Barbie brought the beguiling art of haute couture to the masses, via any army of captivated youngsters and adults alike.It was an education promoted by Charlotte Johnson, an aficionado of French fashion, and Mattels head designer of the debut Barbie fashion collection.
It was in the late 1940s that the profession of "Model" really caught the public imagination. Whilst the term "Supermodel"
By Gary Alston
Before 1945, models had been the subject of great derision. Suddenly, the top models of the day became ambassadors for French prestige, and the muses of great designers and photographers. They also proved to be figures of aspiration for several generations of women. Deprived of luxury and fantasy in the war years, the press fell on this new legion of supermodels as though they had stumbled upon an oasis in a desert.They began to follow and report every move of these icons of style. At the same time, modelling became the subject of best selling novels such as Franck Marshalls "Nathalie, Princesse Mannequin De Paris", and of several movies including "Mannequin De Paris" (1956), "Funny Face" (1957), the Nathalie series (1957 and 1959 in which Martine Carole played a supermodel and detective), "Qui etes-vous Polly Magoo?" (1965), and of course, Antonioni's extraordinary "Blow Up" (1966).
The models prestige was such that they drew men of power and status to them like moths unto a flame. These men included aristocrats, opinion formers, and famous artists, within their ranks. Glamour girls such as Fiona Campbell - Walter married Baron Thyssen; Jean Dawnay, Prince Galitzine; Sophie, Anatole Litvak; Eliette, Herbert von Karajan; and Bronwen Pugh, Lord Astor. The ultimate prize however, must go to the incredible Anglo - Indian Nina Dyer, who married in direct succession, Baron Thyssen and Prince Sadruddin Kahn. Tragically, Nina was to commit suicide in the early summer of 1965, an early indication of the darker side of success that would see models become the distraught victims of their own celebrity.
It is useful to point out at this juncture the enormous gap and differences between the
work of a catwalk model, and that of a photographic one. For a catwalk model, the main requirement is a graceful walk, an ease of movement, and the ability to breathe life into
the garment she is asked to display at a show. Like today's breed, many of these fashion house models were far from perfect in their features or bodies. Pierre Balmain put it rather
succinctly and with great humour in Liane Viguie's "Mannequin haute couture", where he describes one of the girls:
"There was no shape to her legs, and her body was perfectly straight, without hips,
waists or breasts.Her pallid face, under her platinum hair, harboured a pair of eyes encumbered with layers of black sooty make-up above a triple row of false eyelashes.But as soon as she began to walk her neck stretched slightly forward, with a nasty look in her eye and almost mechanical gestures, she became the very essence of Parisienne Chic."
A cover girl by contrast, had to be above all photogenic, with perfectly defined features, a
face that catches the light, and a sense of arrested movement. Of course, some girls were able to cross over into both disciplines, such as Bettina, Capucine, Sophie, Simone d'Aillencourt, Denise Sarrault and Ivy Nicholson. Likewise, famous house models including Marie - Helene Arnaud, Hiroko Matsumoto, Marie - Therese and Victoire had careers to rival those of the best known cover girls.
Fashion phootgraphy in the 1950s was a major art form, dealing with the most prestigious designer labels and exhibiting their wares in the chicest of womens magazines. The look required was one of sophistication, in everything from make-up, hair style, gesture,
