Original subtitles

♪ I find it hard to believe you don't know ♪

♪ The beauty you are ♪

♪ But if you don't let me be your eyes ♪

♪ A hand in your darkness so you won't be afraid ♪

♪ When you think the night has seen your mind ♪

♪ That inside you're twisted and unkind ♪

♪ Let me stand to show that you are blind ♪

♪ Please put down your hands ♪

♪ 'cause I see you ♪

♪ I'll be your mirror ♪

♪ I'll be your mirror ♪

♪ I'll be your mirror ♪

MAN: What is it about plastic surgery and facelifts?

What's your sense of that whole world?

Well, that's a very polite way of asking me,

I'm sure, have you had a facelift? Ha ha!

Well, if you had the ceiling falling down in your living room,

would you not go and have a repair?

WOMAN: As much as you like it or don't like it,

it's a woman's business.

The men were accessory to the fact.

I have seen so many girls come and go

because they have nothing going on inside.

MAN: This wasn't just about the physical beauty.

They had character.

They had personality.

They had something inside that came through.

WOMAN: When you get older, you build something else in your core

which goes beyond the physical, because it has to.

MAN: This is simple. Nothing in your face.

Looking here.

Beautiful. Raise the bounce.

WOMAN: I'm Carmen Dell'Orifice.

I have been a Ford Model since 1947.

MAN: This is an amazing Avedon,

and you've never liked yourself in it.

CARMEN DELL'ORIFICE: You know why?

Because I don't like my feet.

They're just not sexy feet.

My mother used to say, "You have feet like coffins and ears like Sedan doors."

I internalized that.

For women in the '40s and during World War II,

a nurse was very high level, a teacher.

There was the dubious profession of being an actress then, slash-model.

What is--Model didn't really exist as a profession.

It was really model/hooker.

This is in the days when the Duchess of Windsor

and Mrs. William Rhinelander, Mrs. Hearst,

and all these ladies who went to Europe 4 times a year

to have their clothes custom made.

Because of World War II, that stopped.

WOMAN: Hello girls. Having fun?

Certainly is a lovely day.

DELL'ORIFICE: Advertising was beginning.

We began to dress ourselves.

am this young, comatose child who was 5'9" and weighed under 100 pounds.

I had already worked for Clifford Coffin, Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, Jaffe Balkan.

But who knows one is living history when one is just living it?

I got by and I fit in, making money.

You know, to live my little life, send my mother to college,

do all the things I wanted by my first husband.

All the lovely things that models did in those days.

MAN: Let me see how this looks.

Beautiful.

You're gonna be looking at me here. Yeah.

So this is sort of your your favorite side anyhow.

Yeah, I have-- I like both.

Ha ha!

We had light, space, the photographic studios are beautiful places.

When I looked at how other people had to work,

going into an office, staying in a cubicle, it was incredible.

A world of wonderful people, also very eccentric.

The hairdresser, the makeup artist.

I don't think they can live in any other places but the fashion world.

I'm too old to have grown up with the idea that a woman should have a career.

Of course you would work, but not a career.

Your family would come first and--and then you'll adjust.

Not to bother your husband with, "Oh, can I--

can you buy me that dress?"

You'll have that little bit of money.

My mother, of course, had a huge career.

But my mother's career was seen as a special gift, like a calling.

You know, like a nun who has to go to a nunnery.

For sure, I didn't look at myself in the mirror and say, "You know what?

I have that look that I could be a model."

It was completely-- a chance.

I worked with Bruce Webber, who I just knew socially.

And he had asked me to pose for some photos.

And I did because I thought,

"Oh, I'll buy many copies and I'll keep these copies for my grandchildren."

One day, when I'm old, I'll say, "Look, I looked good."

Modeling taught me that it was essential for women

not to depend on fathers and husbands.

Modeling provided me that financial independent

and that career, that discipline that a career requires.

That you do know where you're gonna be 8 months from now.

That you have to go to sleep early.

That you can't eat that food.

I've got 28 covers of "Vogue."

9 of them were shot by Richard Avedon and had changed my life.

If you were a fashion model like Barbie,

you'd lead a different life every day of the week.

WOMAN: Two of my older sisters were modeling at the Apparel Mart in Dallas.

It was about the fantasy of beauty,

the fantasy of glamour, the fantasy of this other life

that we would see in these old black and white movies and things.

I started my working career in Texas at the Dairy Queen.

My mother used to say to me,

'cause I used to be really upset about not having a boyfriend.

I used to say, "Oh, I feel like a failure."

You know, "What am I gonna do?"

And she used to say, "Well, look at Twiggy.

Twiggy's a model and she's even skinnier and flatter than you are."

And so, I was supposed to go to--

Paris with my French club in school.

And my mom made me all these wonderful clothes.

We used to get the Frederick's of Hollywood catalog.

So they were all copies of Frederick's of Hollywood.

They're like snake skin and red satin.

They went very, very tight to the knees and then flared out.

Or they had, like, panels, like snake skin with your legs would come through with these panels.

We thought that Paris was like that.

My French club trip fell through.

But I had a car accident where--

they gave me penicillin, which I was allergic to.

So the hospital said, "If you don't sue us, we'll give you $800."

So I said, "Ok."

Got to Paris and my mother said, "The Riviera's the place to go."

My first day on the beach,

I bought a pink metallic crocheted bikini and some platform shoes.

This was the early '70s.

And they had painted cork heels.

When I put them on, I was 6'4" or 5" or something.

And I had slept in pin curls, you know,

little tiny pin curls with a bobby pin.

So when I took it out, it was like that.

I was actually expecting to be discovered.

And I was, within, like, an hour.

A guy came up to me and said, "Would you like to be a model?"

I said, "Yes." Ha!

WOMAN: When I was a child, I dreamt of becoming an artist in France.

And before I could even speak French,

I went around speaking fake French.

I guess you could say I was a rather strange child.

