IN PRAISE OF OLDER WOMEN - CARMEN D. HOT AT 76!

I hope everyone is as fascinated and as interested in Carmen Dell'Orefice as I am. If you are not, here is an introduction to her.
writes Judy Rumbold of Telegraph uk...
"Carmen Dell'Orefice is routinely referred to as 'the world's oldest working model', which makes her sound a bit like a rusting traction engine with, perhaps, compromised bodywork and only limited functioning parts. It would be nice to be able to report that, at 76, this catwalk veteran is in flawless working order, but when I arrive to meet her things are not looking good. She is lying in silence on a sofa in a distant corner of the photographic studio, most of her face obscured behind sunglasses, barely moving and facing the wall. Everything about her body language says, 'Go away.'

It took an astute fellow bus passenger, all those years ago, to see potential beyond the ears and feet. Journeying back from a dance class in New York, she was spotted by a woman whose husband was a photographer for Harper's Bazaar. Test pictures were duly taken, after which a letter was sent to her mother. 'It said I was a very polite young lady but, unfortunately, at this time, I was totally unphotogenic,' she recalls. But her godfather was having none of it. He contacted a friend who worked for Vogue. 'Two weeks later, I did my first shoot for Horst.'

These days she lives in a New York flat stuffed with posters and pictures by Avedon and the rest, 'in the closets and under the bed'. Which are her favourite photographs? 'That's like asking someone to pick out their favourite child,' she answers. These were all 'fathers' to her, she says wistfully, remembering the support and comfort they provided when her own family life seemed so chaotic.
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