MODELING IN PARIS – 3

THE MODELS I WORKED WITH
It was a wonderful time in Paris to be a model, the Fashion world was buzzing with new designers, photographers and models came to Paris from all over the world. I worked with some of them and often got booked with the same girls so you got to know them quiet well over the years, others you worked with once or twice, some I remember very well  even if I worked with them only once, others I have forgotten, some become friends. I certainly have seen my share of beautiful girls and my first encounter with a model of whom I had seen tons of pictures was Jean Shrimpton in the studio of Vogue in London,  I was very shy and she was very kind, did not work with her then, that was much later. Next I was booked with Donna Mitchell and I really liked her pictures and she was great, wonderful Beauty, very different, she had or has something very special. I was very impressed to work with her.

With Donna Mitchell for English Vogue,                                                           Ph. Treager

With Jill Kennington of whom I had seen many very nice pictures too, some by Helmut Newton. She was very beautiful but did not get to know her at all.     Ph. James Moore

Here with Kecia Nyman The first time I met Kecia was in Morocco on a shoot with Helmut Newton, this picture is one of them, but we became friends much later and we talk over the phone often. Kecia is the girl who made most Magazine covers ever, I think something like 2000.                                                                               Ph. Helmut Newton

With Benny, forgot her last name but she was very funny and Helmut Newton liked to book us together on several occasions. She has a model agency in her home country Denmark. We had fun.                                                                  Ph.Helmut Newton

With Gunelle, she was pleasant to work with, very nice woman and then the wife of Hans Feurer. We met up in 2002 at the farewell show of Kenzo in Paris, she had not changed much, that long straight shiny hair…                                           Ph. Hans Feurer


Ph. Hans Feurer
With Linda Morand. Did not hear from her or see her (of course saw her famous Jaqueline Kennedy pictures) until I googled myself on internet and found minimadmod60’s and there I was together with many other models of our time, all put together by Linda. We got in touch about 2 years ago and her website has grown and is wonderful and we became great cyber friends.

With Wallis Franken, Wallis was a lot of fun, very cheerful and we had some great times, especially if it was on location somewhere for a few days. We were often booked together and she became a friend for the time we were in Paris. She was a great model and very professional. So sorry but don’t know who was the photographer.

With Gunilla Lindblad. Don’t remember who was the photographer but this picture also came out in enormous posters all over the Metro and Paris and all of France I guess. Gunilla was the most commercial professional model around at that time, very beautiful, also smart and she got all the good commercial jobs. Saw her a few years ago in Amsterdam where she was scouting for a NY model agency, beautiful as ever, down to earth and realistic, I think she still occasionally models.

With Christina Steidten. We worked quiet a lot together but never got to really know her. It was always wonderful to work with her though and she was a very amazing model and always dressed very nice in her own style, yes she had style.

Picture: Francois Lamy.

Ph. Andre Carrara

With Eva Malstrom, Eva and I did many shoots together for Marie Claire and Italian magazines. She came, worked a lot and left, lovely woman and very beautiful…

With Jeannette Christianse Ph. Jo Francki
Jeanette was amazing and throughout the years we worked a lot together, I saw her blossom as a model and we became work friends. I was always happy when we were booked together and when she asked me to join the new Model Agency she and her boyfriend John Casablanca were setting up, I agreed. In a way I felt very guilty towards Models International who had been so super good to me and was a very good agency  but… Jeanette was a friend. I was like always not very commercial, I should have asked for 1% of the company as we were hardly 10 girls when “Elite” was born and there was nothing to show this was going to work except for the top girls they got to join… I still am in contact with Jeannette who is a painter in NY and their son is the lead singer of the “Strokes”

With Vibeke Knudsen andMargrit Ramme                                        PH. Hans Feurer

Both Vibeke and Margrit have worked with the greatest photographers and both are marvellous and wonderful, Helmut told me Margrit was very smart and I have seen Vibeke several times when we were living in LA some years ago and she and her husband have some of Salvador’s wonderful paintings in their collection. Great models.

Ph. Tony Kent

WithSusan Bottomly Always loved to work with Susan, we were and are great friends and to be booked with her were happy shoots, especially if it was with Tony. She is a very special wonderful person and you just have to click on her name to know more about her, love her.