I was working as a struggling artist in Paris,

painting, like, the scenes in Montmartre.

And I had my little dog in the bag going, "Don't worry, baby. I will--"

I had a fake French accent.

Then I would say, "Don't worry my little baby. I will help you.

And then smack.

Right into a photographer named Errol Sawyer.

For many, many, many, many, many years,

I thought, "I'll do maybe another two months of this

and then I'll go back to my real life."

But you get to collaborate with amazing people and--

and wear great clothes and--

better clothes nowadays than in the '80s.

It's a fun job.

WOMAN: I didn't have success as a model

like models have success today or yesterday.

I had success because I was known in a small little arena

called the Garment District area, where designers book runway models.

And I kept a full-time job the whole time.

You know, you come from-- a neighborhood of people with style.

Even if it's just about the guys on the corner, you know,

the way they talk shit and what they have on.

And you notice the double pleated pants.

You notice the shoe.

You notice your uncle when he comes in, what he wears.

I'll never forget.

My mother walks in with 3 guys.

And they say, "Hi, Beth Ann. Hi, Beth Ann. Hi, Beth Ann."

They would all be talking in the back room and dressing and doing and talking.

I didn't know what they were doing.

But when they would leave, she'd leave with 3 women.

I couldn't put it together then.

I just knew that they came in as guys

and then they seemed to have gone out in my mother's clothes as women.

You have these kind of experiences in your life.

You just basically-- you're--you're sort of--

you're sort of, like, propelled into whatever you want to do.

Ha ha! Nobody's saying, "You can't.

Don't you dare."

My mother told me that I used to tell her I was modeling.

And she used to smile and, "Oh, that's nice."

And then I did a commercial.

And she saw me on TV, and she was stunned.

And she honestly told me that she always thought when I said I was a model that I was a hooker.

And she said, "Oh, you really are a model."

And I said, "Well, yeah, what did you think?"

She said, "I have to be honest with you.

I thought was just the way you were explaining--"

Ha!

Nowadays, everybody wants their child to model.

Back in the day, nobody wanted anybody to be a model.

WOMAN: ♪ I'm waiting for a boat to help me out of here ♪

♪ Mmm ♪

♪ Waiting for a boat to... ♪

WOMAN: I started modeling in the early '50s.

I was paid $100 a month,

and I was the highest paid model in Europe.

The ones who are top models, each one of us, of course, had to have kind of a walk.

And I was famous for my walk.

And Hookah, this friend of mine, used to walk like this.

There was no music. There was nothing.

You just walked in and you walked out.

You didn't allow the buyers to touch your dress,

because they were trying to feel underneath

to see what was inside.

And so, you walked like you had an attitude.

Like, "Don't touch me."

Not a smile on your face.

You walked in and you walked out.

I don't wear makeup normally.

But if I know I'm going to have a shoot like this,

I'm going to try and look as good as I can

because what about all the other girls in the damn shoot,

Right? I'm gonna look like some dumb dumb? No.

I have never exercised in my life.

I can't even touch my toes.

I've never dieted.

I never really thought of myself as a model.

It was just a job.

WOMAN: Style is sort of an expression of yourself.

It gives people the possibility to be creative

and to express themselves in ways

that maybe they can't express themself in words sometimes.

My grandmother was this incredible artist.

MAN: Might you be known as a famous designer of ladies' dresses?

You're getting hot.

Well, I only know two or three dress makers,

so I'll take a chance at Scaparelli.

That's the right--

[Applause]

MARISA BERENSON: She was a total rebel.

When she was young, she found herself ugly.

And so, one day, she decided she was going to change that

if she could.

And she planted seeds in her nose and in her mouth so that a--

flowers would grow out of her nose and out of her ears.

She was very avant garde,

And she was truly an artist more than just a designer.

So I grew up in that environment, too, you know,

with all these incredible people.

Dali and Cocteau and Vertez and Picasso.

Dali wanted to paint me in the nude when I was 13.

And my mother said, "Absolutely not, you dirty old man."

"She has hip bones like cherry stones," he said.

Ha ha!

My father took me to one last coming out ball with my sister Berry.

And at that ball was Diana Vreeland, who I had known since I was a very little girl.

And she was a great friend of my grandmother's and my parents.

And she said, "We have to photograph you."

And from then on in, you know, I worked for "Vogue" for 6 years solid.

I was never told I was beautiful.

At school, I was called Olive Oyl,

you know, because I was long and lanky.

My mother used to say, "You know,

you look like a Modigliani and Berry looks like a Renoir."

And I'd look at Modigliani paintings and I'd start to cry.

And I'd say, "I look like that?

That's the saddest thing and the most depressing thing I've ever seen."

I used to cut out all these wonderful actresses at the time.

You know, people like Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner.

And think, "God, you know, I wish I looked like that."

It's a handicap in the acting world to be a model.

You're always thought as brainless.

You have to prove yourself much more than somebody who's just started out acting.

To work with all those great people in my life,

Bisconti, Bob Fosse, Stanley Kubrick, it was just a dream.

WOMAN: My father collected up all the photos that he could of me.

Hang on a second. Ha!

These were my covers he collected. Ha!

My mother, after 27 years-- Hang on. There's more.

My mother, after 27 or 28 years after my father's death, finally gave me my father's books.

When I walked in for my first job,

I waited two hours to see the editor.

I was behind time on my-- go-sees.

She walked in. She said--

"Who cut your hair? Your eyebrows look like shit.

And you're too big for our clothes." Ha!

But the photographer was John Stember.

And John said, "No, absolutely not. She's staying."

And they fought over it.

And I had to stand there while they were screaming at each other,

this 17-, 18-year-old kid.

And when I walked off the set

, that same editor said, "You lose 15 pounds,

I'll take you to the collections in Italy."

I starved.

I starved.

I mean, an apple here, a carrot there.

