There is no place like home and although it had been fantastic staying in the country, it was great to be home again and have all our own things around. I had it clear what I wanted to do so I called my close friend Cooky Debidour as I knew she would be open to undertake something with me and explained the idea about the Tunic I had in mind. In my travels I had seen it in many different forms and from more than 2000 years ago till now women and men have been wearing Tunics so it must be OK. I always loved it because it looked so comfortable and colorful and now I wanted to do my own interpretation simply because I wanted to wear it myself. So this classic, interpreted by me, became a wide Tunic with open neck and a small Chinese collar always lined in a different color as well as the cuffs on the inside of the sleeves. The Tunic was not that long, more like an over sized shirt till the knees, apart from the sleeves which were not too wide and long because that is not comfortable. Then there was the pants which actually came in 3 or 4 sizes + a one size fits all but the fitting ones were great, very good cut I was proud of and very smart looking with just a T shirt. The Tunic was “one size fits all” ( it really did) and in at least 8 different colors and different materials which all would be possible to mix together. It came with a belt as well that was 3 yards long so you could wrap it around several times or use it for something different like a wash line to hang your laundry.

 We made this poster for all the shops that was selling our “Tunique Unique” and I am sorry I don’t have it in color, lost almost all the pictures and my press book full of newspaper and Magazine cuttings from all over the world, but I have a few to show you here.

 It was very hard work, first design and make up name-tags, look for the materials in different shops in Rue Goutte d’Or where it always smelled of heads of lamb they were grilling outside, negotiating for the best price because the same thing in an other store was prized differently. We found this lovely flowered materials from China in many wonderful colors and for the moment there was a lot of it. OK, now the pattern, which I made, also of the pants in my size but they had to be professionally sized in 4 different sizes and once that done we had to find an atelier ( workshop) where they would actually make them. Here came a problem because in every place we looked into told us we had to have them make a certain amount of pieces that was much too much for us and quiet impossible because we were starting small! We ended up, via via, with a small Atelier of Turks ( people from Turkey) that had no working permits but they could sew very well although they were all men and they would do anything we asked for a reasonable price. This place was in Belleville , a part of Paris not so Belle, and there in a small apartment they had a workshop set up with some sewing machines and tables to cut the materials and where they would sleep on at night. They would cook and fry on a tiny stove right there on the cutting table, with lots of grease and honestly we had to hang out the clothes and air them for at least a day before we could send them away because they also all smoked like trains and hardly ever opened a window. One time when Cooky and I went on inspection there I really literally fainted. We had to overlook all the time because they could make the most incredible mistakes like cutting the opening of the collar in the back instead of the front, which is not the same thing and since they were always cutting a whole bunch at the same time… We were wrestling with all that when the orders started to come in…

Anna Piaggi did this very nice thing in Italian Vogue and Tracy Weed (model that became photographer) made the pictures and between Ana and Karl Lagerfeld they organised these wonderful personalities as models and they each had a different take on it…

This is only a photocopy of a photocopy but I enlarged some here so you can see a little bit better how each one wears it her or his way… here are the links to all of them,       Tracy Weed, Heidi Moravetz, Emanuela Papatakis, Loulou de La Falaise, Joan J.Buck, Paloma Picasso, Anja Lopez, Jacques de Bascher, and below the pictures a bit bigger:

Emanuela Papatakis

Heidi Moravetz

Jacques de Bascher

Joan J.Buck

Loulou de La Falaise

Paloma Picasso

me

 Cooky and I packed our bags full and went selling to the model agencies, it was crazy we sold a lot even that it was not that cheap but everybody wanted it and so easy to sell because it would always fit, except the pants and if we did not have the size in stock we would make it up in a few days but it was mostly OK because all the colours looked nice together so if there was no blue in a particular size well, then green would do or yellow or red…

 with Cookygoing out to sell,

some pictures were taken for news papers… here in the elevator of our place,

and have to tell a lot more  but that is for the next post…

Its 1977 and I am 36 and Salvador became 29. 

