There I was taking off from Parati to Los Angeles, alone! Lucky for me the friend of Michael was at the airport, a beautiful young African American women who greeted me warmly and took me to her home. It was already night but the mother was waiting for us and they gave me one of the small rooms with a big TV, I had not seen TV in ages and that’s what I mostly did in the following days, never went outside but took a peek once and saw as far as I could see small grey houses all the same. The mother and the  daughter were both so kind and took very good care of me but after about a week it became obvious I could not stay, the neighbors were getting curious. This was back in 68 and things were very different then, this was a neighbor hood with only African American people and it was probably a very strange thing for the mother to have me there, she probably was afraid the neighbors would talk, she said something to that effect, I don’t know but had to go. So this wonderful girl, forgive me I forgot her name, wish I knew and I would look for her and thank her again, she was a special lady, took me to a friend of hers. It was my first time in Los Angeles and there I was, all alone longing for Salvador who was hanging out of a helicopter taking pictures of the Amazon River, no way for contact. No money and a total stranger in this big busy city. OK, first thing was to get some money and it was then I realized I had lost my little bankbook but lucky I still had some incredible beautiful amber beads from Morocco so I went to look for a boutique in Beverly Hills to buy them from me. This is funny because about 25 years later I met this woman and she remembered me coming to the store where she was then working and she did buy my beads, I mean…  The friend I now was introduced to was a woman painter ( paintress)? and she was again one of this wonderful persons that took complete care of me and I would just love to know where she is and who she is, never can thank them enough, in all my loneliness and precarious situation she made me happy and grateful. But then again I did not want to overstay and was a bit afraid to have the baby, which was due very soon, I did not know how soon because I had not been to a doctor once, but soon for sure.  In the end I decided to go to Vancouver where my 2 sisters were living, I would be safe with them. So I bought a ticket with the money of the beads and went to Canada. Lucky enough because I got all the care one needs, doctors, hospital and all the rest and there he was… our Alejandro.

This came out in the Vancouver paper, one of the few pictures of that time.

Was great to be with my sisters who took very good care of me but my heart was crazy to be with Salvador who was now on his way to NY. via Miami and when we could get it together on either side, we would meet in LA. At least we were in contact and soon enough I set off for LA again and there he was, now sharing the beauty of our baby and of our love.

Tried to work but there was only one agency: Wilhelmina, they told me they worked mainly in NY and that’s where I should go. We somehow got the money together to go to NY where I contacted Eileen Ford (big time American model agency) and from there on things got easier. I had met Eileen before when she came to Europe to look for models and she had asked me to come to NY and I had been in NY before when David Bailey took me to introduce me to American Vogue. Bailey was with Catherine Denueve and I was invited to stay with the Fords, who were very entertaining. There were several models staying there but I only remember Maud Adams vividly because she was so kind and always smiling. Well, I ended up with one picture in American Vogue,

I was hanging out in the studio for 2 days where Bailey was photographing Lauren Hutton and I was so impressed with the way and easiness she moved and on top of that she was super kind and nice to me, another great lady. I somehow missed the boat then because I was invited by Diane Vreeland to come and see her, she was the empress of Fashion and very funny, had me turn and pose for her and then send me to the studio of Richard Avedon. Now, believe it or not but I was very shy and did not put my foot in the door so when I rang the bell to his studio some assistant opened the door and I said I came to see Mr. Avedon and he asked me if I had pictures and I said no, that was stupid of me not to take my book from London, what was I thinking? so He said well Mr. Avedon is very busy and has no time and closed the door before I could say that Diane Vreeland had sent me, because that opens all the doors.

Anyway this was the second time to come to the Big Apple and we were to stay for a while……

It’s been a while since I last posted and that is because I went on a little trip to Los Angeles to celebrate our youngest grandchild’s first birthday and time flies, as we all know. But this is as good an occasion as any to introduce them to you…

 

This is Amara on her birthday… March 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amara ready to go to town and on the right her mammy around the same age in Paris

She is not wearing lip gloss but drinking milk, soooo pretty, I could make 1000 pix of her

And this is Dashaun, 5 years and a real actor and great model, loves to be photographed.