The minute you hit the ground, they would get you up at 5:00 in the morning.

You'd work till 12:00, 1:00 at night.

You'd get back up at 5:00 the next morning.

I was there for 10 days.

And when I got off the plane,

I was waiting in the airport for my mother to come pick me up.

And--Ha!

I burst into tears 'cause she walked by me, like, 6 times.

She didn't recognize me.

And when she looked at me, she had such a horrified look on her face.

And I was like, "What?

What are you looking at me like that for?"

I was pale and green from working so hard

and not having eaten anything.

And I was exhausted.

WOMAN: I started modeling at the age of 15

already knowing that the camera lies.

My parents escaped to Sweden from the Czech Republic in 1968.

My parents used press, Swedish press, in--

in order to try to get me out of the Czech Republic.

That really didn't work at all,

but it made them really famous in Sweden.

It also made me famous in Sweden.

And there would be these Swedish journalists

coming down to the Czech Republic taking pictures of me.

And they always made me hold my teddy bear.

And--you know, and would sort of try to indicate to me in Swedish,

which, of course, I couldn't understand, that I should look sad.

You know, I'd--I'd be hugging my teddy bear and looking like...

[Sighs]

And that's pretty much how I felt about the camera ever since actually.

I was sort of already tagging this big bag of history with me

because I had been called a dirty communist

asshole bastard, whatever, in school for--for years.

And so, when I had a chance to escape that, to want to be a beautiful model,

I don't think there's any 15-year-old girl

that will turn down the chance to be called beautiful.

You don't realize at that point that you're also going to get called ugly.

And they would open my book with my--

my portfolio with my pictures in and start discussing me,

start kind of cutting me apart.

"Hmmm, good nose. Yeah, those teeth.

Oh my God, what are we gonna do about those teeth?"

"Well, you just don't make her open her mouth."

"Hmmm, I don't like the color of her hair."

"Yeah, well, that can be fixed. But what about those thighs?

We can't do anything about those."

Every job felt like it was going to be my last.

That people would actually put me in, you know,

somebody's else's clothes in front of a camera

always made me feel like I was playing a very dangerous game.

I thought very quickly they would find out that I'm really just a political refugee.

And then they would send me back.

And we did a lot of really nice pictures

that then when I would see the picture, I'd go, "Oh, look.

She looks good."

It was never really me.

The feeling is that it's like you're not even really there.

It's not about yourself

or really how you look or anything like that.

It's what the person perceives from you.

My mother is a painter.

And when I was a little girl, she said, "Pose for me."

And I sat on the bed, and I opened a book.

And I just sat there.

And for the first time in my life,

I felt really, really peaceful because I was being appreciated.

And I saw creativity happening.

The way it was then, it was either you were blonde or you were very black.

And I didn't fit anywhere.

I'm 1/8 black, Irish, Cherokee, English, Scottish, German.

Avedon used to say to me all the time,

"Oh, you know, Pat, I wanna use you much more.

But they just don't know what you are."

"Ebony Fashion Fair" is very important because, at the time,

there were no magazines for people of color.

And there were really a lot of women in America who were not being catered to.

And so, what Mrs. Johnson did was create a fashion show

that she would take around America to every state in America.

It was very hard work, especially when we got to the South.

We stop in this bus, this Greyhound bus

to go to the ladies room in this sort of out-of-the-way place.

And they said, "No, you black girls can't come in here."

But me, they said, "You can use the bathroom."

We see these guys coming to the bus, and they're really angry.

And they're, like, carrying, like, sticks and stuff.

And the bus driver says, "We've gotta get out of here."

The bus doesn't start.

They started banging on our bus.

They were trying to turn our bus over.

And the bus driver was trying to get the bus to go.

And it was so frightening.

And I kept peeking up to see these ugly faces.

And that didn't happen only once.

I was up at "Vogue" and they took the picture for the cover.

And I thought, "Wow, I'm gonna have a Vogue cover."

But--no, I wasn't blonde enough or something.

I said, "I'm going to leave the country.

And I'm not coming back here until you have a black girl on the cover."

Naomi Simms was perfect.

Danielle Luna was perfect.

When it's time to go, you need to go because you will find something new.

On the runway, it's as though I'm lifting off the ground.

I just wanna hear drums playing and express all of that.

A rhythm you feel in your soul,

like this music in your heart starts beating fast,

and it's almost orgasmic.

When you move your body, it's like it's dancing.

What you try to do is let them appreciate what you're wearing by being alive in it.

I love these shoes. Glad I don't have to walk.

You just have to carry me over.

Ok, I'm ready to move--

You do live in a bubble, where everyone tells you

how beautiful you are all the time.

And they run and get you coffee or whatever you want.

I was the first African American to grace the cover of "Vogue"

in August 1974.

Wow, that's a long time.

I found that--

Let's see if we can scan it.

Oh, and is this the one? Is this it?

No.

Is it-- Is it--Is it--Nah.

Here's the actual...

Ruth Whitney put together, like, 16 or 17 of my "Glamour" covers,

and on the front page, she wrote something very special to me.

"Beverly, your covers always meant something special to me

"because your face on the cover

"really did finally change the way

"our white readers thought of blacks.

Thanks for helping them along. Ruth Whitney."

When I was modeling, the career lasted 3 to 4 years.

That was your entire career.

And it was frightening.

I remember my girlfriend.

She's, like, graduating from college and, you know,

getting married and putting a down payment on the house.

Woman maturing and--and happy.

And here I am in fear and, you know, supposedly living this glamorous life.

I'm crippled, you know, with the idea of--

of growing old and-- and where do I go next?

The whole age thing in our industry, it's everything.

ROSSELLINI: For me, the difference was that I started at 28.

I think that gave me enough-- independence and substance.

Not that I was sure of myself.

Not that I looked at myself in the mir--in a mirror and said,

"Mirror, mirror--ha-- on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? Me."

I understood that it was a career.