WithLinda Evangelista Ph. Steven Meisel
Just have to say that it was a wonderful experience to work with Linda, for me she is the super super model going still strong after so many years, she is wonderful and very very professional and gorgeous.
There were others I don’t have pictures off but some stand out: Donyale Luna took my breath away and I gladly made space for her in front of the camera of Helmut Newton so she could do her thing, Jean Shrimpton, very funny, lots of humour and very pleasant and beautiful. Jessica Lange impressed me a lot, she stands out in my memories and not because she is a famous actress (and one of my absolute favourites) she was not that famous actress then but doing some modeling in Paris, she stands out because I felt she was a person true to herself and she has proven to me just that, love her. Angelica Huston is an other person I will remember working with because she was real fun and smart and for some strange reason we were booked together a few times, sorry to not have the pictures. Then there were other wonderful girls, wow, I have seen some beauties, the incredible eyes of Yolande Gilot, the sweet French beauty of Louise Despointes, the sexy personality of Barbara Carrera, in the street or anywhere we went all the men would follow her with their eyes, she was great fun too, the uniqueness of  Ingmarie Lamy, she is still going strong being beautiful, Susan Moncur, she wrote ” they still shoot models, do they?” available on Amazon …. Sometimes you were booked with other models but each had their pages so in the different studios you would meet different models and cannot remember every one right now. Also met some models that I never worked with or saw in the studios but that I liked, like Verushka who was the girlfriend of a good friend of ours and he brought her to our studio, liked very much meeting Donna Jordan in Italy, she also had her own mind and last but not least Eija Vekha Aho, so gorgeous, it was like she was made of marble. A wonderful model and inspiration to many artists like Antonio Lopez with whom she had a strong bond, as well as for my husband who made several portraits of her. She is a very very dear friend, very special and a great model. I only have a picture she did of me and Salvador in our studio.

 … and here my personal favourite model at that time: Alejandro


Well, I think that was a lot but still much to tell, more girls to meet when I take you to the Catwalk next time… and check Alegria’s blog and follow Salvadors story like always, they go together,

LOVE and PEACE

.. and remember to click on the highlighted names, it gives you a link to that person, it took me a lot to do this so please enjoy!

10 thoughts on “MODELING IN PARIS – 3”

  1. Willy this is so interesting … models from a model’s perspective.. I remember Jessica returning to NY after modeling for a short time in Paris and remarking at how impressed she was working with and meeting you. We both know how discriminating and constructively critical Eija could be about the state of other models in the profession but she always singled you out as one of the best !

  2. fun fun fun to read your stories.
    I also love some of the clothes you all modeled.
    I am amazed that you still have all those pictures with all that moving around in the
    world. its just wonderful. Thanks Willy .

  3. Fascinating getting your take on all the models. We are fortunate to have more pictures of all of them on the MMM60s Galleries, which you helped to build. I remember working with you. You were so gorgeous and professional and down to earth. If I had not had to retire shortly after, because of pregnancy, I believe we would have worked together more because Hans Feurer told me we had a similar bone structure.

    I read in Jean Shrimpton’s bio that she worked with you toward the end of her career. It was when you were all the rage with the mannequin and everything. When she saw that you were the featured model in the shoot, she realized that she had been eclipsed. But she took it with grace and good spirit, praising you.

  4. willy! i am always so excited to read the next chapter. this one is so lovely. i love your memories of your darling modeling and lifelong friends. your beauty is astounding and breathtaking. i think you are gorgeous, then and now. with still, the same smile. you should write a book with all of those that you are in contact with and share your intertwining stories. lots of love!!

  5. Hi :-). I wanted to say “Thank you” again for contacting me on FB. I am overwhelmed with joy because I’ve always wanted to talk to a legendary supermodel from the 1970’s which is one of the few eras of the really unique supermodels. I have a couple of questions: 1. Do you have an infatuation with India? I’ve never read about a model who has been mesmerized by India before. Usually, I read about a couturier/couturiere having been struck with wonder by the exotic world that is India. I love it when anyone in the industry is fascinated with India :-). My second question is: have you ever worked with Janice Dickinson?

  6. Hi Junil, thanks for your feedback and to answer your questions I would need some time but let me say this: in the 60ties and 70 ties and probably always there has been a special interest in India because India showed us some spiritual behavior that was an eye opener for many of us and also just the fact that it was so very different from our western culture and opened our mind to different things. Personally I love the music and culture and colours of India and I have to say that I AM not a model, I WAS a model and I am a human being like everybody else and here I am telling my story in the hope I might inspire someone in a way, so stay put … About Janice Dickinson, no I never worked with her although we were around at the same time in Paris but both she and I were mostly working alone and as she was a different type so we were never booked together. A few years ago I did meet her though at the farewell of Kenzo in Paris and I was super surprised when she told me that I always had been her favorite model and that was nice and yes, she is quiet a personality. Love and Peace

  7. Dear Ms. van Rooy,

    I’m a Finnish journalist trying to find more information about Eija. I am the fashion director for a new Finnish bi-annual fashion magazine called SSAW with a 1st issue due next May. One of our main feature stories is about Finnish models in the 60s, 70s and 80s such as Eeva Ketola, Pia-Sofia Kiukkonen and Eija. Eija is my absolute favorite and excluding some amazing Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton photographs we haven’t been able to find out any information on her. If you would have any idea what happened to her after modeling or have any contact with nowadays, could you kindly e-mail me?

    Yours Sincerely,
    Tuomas Laitinen

  8. Dear Ms van Rooy,
    I love your website and am particularly fascinated by the phot of title “With Linda Evangelista Ph. Steven Meisel”. It looks like it was taken in a cemetary in the rain.

    It looks like there is another part (a 2nd half) to the photo that is not reflected on this webpage. Possible to see photo in its entirety?

    Thank you for your website! 🙂

    Anonnie

  9. My sister indicated I may in this way website. He or she had been 100 % right. This particular blog post absolutely produced the day time. People cann’t imagine only the way a good deal period I had created put in for this data! Thank you!

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