And finally Alijah, she is 12 and already as tall as me, 5.8, and poses like a professional, she has her style. For these pictures I made her up with false lashes and all which she loved but she did her own hair ( I would have liked it wild and natural but she likes to straighten it) and the green ear rings I made she wears to school and not only on St. Patrick day. She sings and dances like a natural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some photo shopping, can’t help myself, I am an addict.

Really could go on but this is enough for now I think, had a lot of fun doing them and hope you enjoy looking at them.

                                              Alijah made this picture of Amara,

                                 and we go back to LA in my next post in 1968……

 

… and there we went

Of course things are very different now then how things were in the 60’s or 70’s (where we are now in my story, 1968 to be exact) when the most important thing was to expand and discover your mind (at least for me and also for Salvador) and travel the world to see and live different cultures, discover the people, the good, the bad and the beauty of nature. Actually a lot of people felt like that, it was like a wave, spread out like that everywhere a bit. Now the wave is about money. Everything is in a hurry, faster and more controlled and that is scary, so money can save you, at least many think so and employ all kinds of ways to get it. Money can be a good thing but only when earned honestly and if possible with something you like and stand behind, but it is certainly not the most important thing….… To say it all in a different way ” I had enough” and that is true, did not care about the money I could earn, wanted to feel like a bird, not swim in the pool with the sharks, free to go anywhere and I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is to go somewhere without a return ticket and see what happens till a new place is calling…

We decided for Panama for some reason and took a boat from Milan with first stop Venezuela which did not look like a cool place to us, people called us aggressive words because of Salvador’s long hair and the way we were dressed, we did meet a wonderful girl who brought us to her home but back on board  we worried that Panama was much the same so we decided to get off at the next port which was Willemstad in Curacau. There the Customs kept us for hours and took off our Tape recorder (we traveled with an Akai of a considerable size), took off my magazines and our passports, went through all our luggage. They were mean and made me cry. They decided we could not stay so we had to take the next plane out, wherever it was going. No hotel would take us so we slept on a big table on the beach. The next evening the plane left for Prince-town, Jamaica, which sounded good to us but the customs were already waiting for us and they flipped over the way we looked, me in maxy fur coat and mini-dress and Salvador in leather jacket and long hair, they took one look and put us back on the plane that was now heading for George town in British Guiana where we arrived late at night, tired and hungry and they did not like us either so again back on the plane with as last stop Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. There we had to stay about a week because there was no plane leaving anywhere, again things and passports were taken off and they decided where we had to stay, very nice Hotel indeed but also very expensive and the only memory I have of that stay is that one day when we went to the pool, there was a commotion as a little boy (son of an ambassador) was laying on the bottom of the pool so Salvador dove in straight away and got him out and tried to revive him and gave him mouth to mouth but it was too late.… so sad.… his brothers were standing around in disbelieve and horror .… something like that you never forget.

Finally a plane is leaving with destination Belem, Brazil!

…And that felt straight away very different, we were of course paranoid but the customs were very kind and there we were.… Now what? Then we met in the airport this young man, traveler like us, who told us we should go to Parati and we should look up Jose Kleber, a poet and writer who lived there, and so we did. It was a long trip via Bahia, where it was raining and raining, no Barclay bank and we had to take a small boat that took hours along the coast to Parati, located between Rio and Sao Paulo, we stayed in Rio for a day or 2 but I did not like it, all the girls were after Salvador and we hardly could walk in the streets. Since I was very pregnant you can imagine what this boat trip was like for me but we got there after very long hours and what a place, our hearts cheered up, this looked like an incredible place and it was. We were guided to Jose straight away and it was as we knew each other since always and he gave us that beautiful old Portuguese house to stay and we became very good friends. Jose was one of those persons one never forgets but keeps in his heart with the fondest of memories, like I said he was a writer and he already had his problems with the government for speaking out but he was also a lawyer and he also had a bar ” El Valhaguto” which was beautiful, half without roof and trees inside.

 

This pictures were taken by Jose Kleber.

Every day we made   Fabada, The famous Brazilian Rice and beans, never forget, fry the bacon and the garlic, fry the rice, put water and red beans ….… Healthy and delicious, with a green salad at the side. We spend marvellous days, in the interview below they say we woke up each day at 4 in the afternoon but that is exaggerated, we went out to the beach and to the islands around, so beautiful and unspoiled. Salvador made an exhibition of drawings  and sold some so we could get around, there were some artists there and all together we had a great time

This came out while we were there

There was a bit of commotion in the village because of the plant Salvador is holding in the window picture…… and you have to know Portugese to read it.