And I understood that that was an image.

It wasn't me.

And then people sometimes confused it.

But, of course, that's part of the success. It'll go. Ha!

So sometimes you'll have to claim and say,

"Oh, but I-- I was that model." You know?

I think it's harder when you're young.

Once you're gone and made up,

people forget that you are 15, 16.

They think you are a 20-year-old sex kitten.

And that's very difficult to handle.

MAN: And were you confident at that point?

I mean, you were 15 years old.

Did you kind of know who you were?

Ha ha!

Show me a girl who is--

who knows who she is at 15 and I'll show you a freak.

I was a typical 15-year-old as far as, you know, completely insecure

and wanted to seem more grown up than she actually was

by, you know, smoking and playing really hard and drinking too much.

And, you know, well, I'm--huh!

I arrived with girls that were 16, 17.

And I could see what happened to them.

I saw the ones that fell by the roadside,

the ones that got into drugs,

the ones that had to go home

because they became bulimic or anorexic or, you know, whatever.

And you sort of just look at it and you go, "Uh-huh"

You know, because as a kid, you're very malleable.

You know, like, you know,

you can be put in a room for 10 years and told that that's normal.

And you'll go, "Oh, ok."

What people called sexual harassment, we called compliments.

You know, when a 16-year-old is flattered by a man

pulling out his penis in front of her, that's--

you know, that's kind of noteworthy.

WOMAN: A lot of these girls were kids.

And with a little hair, makeup,

being surround by sophisticated people, you know,

we made them into something they weren't.

I think, unfortunately, you know, we created a monster.

WOMAN: When I left New York, I really left.

I left the scene.

I left drugs.

I left the fast lane, the jet-set.

Where I grew up in Center Island, Oyster Bay,

was a very secluded life,

very protected, over protected.

seriously over protected.

We had a lot of help, a lot of money, grounds.

I mean, now that I look at it, I get it, Dad.

I get why you guys wanted to be there as much as I wanted to leave.

When I got to New York, I was really 16, not 19.

And I was really shy.

I remember one day asking an editor, "How do you do this?"

And she said, "Go--go inside, and Beverly Johnson's in there.

Ask her how to do it." Ha!

And I went in, and Beverly said,

"Just--just act like you're the most beautiful thing

that ever walked the earth."

And I went, "Ok." Ha.

That's not really my thing.

The camera became an avenue and a permission

be the part of myself that I needed to be

in order to do that work.

And without the camera, uh-uh.

Ha!

That's what Helmet had-- did for me.

He understood and loved to make fun those people from where I'm from,

the sort of blue blood line of people.

That's why I was able to work with him.

We were both laughing. At me.

I was afraid of that side of me.

I knew it was strong,

and I didn't know how to appropriately use it in real life.

There was an article written in the "Daily News."

I think of this now, and it really is upsetting.

But it was called "The Dark Side of Modeling."

And it--it was a picture of me.

And I knew that my father went home on the train with the "Daily News"

and that that's what he was gonna see.

It was in the '70s.

Everybody was doing drugs of some sort, mostly cocaine.

And every--And there was nothing known about it.

What was known was that it's not addictive.

I was so insecure that I needed to do it.

Made me feel like I--I was--

I had something to say, that I was worth being photographed, that I--

that I could--you know, that I was somebody.

Because I really didn't think I could do anything.

JADE HOBSON: When drugs came on the scene,

the look of the girl changed.

You'd certainly stop smiling.

Photographs became more serious.

I was on a shoot with Francesco Scavullo.

Gia was one of the models.

I used to use binoculars.

I used to stand behind the photographer,

and I'd use binoculars to see every detail on clothing.

And while I was looking the Gia,

I could see the track marks on her arm.

And I-- I mean, Gia looked great.

And yeah, I feel somewhat responsible.

The photographers, the whole industry of using these girls when we were aware

of...the heavy, heavy use of drugs.

We maybe exploited these girls

because it also brought a certain look to the photograph.

I don't know.

We were definitely out of it then.

We just weren't hip enough.

In my youth, we used to stay out all night.

We used to go see the big bands.

But the only thing I ever heard of were reefers.

And that's what the musicians were supposed to smoke.

I have been at parties and they were all...toke,

having a toke.

Ha. I think I'm saying it right.

And then they'd pass it around, and you're supposed to smoke it.

WOMAN: I was lucky to have had the experience of--

of staying at the Ford's house.

It definitely felt like being in a dormitory.

I think anyone under 18 was sort of welcome.

Not anyone. That's not true.

There was a few rooms.

And I think if you were working,

and the more you were working, the more...

the more vacancy--ha ha-- there was there.

I forget how many models lived with us.

They had to live by my rules.

It was like having a bunch more children.

I've probably had more doors slammed in my face

than any woman you're ever gonna meet.

I knew where the wine was kept.

I left pajamas downstairs in the kitchen

so when I'd come in late, I could change into my clothes.

Jerry Hall has been quoted about me,

saying it was the most boring year of her entire life.

JERRY HALL: They had a curfew.

You had to be in the house by a certain time.

And every weekend, we had to go in her station wagon

with her kids and her dog out to Connecticut.

And then, you had to come when she had these boring dinners and things.

It was very difficult having been so free in Paris.

Going out dancing and dancing on the tables.

And going out with--

We had a lot of friends who were transvestites.

And they were great fun.

And I got a lot of makeup tips from them. Ha ha!

And having gone out every night and had so much fun

and met all these wonderful people to all of a sudden be...

you have to be in by midnight.

I quickly got out of Eileen's because I couldn't go out.

Ha ha!

I couldn't wait to get away from home.

Just couldn't wait.

My grandmother, she did not want me doing this at all.

She never spoke to Diana Vreeland again.

She--ha ha--was furious.

And she never spoke to me about it

except to criticize the way I-- I went out dressed.