This picture by Laurence Sackman in 1976 just for us with our own clothes…

I used to make or remake  blue Jeans and other pants for Salvador .…

oh, and don’t forget to check out Alegria’s blog to see what Salvador is doing…

LOVE AND PEACE

Being a model was great but I had and have many other interests and the modeling had become much less exciting for me, never worked with Helmut after he had a heart attack and now it had become like working for the money most of the time and doing jobs I was not really interested in.  It is hard to work with a photographer who shoots between 200 and 300 pictures for the same outfit and thought, because they booked me, they could make pictures like Helmut Newton. Also there were many new fresh beautiful faces around to fill the pages of the Fashion magazines and France is not that big to have a lot of work for all the models that were flocking to Paris. Everything changes and now I was doing more commercial jobs and mostly in Hamburg or Milan which meant a lot of flying and not being home much which I did not like and although the money was good that was not a good enough reason for me either. Loved to do the Fashion shows so I kept doing that still for years but slowly started to work less and think more of designing or making Fashion illustrations. Salvador was working very hard on his paintings and it was just so fantastic to be home and draw and sew. First I took a dress I had designed and made years earlier in Ibiza, remade it with material available in Paris and made pants to go with it and I got Pierre d’Albie, who had several shops that were doing great, have me make a small collection for him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

left Ibiza 1971… right the version for Pierre d’Albie 1975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It lasted a while and he sold it well but I had to compromise, like putting his name in the garment, (which is actually very common) and they started to tell me what to do and there it gets difficult for me…

I rather imagined beautiful coats of silk and velvet

Lots of things were going on, Salvador was very inspired and was painting all the time,

whether people were there or not, and Alejandro was now in a very nice “Montessori” boarding school so we had to buy a car, which is a crazy thing in Paris where we were living, impossible to park even then, so much easier to take a taxi or a bus or even the metro. In any case the school was a bit outside of Paris in Meulem as I remember well and so every Monday morning and Friday afternoon we brought and took him there in our new green VW. In the meantime I divided my time between modeling, drawing and sewing and of course taking care of the house and everything that goes with it.

It was a very exciting time because of what Salvador was doing and you can see all of that HERE, click!

Here some pictures of my favourite models Apple and Alejandro

and I also made plenty of pictures of Salvador which again you can see on Alegria’s Blog and except for professional reasons, no one took a picture of me except the photo-booth near Place de Madeleine,which made very good pictures, personally some of my favourites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo booth 1975

We are still in 1975 here and I am 34 and very conscious that life is full of choices one has to make, and the trick is to make the right one so as far as I am concerned I follow my heart and try to be true to myself, but who am I and what do I want?? For me that is the question worth investigating and takes a lifetime and for what? For me to be at Peace, because being at Peace will allow me to feel free, free from all the burdens that I accumulated in my head as well as the material ones. I am at a point where less is more and realise that I need little to posses, my eyes can take in everything that gives me joy and inspiration and just a flower can lift my spirits and of course I love beautiful things but prefer to create them…

