:Parkinson was born in London, and educated at Westminster School. He began his career in 1931 as an apprentice to the court photographers Speaight and Sons Ltd...
, and Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
. Carmen was photographed by Melvin Sokolsky for Harper’s Bazaar in 1960. The iconic image titled Carmen Las Meninas is world famous and has been collected internationally. Sokolsky also photographed Carmen for the classic Vanity Fair Lingerie campaign in which Carmen obscures her face with her hand. She also became Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
’s muse.
Despite early successes at a very young age, modeling agent Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford is a model agency executive and co-founder, in 1946, with her late husband Gerard William "Jerry" Ford, of Ford Models, one of the earliest and internationally best known modelling agencies in the world.-Early life:...
refused to represent her and Vogue lost interest in her. After doctors prescribed shots to start puberty, she instead started working for catalogs and lingerie, making $300 per hour. It was then that she joined Ford in 1953.
Personal life
Carmen met and married Bill Miles in the early 1950s. Bill would pick up her weekly modeling checks at her agency and only give her $50 of them. They had a daughter, Laura, and divorced soon after.In 1958 she met photographer Richard Heimann and married him only six months later. She decided to retire and he promptly left her.
Her third marriage was to a young architect, Richard Kaplan, in the mid-1960s. Their marriage lasted nine years. Desperate, she decided to return to modeling in 1978 and continues to work to this day. In the 1990s and 2000s, she modeled for Isaac Mizrahi’s clothing line at Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, as well as Cho Cheng
Cho Cheng
Cho Cheng is a fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded his company CHOCHENG in New York.-References:**-External links:*...
and Rolex
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...
. Carmen is featured regularly in their advertising campaigns appearing in Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, W
W (magazine)
W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, who purchased original owner Fairchild Publications in 1999. It was created in 1971 by the publisher of sister magazine Woman's Wear Daily, James Brady. The magazine is an oversize format – ten inches wide and...
and Harper’s Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
.
In the late 1980s, Carmen was engaged to television talk-show host David Susskind
David Susskind
David Susskind was a producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a pioneer TV talk show host.-Personal:...
. He died before they were married.
In 1993, a neighbor introduced her to Norman F. Levy, who was Bernard Madoff
Bernard Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is a former American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S...
’s best friend. He was her boyfriend for several years.
In June 2011, Carmen celebrated her 80th birthday.On July 19, 2011 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London
University of the Arts London
The University of the Arts London, formerly known as the London Institute, is a collegiate university comprising six internationally recognised art, design, fashion and media colleges in London, England...
, in recognition of her contribution to the fashion industry. The university also presented a dedicated retrospective exhibition curated by illustrator and long-term friend David Downton
David Downton
David Downton is a renowned fashion illustrator. He is well known for his work for Vogue.-Biography:David Downton was born in 1959 in Kent, England. He studied at Canterbury and Wolverhampton .In 1984 he moved to Brighton and began his illustration career...
, showing Carmen’s Vogue covers, some of her finest modelling moments, and photographs from her personal archives.
Losing Life Savings to Bernard Madoff in 2008
In the 1980s and 1990s, Carmen lost most of her money in the stock market. She was forced to auction off her famous modeling photographs from the 1940s-1980s through Sotheby’s.In 1994, with what little money she had left, and with money from boyfriend Norman Levy, she invested with Madoff. For twelve years, Ruth and Bernie Madoff and Carmen and Norman Levy were a “foursome”, traveling and partying together on lavish yachts.
Levy died in 2005, at age 93, and Madoff was the executor of his will, which had $244 million in assets, according to Carmen. Madoff further used this money to lure in about 13,500 individuals and charities. She continued to regularly have dinner with the Madoffs after Levy’s death.
In December 2008 a 68-year-old friend, who invested her life savings with Madoff, telephoned Carmen to inform her that she too had been swindled. Carmen said, “For the second time in my life, I’ve lost all of my life savings.”.
In April 2009, Carmen was interviewed for Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
magazine’s story “Madoff’s World”. Photographs of Carmen and photographs she took of Madoff appear in this article.