She thought it was the most un-chic, dreadfully vulgar,

"How can you go out on the street looking like this?"

One day, she handed me this dress.

It was like an old curtain found in some trunk in some old castle,

like, you know?

She said, "I want you to put this on and come to tea

"because I have this gentleman you have to meet.

Because I think you should get married."

But I wanted that wonderful adventure.

We lived the greatest adventure of all in those days.

I was a liberated woman.

I had the pill. I had the clothes.

I had the place to go.

We didn't know who we were with.

The girls with the boys, and the boys with the boys.

Just fall in love with the best-looking thing you can find.

And in the model business,

there's a lot of good-looking people.

Powder was flying and the flames were coming from the sky

and hell was breaking loose.

We weren't afraid of anything.

We were just so free.

And we just did everything and wanted to taste everything and do everything.

I mean, I was 16,

and I was brought up in boarding schools.

How did I live by myself in New York and just live like that?

Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol-- all these amazing people.

It wasn't just about selling the clothes and making a lot of money.

It wasn't.

It was about making a whole world that you would enter into.

There was a lot of love and friendship,

doing things together and creating

and being part of that same world together, on that wave together.

People got lost in that.

We were just overwhelmed with ourselves.

We were so arrogant.

Our clothes were, like, getting heavier and stronger.

I've lost a lot of friends in my life, a lot of great people,

either from drugs or from AIDS.

It was like a fire that just went straight through the heart of the business.

For the longest time, your main concern was,

"Is my friend this thin because they're smoking too much or partying too much

or because they have AIDS?"

I started seeing everyone dressed in black.

And they just started disappearing.

And I knew it was the end of the time.

[Applause]

I love to see people dancing.

It's so romantic and such fun.

This extravagant white satin organza dress on Karen Bjornson is just for that occasion.

Nothing is prettier than a dress that moves.

WOMAN: I was 18 when I started working for Halston.

He was like a prince. Everyone was in love.

He was always looking out for me.

I was so young and impressionable

and he was so kind... and funny and loving.

Never talked about Halston at all.

It was amazing to be around that creativity,

to be in the room with him, with him designing and cutting the clothes on me.

WOMAN: I knew she had been a model,

but I didn't really think of her.

She was Mom.

But then when she started modeling again,

it was like, "Oh, my God. She's Karen Bjornson."

I actually got to do a show with her

during senior year of high school.

And I wrote about it for my college admissions essay.

So, she's the reason that I ended up

going to Harvard for college, I think.

I didn't go to college. So I felt that was...

Important.

Important. It was a la--

I felt a lack with that.

And I wanted them to have that.

Aw...

This is my "Cosmo" cover, April 1972.

And it became a very famous issue because...

[Laughter]

I retired for 13 years.

We moved to Connecticut in 1989.

I would dream about being a model and modeling and...

and working with Halston and hearing his voice calling me to go out on the runway.

Those are the good dreams.

The dreams where you're flying are the dreams where I was working.

Then, when I was 50, Ralph Rucci called and asked me to do his show.

I was looking at the photos from it, and the eyes bothered me.

Things are changing.

Go in the mirror and you push and think, "Hmmm."

I did my eyes.

Money well spent, definitely.

Getting the product in shape again.

I don't want to look younger.

I just wanna look well rested.

And then, you just say, "This is as good as it gets today."

That's what I usually do if I'm going on--a casting.

This is it.

I'm 58. I'm--I'm--

I'm a happy 58-year-old woman.

MACHADO: I was never one to do plastic surgery.

First of all, I'm a coward.

I didn't go to the dentist for 10 years.

So you can imagine.

Every time I go there, I practically run him out of the chair

before he gets me down on the chair, ok?

So just the idea that they were gonna do something to me.

But, of course, if it got desperate, I would.

But now, it's past that time.

I don't buy creams.

I don't go to the facials.

I don't go to beauty parlors.

I wash my own hair.

My husband would have to drive me there and pick me up.

That's already out, ok?

I mean, now that I'm suddenly being photographed at the age of 81,

I'm not that happy.

Right. You're holding this--

Take off the--

Right. How the hell did you do that?

I don't know.

[Laughter]

That's '58, for Christ sakes. Do you think I remember?

I wish he had photographed me 50 years ago.

It would have been easier.

It isn't that women want to stay young.

It's that the whole society makes us want to stay young.

Nothing to do with us.

I mean, you keep thinking you're gonna be judged.

Most important thing you have

that'll make you look different from someone else

is your expression.

So if you change that, your whole look goes.

You could be, maybe, better looking.

You might be more perfect.

You could-- you could fill out my cheeks,

and then, you know, but you take out the lines.

But then there's nothing left of you.

You know, sometime I'm surprised that I look at images of my mom when she was in her 30s,

and you wouldn't think she's 30s because women in--

in 1940, 1950 seem to me they wanted to look ladylike.

An image of a mature woman, that it is appealing,

that it is sophisticated, it is elegant, and that we aim at.

The modeling career is really something that sort of brings out your insecurities.

I mean, I remember girls who were coming in, 25 years old,

and were worried about their looks because there was a 15-year-old girl next to her.

Until that time, well, look at the model Dovima,

who was this absolute fascinating natural beauty.

But she was a woman.

[Whistling]

You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvin's?

Nothing,

I remember distinctly in the "Daily News" that day,

on the front page, after we ran the first commercials,

the Dow Jones broke 1,000.

And they put it in the upper right-hand corner,

"Dow Jones breaks 1,000," which was a really big deal.

Gigantic picture of Brooke Shields

in a charmeuse shirt and the jeans.

Calvin Klein thrown off the air.

Someone came up to me one night at 4:00 in the morning at Studio 54

and asked me if I'd be interested in doing jeans, blue jeans.

After creating the--the-- the collection of jeans,

we decided that we should be on TV.

Because to really reach America,

the way to do it is through television.

I went to see Dick Avedon.

And we started to spend every night together, and crazy nights.