Parati is of course still there and became a popular place which is logic because it is one of these places that have magic. Again there are many stories to tell (no place and time here) but after a few months it became clear that having the baby born there would not be that cool, there was no hospital and the stories we heard… so I had to go somewhere else and then we met Miquel, a French journalist who had come to Parati and he had friends in LA, I should go there… and Salvador was going with him making a reportage of the Amazon and take pictures from a helicopter for Paris Match. Salvador sold our Akai tape-recorder and I took the plane for LA with only the address of the friend of Miquel in my pocket and apparently she was going to pick me up….…

 

LOVE and PEACE

 

After Hamburg back to Morocco where we rode horses, Salvador wearing a white Burnous ( Moroccan cape) on a white horse and me with a black cape on a black horse trotting through Marrakech, must have been quite a sight. Now, I was actually scared to death of horses because as a child of about 6 I fell under a horse and he (or she) kicked me and bit me in my arm, it was very scary and for years I had nightmares that horses were following me up the stairs and the door to my house would not open. Of course I did not want to show Salvador I was afraid and I got on this young wild horse that began jumping up with his hind legs and tried in all kind of ways to throw me off but I was determent to stay on, YES! The funny thing is that a young man who was used to riding got thrown off and broke a leg just as he got on the horse after me to show me how… These were one of the most scary moments in my life as one day we went galloping into some wild dessert land, hair in the wind, burnous flying, Salvador far in front of me, when all of a sudden the horse stops and bends his forelegs trying to throw me off by bending his head and upper body down so I could very easily slide off or thrown off by the shock of the abrupt stopping and there in front of me I see an endless deep black hole and I really don’t know how, but I managed to turn the horse, wow, imagine falling in that hole which, they later told us, were abandoned wells, nobody would ever find you!

Next stop Marbella, wonderful, the best time of Marbella I think, great restaurants very nice people, beautiful scenery, beach… all that is very different now but is still Marbella of course and it was there that I found out I was pregnant. While in Spain this pictures came out that were originally published for Stern in Germany about my display dolls but here they say something completely different, such a fantasy, if you read Spanish….

With friends we went to Sardenia where we stayed for a little while in an abandoned school, very romantic, but the wind drove us to Milan where they were waiting for me to do some work before my pregnancy was going to show. Here are some of the pictures I did….

Love those Pucci´s!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the street we met an Italian friend of Salvador, a young man with a camera and he took this picture which I  like very much….…

.…A while later we went to check out Rome and again we met this young man who gave us the picture and asked us to pose for him with clothes of a friend which he later would try to get placed, we had all a very good time, met plenty of artists living in an incredible old Palace. This photographer is Carlo Orsi, now famous and doing great pictures for all the big magazines. Here are the pictures, they did get published…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am telling this storybecause it is so nice to know some of the excellent creators when they started. Toscani was one of them, the first times I worked with him he made his living room of the small apartment he and his wife were living into a studio and there is Arthur Elgort who took pictures of us in the streets of NY and in Paris whenJean Paul Gaultier was just starting and he designed for Reveillon Furs I worked with him and he told me that he could choose the model and he had chosen me, (what honour) already then I knew he was going to go very far by the way he was styling me, and he is still one of my very favourite designers and is funny how such a memory stays with you so vividly.… Then there was Thierry Mugler and Montana and the wonderful Alaiia, just fresh, first collection! Gianni Versace´s first collection was big time and he had chosen me to open the show by coming down on a swing, then there are hairdressers and make up artist that became famous… Yes,…reminiscing, sorry I talk mostly about myself but there are a few reasons for that, first of all I am the one I know most about and because I lived already quiet a while I have friends that are with me because they were there and other friend that would like to know because they were not there, but mostly because for once and for all I have to get my story straight and like this I am organizing pictures and memories before they are gone… still a long way to go…

This came out at that time ( the pictures are taken in Milan )in the Dutch Telegraaf, hollands biggest newspaper and if you read Dutch you can check it but it is all nonsense. In short they are saying that I am now becoming a millonair because of my display Dolls and it quotes me as saying that I am tired of being photographed and flying around the world so now I just want to be on a beach… and that was true and thats where we are going next…. My little bank book works fine but stick with me on that one…

LOVE and PEACE