yes, life is a trip…

Don’t forget to check Alegria’s BLOG with Salvador’s story
LOVE and PEACE

THE SHOW IS ON…

Something new was going on in the Paris Fashion world. Up till now the ” Haute Couture” Fashion shows were presented by the “House” models, beautiful girls with long slim bodies and a lot of patience who were there everyday to do the fittings, as the models were made on them and later when sold, would be made up in the size of the buyer. As far as I can remember Yves Saint Laurent was the first to have “photo-models” or “cover girls” to show his Haute Couture collection together with the House models. And I was one of the first to be invited to do so, maybe even the only one because looking at the pictures of the shows I only see the girls I knew where always there. One thing is for sure, I loved it. Then came the “Pret a Porter” and some great models started to walk the catwalk. When I first saw Jerry Hall fresh from Texas at YSL, I was very impressed by her beauty, still very young with that long blonde  hair that she was whipping while walking, Pat Cleveland full of energy and her very personal beautiful movements, Grace Jones was there too and many other beauties who were the “House models” that were there always, Nicole Dorier, Vesna Laufer, Mercedez, Ana, Violetta, Mounia, Khirat and others and of course the clothes were beautiful. At the same time many new young designers were coming up, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Kenzo, Issy Miyake and even Jean Paul Gaultier was still in the very beginning when he was produced by a man from India and he could not afford to pay the models but instead gave us all an outfit from the show, the amazing thing being that many of the best models did it, me because I always believed in him. Then there was of course Karl Lagerfeld for Clhoé and also his own line and a little later Azzedine Alaiia with his first Fur collection. It is so funny looking at it now because then we were just there and saw it happen, the shows were getting more exciting and it became so popular that people would be pushing by the hundreds to get in, Bill Cunningham, now famous, was always there making street pictures, always good to see him, was a tradition almost. We were a few that were doing all the shows and remember running from one show to an other with Pat Cleveland and Ana ( I forgot her last name but she was always there) and arriving in a hurry, a bit late because we could not find a taxi, excitement, make up, hair, screams, nerves and ready to go as cool as if nothing had happened. In that time we were few and so we had to change 6 or more times and we walked how we felt best, now they have a lot of girls and they show one piece and they all more or less walk the same as far as I can see. From all the shows, something like 30 a season, I particularly liked to walk the shows of YVES SAINT LAURENT

 with Yves after a show

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clothes, the music, the audience, it all made you feel beautiful. sometimes I was the first to come out and particularly remember the white suit (far left),which was actually light pink, I was opening the show and the music went” isn’t she pretty, isn’t she wonderful” and you see in a flash Yul Brynner, Mick Jagger or Catherine Deneuve looking…it felt great. Catherine Deneuve came once up to me after a show and said; Vous êtes très belle! so I said; Aprês vous! It was fun, it was great, the compliments, the applause, the after parties, the feasts.

There were also shows in Milan coming up and the very first Gianni Versace show was a big thing with days of preparation as it all was going to be filmed… He had chosen me to open the show coming down on a swing from the ceiling… there were many others but Dolce and Cabbana did not exist yet, neither did Prada or Gucci have anything going on but Missoni was there and…  back to Paris where the Fashion world was booming and each was doing his or her thing. You can read about it in the book written by Alicia Drake called ” The beautiful fall” or in the book of Susan Moncur ” They still shoot models my age?” Each and everyone has his or her story. There was “Castel’s” and “Regine’s”, clubs that were very popular in the Fashion circles and there was lots of alcohol and drugs and although we had our share of smoking hashis, we never went to any of those clubs simply because we were a family and most happy at home and did not do the hard stuff, except for an occasional acid trip or a bit of coke at a party, it was always there and always available… People would come and visit us constantly and sometimes there was a whole South American band practicing… For me there was no place better than home. Later “The Palace” was created in an old Theater, big and beautiful and there yes we did go regularly, we even were part of the “The Prive” The VIP part of the Palace. Wow, there were some great parties in the Palace, thrown by either Yves St Laurent or Lagerfeld or for no reason at all and everybody sooner or later passed through there at a point, I even met Francis Bacon there….

Karl Lagerfeld made me the Clhoé Perfume Girl and I received for years boxes full of Clhoé products and Yves sent me this picture,

” For my very very dear Willie, who gave me many times the impression of my dreams becoming reality” Yves

Wow, that is beautiful and very thoughtful. Monsieur Saint Laurent, as everybody at the “House” very politely called him, was a very special person, with lots of Poesy and humor. Then there was Anne Marie Muñoz, a very special woman as far as I am concerned, who had a very important position at YSL,( she was the directrice) as she had been with him since always and I just love her. For me she is one of these persons that opens your heart when you meet them and for no apparent reason, we became friends and shared many great dinners at her home and will come back to her later…

We are still in the first half of the 70-ties and Salvador is working very hard on his paintings

Here photographed by Tony Kent for French Vogue Homme

and I am still standing in front of the camera’s in Paris, Milan, London or Hamburg…    and check Salvador here ☛ CLICK

LOVE AND PEACE