And with Doon Arbus.

And we just-- We would talk and talk.

And then Doon would be writing.

When we would read what Doon was writing, we laughed.

Reading is to the mind what Calvin's are to the body.

We thought that was so funny.

And provocative and interesting.

I mean, I didn't ever think that--

that it would create such a stir.

All I wanted to do was sell product

and create something that was exciting and interesting, great to look at.

I wasn't interested in influencing anyone else.

And we sold a lot of product.

ROSSELLINI: When I reached my 40s,

Lancôme felt they needed to substitute me,

in spite of the fact that all the marketing research

proved that I was very successful,

that people loved that I was actually reaching 40 and doing anti-age cream,

that they loved the familiarity of a face.

And they could follow my aging.

But the voice that won over,

and so I was asked to leave, was the voice that women dream to be younger.

And advertisement is about dreams.

It's not about reality.

And I don't know that that is true.

See, I am an old fox.

And I say, "I'll buy that cream 'cause I know that works.

"I buy that eye shadow because I tried many

"and I know there is 5 that work.

Or this lipstick."

It's harder to sell to me.

But it's easier to sell to my daughter.

So I think advertisement talk to the young people, not to the dream of women to be young.

But it has also the bad consequences

of creating an industry that perpetuates this idea that women sh--

to be beautiful, should be young and thin.

CAROL ALT: My "Playboy" stuff made people angry.

MAN: The "Playboy" stuff you did at 47?

48. Ha ha! 48, baby.

They asked me to do 50. You know what?

My point was trying to teach women

that you can be healthy and happy.

You know, for a girl who said to her dad,

"I promise I won't do underwear."

This was my favorite photo. This was my favorite shot.

I didn't like this one so much.

I just thought it was too out there, in your face.

My mother said to me, "Oh, Carol,

I see more in the museum, for heaven sakes."

I'll be 50 in two weeks.

At first, when you're 17, 18, 19--

even till 25, you can starve yourself and lose the weight

and still maintain energy

because you're living on the body's reserves.

One day, I was shooting, and I was watching this other girl.

And I was the name on the project,

but she captivated the set.

I was curious.

Like, what happened from 23 that she was

to the 33 that I was that I went from that to this?

CARMEN DELL'ORIFICE: When I was 37,

I was brought in by a girlfriend to a doctor who said,

"Carmen, you have ruined, ruined your skin."

Which I had.

He said, "I'm gonna plane your face.

This is not a peel. It's not acid.

It's like the dentist, you know, when you have your teeth cleaned."

And he took my face off.

Hello, don't give me an argument.

Why don't I do this? Why don't I go--

Why don't you wrestle in a Botox...

All the new stuff. No, I've had--

You're looking at all those years of silicone injections by one doctor.

Beth Ann Hartson is a tomboy.

Am I gonna do anything to myself?

I'm gonna try and get this ass down.

And that'll be doing planks in the morning.

Tighten. Release. Tighten. Ha ha!

That idea of having a nose that's the same nose somebody else has,

I can't imagine wanting that.

I admire many other women and think,

"Oh, wow, she has beautiful eyes or beautiful hair or beautiful skin."

But it doesn't mean that I want those things.

When you live in a culture like we do in America

that's just going crazy with, you know, paparazzi's everywhere.

And what are they looking for?

They're looking for that little bit of cellulite peeking out from your skirt.

Collectively, it brings us down.

If I thought I'd advertise it, I'd get a facelift.

Why shouldn't you?

Why, if--if you feel better about yourself,

that's the most important thing about living.

You have to like who you are.

I think Botox and whatever-- Look.

I think it's bad that we have, as role models,

people who look scary to small children.

They're cutting up their faces.

They're doing all these strange things.

Their ears have gone weird.

They take fat from their bottom and they stick it in their lip.

So when you kiss them, you're kissing their bottom.

That is so disgusting.

Every garbage bag needs to be changed.

The face is a tool.

You know, you can use it in one way or another.

And I've always used my face sort of like a mask, you know?

I like moving it around and--

I think I'm going for the draping.

Hoo, voila.

I am debating in my head.

One day, I get up, and I say, "Hey, there's this new technology.

Why not use it? Let's go do the operation."

But most of time, I wake up saying, "Is this the new feet binding?

"Is this a new way of being misogynist?

"Is this a new way to tell women you are ugly?

Deep down, you should be this and this and this."

And you give a lot of--

other standards that are impossible to be reached

because the laying problem is misogyny.

In your 20s, you want to have children.

You're looking for a mate.

Need to attract a certain thing.

It's funny. I have skin like my grandma.

It, like, turns splotchy in the sun.

I think it gets worse with age, too.

So, oh, yeah, something really nice to look forward to.

At 50, you don't need to attract the same thing,

so why do you need to look like you still want to attract the same thing?

I'm 45, and I do not need to attract fertile men anymore.

I'm not really interested.

I've got my kids, got my man.

I'm interested in attracting different things now.

You know, I watch women my age, my peers,

and I see how they're getting, you know,

20 years younger-looking than I.

And it's not that I don't go,

"Hmm, I'm kind of being left in the dust here with my moving forehead

and my strangely elastic face."

To me, the most beautiful thing there is in another human is confidence.

And nothing says "I'm not confident" as much as Botox.

MAN: But it's like you have a contract with a higher being.

Ha!

I mean, I know you haven't had anything done.

No, not yet.

Not--Well, you don't-- you look--

You look amaz-- You look amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

How can you tell?

By just looking at you. You can tell as a hairdresser, right?

You know, like--

No, it's like-- I won't mention names,

but I worked once with a major, major, major, mega, mega, mega movie star.

And she was always saying how she never, ever had anything done.

Right.

And I saw the scars.

Right.

And she was very nervous about me even going near her.

Right.

And she was on television that night being interviewed.

And the interviewer said, "You look so amazing.

Have you had anything done?"

And she said, "No. I--"

Well, I guess as long as you look amazing,

you can pretend that you haven't.

When I very first started in the business,

models were still clothes hangers.

And over the years, the industry has allowed models to put a name to the face.

Once people put your name to the face,

business opportunities open up and branding opportunities.

I need a thing.

Hey, sailor.

[Laughter]

I would say, for the past 25 years,

they've been referring to me as former supermodel or former model.

But it just keeps on chugging along.

Great. That looks good.

That's perfect. Perfect.

WOMAN: You know, we've got another long skirt in white, too.

This Chloe one.

They don't have a long one.

Yeah, we do, don't we?

Unbelievable. This is...

WOMAN: My sons, when they went to college, they said,

"Mom, thank you so much for never doing nude pictures."

Now, 30 years ago, we didn't have Google.

And so, who would know, when you're in a little studio by yourself,

that 30 years later, somebody could Google you and boom.

All the whole, you know, lacrosse team

from my son could find my son's, you know, mother.

For me, it was a walk with growing up and maturing.

I went from innocent not knowing anything to thinking that I was better than other people.

Then I realized I'm not happy that way.

I'm happy going home early and working out

and just being a mother and being a wife.

And you know, what made Kim happy was--

was more family.

We have that breakdown.

[Chatter]

We have all that stuff.

Yeah, we do. Don't we?

I'm good with A lines. I'm good with--

All right. Hold on.

WOMAN: Being smaller than everybody and dark and curly haired,

not really the look of the times,

I had to work much, much harder

to make myself able to participate in a shot.

I felt that there were many girls way more beautiful than I was.

But I did feel I was bringing more to what I was doing than just what I looked like.

For me, it was that, through a picture,

I could communicate, or felt like I could communicate.

That's where beauty lies, is how do you come up with a smile?

How do you find it without being superficial?

And how do you translate your experiences, good and bad,

into something that's meaningful to yourself and to others?

We're gonna set the seamless.

We don't have the same 12-footer that we had in New York.

Take this out of-- take it out.

[Chatter]

Oh, my god. Ha ha ha.

There she is.

So why don't you hire a model who's got long legs?

Ha ha!

I don't know if I would become a top model today

because the looks are so... glamorous and exotic.

Well, I think that people saw a sweetness that they liked.

For a long time, people didn't know my name.

But I was this person that they felt very close to, which was always very interesting to me.

Because sometimes I would sit in a salon,

and I would hear the people say to one another,

"Have a good time at the birthday party tonight.

And say hi to your grandma."

And I thought, you know, they have this little community.

They have this little, you know, family that they go to every day

and friendships, which I never had.

And then, "Cover Girl," "Sports Illustrated," and "Time" magazine used my name.

And then, it got to be so I'd walk down the street

and people would say, "Hi, Cheryl."

And that was a good feeling because...

I felt, well, I have a lot of friends.

You know, and if anything ever happened to me,

I fainted in an airport or whatever,

I would know that there would be a lot of people there.

When I finished my college education,

my agent said to me, "Cheryl, you finished your formal education.

"But the key to beauty, and I've always believed this,

"is always educating yourself, always learning something new, always doing something new.

Have something to talk about."

And I never forgot that.

And I think that that's how one ages beautifully.

Wedding plans. My daughter.

Getting married.

Long neck and shoulders, back and down.

And relax my mouth. Ok. Thank you, sweetheart.

I love you.

I just want to just cut a bit off here,

bit off here, open you up.

Yes. Too heavy in--

Too heavy, yes.

And just open it up and...

Gosh. Thank you.

Ha ha! Ha ha!

You were my last "Vogue" cover.

MAN: What year was that?

About 1845.

[Laughter]

JOHNSON: I just don't think discrimination can be a trend.

In the stadium at Fashion Week, every culture is there.

But particularly, a lot of people of color are there.

And here on the runway are just all white models, very clone-like.

And here we are peering into this sacred world.

I didn't like that one freakin' bit.

A designer would call me and say, "Ok, I gotta talk to you.

You gotta find me a great black girl."

I said, "Ok, sounds good. How many girls are you using?"

"36."

"And you want me to find you one great black girl?"

They said, "Yes."

And I said, "Now, don't you see there's a problem with that right there?"

And no one wants to think themselves as a racist.

But no matter how much they say, "Oh, it's not my aesthetic.

It's just not my aesthetic."

The word aesthetic is borderline racist at this point.

In 1958, I came here in September, and I was photographed by Avedon.

"Harper's Bazaar" did not want to publish the photographs

because I was the first non-Caucasian.

They said, "Everybody in the South is gonna drop their subscriptions."

And Dick said, "I'm not gonna renew my contract

unless you publish these pictures."

But Dick also told me, "Your career will be very restricted

because you're too exotic looking.

You're not gonna be used in catalogues.

You're gonna have a few ads," which I did have.

"And you're gonna do editorial."

But he said, "You know, that's not enough for you.

You should do more."

I became senior fashion editor in "Harper's Bazaar" in 1962.

Can you imagine? It was only 3 years before

that they didn't even want me published in the magazine?

I was a TV producer. I had my own store.

I sat at another magazine called "Leers"

for the woman who was over 45.

I brought up two children.

No one ever gave me $20.

How would I sum up my life?

I'm a survivor.

WOMAN: While I'm late for a plane. I'm like--

I had no idea that he was that type of guy.

WOMAN: Oh, you did not?

Oh, he loved the tomboy.

Oh, he loved angst.

This was really a departure for me.

It really was just about making some money

to help my father pay for my education.

It was never, like, "Oh, I think I'm so gorgeous."

When that first editor in John Stember's studio said to me,

"You're too big for our clothes. Your hair looks like shit.

And who the hell plucks your eyebrows?"

Well, I was too big for their clothes.

And my hair did look like shit.

And who the hell plucked my eyebrows? I did.

So, it didn't hurt me.

Like, I don't care. I knew who I was.

I knew where I was going.

I mean, after that, it changed a little bit,

but I always still knew who I was.

I'm a fireman's daughter from Long Island.

And it'll never change, ever.

If this the way to cut hair?

Oh, it's how I do it.

Now my 8-year-old is gonna look at me and go, "Who are you?"

Ha ha!

TAYLOR: I did get self esteem from succeeding in something.

It was not an easy thing to do, and I succeeded.

That gives me real, true core confidence.

Good, stay like that.

I don't regret anything.

I see that it could have gone a different way,

and I still don't regret anything.

I did what I had to do.

Where I am right now is where I need to be.

And I'm just really glad I didn't die in the process.

MAN: Yeah, right there.

Good.

WOMAN: Am I covering the boob? Yeah, you're good.

Right, stay like that. Very simple changing.

Not very much. Gorgeous.

All right, we got-- Oh, sorry. We got to catch up.

[Laughter]

Thank God for fashion 'cause where would I be now?

I was just praying, "God, please give me something that I can do."

In the '50s, you know, how as-- with women

and the physique and the kind of beauty.

And I was absolutely not beautiful.

And fashion gave me feathers,

'cause I could fit into the clothes.

And that made me feel sexy and beautiful,

just like the girls who were well endowed.

I was staying in Rome with Danielle Luna, and were decided to go see Josephine Baker.

She loved us.

She--She told us how important we were to her.

She said, "Well, my girls, I have faith that everything I did

was worthwhile because I see you here."

PORIZKOVA: I don't really know when it happened

where one day I thought, "I deserve to be called beautiful."

That thought probably didn't even come to me until about two years ago

when I looked at old pictures of myself and thought, "Damn, I was good looking.

What was wrong with me back then?"

Ok, now this is--

Ha ha!

Oh, my.

Now, this is what I want you to--

It's Morticia.

PORIZKOVA: I look at pictures of myself

back when, you know, I was 24 or whatever,

and I thought I had fat thighs and ugly legs and puffy legs and neh, neh, neh, neh, neh.

And I look at my body now, I'm like, "I should've been naked all the time."

'Cause now, I go to the gym, like, 6 times a week and, mmmm, no.

But I know that by the time I'm 75,

I'm gonna go, "What was I talking about?

For a 40-- I mean, looked--I looked great.

Feeling beautiful is being self confident.

And modeling doesn't have anything to do with self confidence.

Working off of your looks makes you pretty--

makes you pretty much the opposite of self confident.

So maybe I became beautiful once I stopped modeling.

ROSSELLINI: For sure, my social stature has diminished

because I know I'm not invited to the "A" parties anymore.

Ha ha! My daughter is.

What is completely disappeared from society is the wisdom of the old people.

Ha ha!

As you grow old, you don't count anymore.

So that is, I think, the greatest fear about growing old.

And until a few years ago, as you grew older, your social status grew.

You were a person of experience. You were a person of wisdom.

You were a person that lived throughout the crisis

and would be able to help handle it.

I remember my ma, she told me once

that growing old, well, that's the only way to have a long life.

And I'd rather have that.

She didn't seem to be very affected by old age.

And that might have been also another reason why I don't feel that affected by it either.

Of course it's no fun getting old and sick and dying.

We all know that's coming, and it's a bore.

But people are living longer.

They're healthier longer.

They have sex longer.

Why shouldn't we be allowed to age?

And why shouldn't we be respected for it?

When I turned 50, I felt a sense of achievement.

I've lived 50 years. I've made it.

I think there's something to be said for that

and to be celebrated.

And the other thing about getting older is you can be a little more eccentric,

you know?

People let you. Sleep late.

Go around in your lingerie.

Ha ha ha!

BERENSON: Women have to be everything.

Mothers, lovers, wives, business women.

They have to know how to do everything today.

It wasn't like that in our day so much.

You know, we just flew through those periods just completely--

I look back at that time.

If I had been maybe a more business minded, like women are today,

at the peak of my career, I basically gave it up and got married and had a child.

I don't think regret is a good thing because you can't do anything about it.

So it's a useless emotion.

If I hadn't done it that way, I would never have had my daughter,

I wouldn't have had the learning experience of all of the ups and downs.

The most important part of my life is to

feel like an asset to the world at least in some small way.

I mean, we're only little, tiny creatures here and then we go elsewhere.

While one's passing on this planet, you know,

to at least leave a little ray of light, I think, is important.

I guess I began to feel I was ok when somebody I really loved

kissed me.

It's not so much what I'm seeing in the mirror

but what I'm, you know, feeling in a connection with somebody

I want to feel close to.

The society has decided the age 50 to 100 is not sexually viable.

But someday the models of today are gonna be my age.

I think my career has lasted so long,

which is now 65 years,

because I'm not doing this thing in front of the camera

to get love and be approved of.

I get my love privately.

When I go into a casting, which I do as little as possible,

'cause if they don't know who I am by now, forget it.

And they say, "Oh, you're too tall.

Or you're not this," or whatever, I just leave.

It's as simple as that.

There's another job or there isn't another job.

We all have to go sometime.

And when I go, I wanna go with my high heels on.

Ha ha!

LOU REED: ♪ All of those things yeah, that you got to give ♪

♪ Yeah, you wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, you wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ All of the stories, honey, that I know you could tell ♪

♪ Yeah, you wear it so well ♪

♪ ...well ♪

♪ And your face hides it so we can't tell ♪

♪ That you knew we'd wear so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, darling, you wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, baby ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, now, baby ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, now, darling, now ♪

♪ Yeah, you wear it so well ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ All of those things that make poets sing ♪

♪ You wear it so well ♪

♪ Yeah, you hide it so well ♪

♪ And all of the things that you used to tell ♪

♪ You hide it so well ♪

♪ Can't tell from your face that you knew it so well ♪