Ah, beautiful Paris in spring!

It is March 1973 and Paris looks gorgeous and inviting. Of course first things on the list were: find a place and let my agency know I am in Paris. At first we stayed with our friend Cooky Debidour and we checked the “for rent” lists, ideal would be an “Atelier de Artist” ( Artist Studio) and so we found an agent to look for us and they sent us to our first appointment that looked interesting because it was a little house surrounded by a garden. When we saw it we liked it although it was not very big, 2 floors and not very light but very nice,  so we thought to maybe take it. But then a young woman came looking at it as well and she fell completely in love with it and she begged us to let her have it because she had already seen so many places and this was the one!  We asked her if she had seen an Atelier d’ Artist and she said YES! 11 Rue de Douai, fantastic place, really good for you! We told her to hang on and went to see the address she had mentioned and we on our turn fell in love with that place when we saw it. A beautiful old elevator brought us to the 4th floor and we could not believe the beauty of it all, a big artist studio with an enormous skylight, an incredible wooden sculpted fire place so big you could stand in it, a grand entrance which was actually a room, a lovely kitchen, a very big bathroom and a very nice bedroom with  big French windows, very high ceilings and a white marble fire place, that did not work but looked good. Double doors would open to the studio which besides the skylight also had 2 big windows to the street so the light was impressive. The entrance and the kitchen had both big windows to the courtyard, OK! My heart was booming, what a place, unbelievable! But to our big disappointment the lady said NO, she did not want to rent it to us. That was a blow and we started depressed going down the stairs. She must have felt how sorry we were because halfway between the third and second floor she called us back and asked Salvador if he was a painter and when that was confirmed everything changed, we went back up and heard the story of her father who was a painter and had build this studio ( and the whole building) in around 1890 and the whole building was hers and she herself lived in an other part higher up that in the olden days had been connected to the studio and that’s why there was this beautiful stairs and balcony there.

Alejandro and his friend Apple Sackman on the balcony

Now we were so happy, finally our own place, right in Pigalle near Place Clichy ( Moulin Rouge). A very interesting area where a lot of artists had lived and still lived, easy walk to Rue Lepic with its marvellous market, walking distance to Gare St Lazare and the Opera. In short a great place! Now we only had to make sure we could pay the rent which was quiet a lot at the time.

Here you get an idea, I am sitting in the bottom corner on the left.

We had all our things, including our beautiful heavy Spanish table, beds that we had had made up, paintings, carpets and everything else sent from Madrid and when it all arrived and was put into place we were the happiest people on earth.

 

We stayed 8 years in Paris and did a lot of work so I have to divide that in several posts and honestly, at times it is difficult to remember exactly which year it was and I easily mix up 73 with 74 or 75 but that does not really matter I guess, It would be possible to do it exact but it would take a lot of time, so I hope you don’t mind.

Salvador started painting, it’s all he wanted to do, when friends came over he would continue working or make drawings of the friends,.

and made this wonderful painting of our bedroom.

Alejandro having a snack in the kitchen, look at that light!

Alejandro went to Ecole Bilinque in a beautiful place at Parc Monceau so he could learn to speak French and correct English. He spoke English already and Spanish but it was a good way for him to learn French. It was a very expensive private school and he was in the class with the son of Sophia Loren who I saw sometimes there picking up her son like other mothers. Alejandro looked so cute with his dark blue uniform and his big schoolbag. After a year or 2 when he spoke French fluently we thought it was ridiculous to pay so much money every month as he was already a full-blood Bilinque and the school was nothing special, just very chic and in a wonderful place, loved the Parc Monceau. Later he went to a Rudolf Steiner school and those, yes, are very special.

I myself was still with “Models International” and my first booking was with Helmut Newton for French Vogue….

In the Tiger Balm Gardens ( Singapore). I am wearing a little vest I made of gold brocade and black velvet ribbons, lined with bright yellow satin, the blouse is of bright cyclamen (pink/purple) soft thin silk and the skirt remade from an original dark red hand woven satin silk and gold Indian skirt, 2 silver belts. Alejandro is wearing bright green satin pants.

In order to get our visas we had to stay a week or two in Singapore and found ourselves a wonderful old fashioned Hotel with beautiful rooms decorated with original antique Chinese furniture although it was not a hotel De Luxe, rather a “has been”, in the downtown part. Singapore was only the beginning of what it is now and the difference between the modern High-rises and the old old part, was striking. It was also very dirty under all the facades. It was here we celebrated the end of 1971 and stepped into 1972. It was very funny when on that evening we were sitting on a terrace and 2 good friends from Spain are passing by. Neither of us had any idea we were there. Alfonso O’Lasso and Kemal, still see the picture in my mind as it was very unexpected.

Drawing Salvador did of Alfonso there

On the other hand Alejandro and me got very sick, I mean very sick and I know why. One afternoon strolling the streets and markets we smelled that delicious smell of veggies frying in a wok and yes, indeed there was this little stand on the street corner, very common then and there, with a man frying veggies in a wok! We were hungry and ate it all… Whatever it was that caused it, it was there and it was serious, acute hepatitis, both of us, my poor Alejandrito.

extremely elegant

We had to go back to Delhi, had our return tickets and all our treasures there. Back in Delhi we stayed in a nice Hotel and Alejandro and I were so sick, in the heat with blasting fever, I could not move but saw him from my bed, he was so brave, I remember it well. At a point we could move and went to see a doctor who gave me enormous injections of Vitamins and that was very scary, they were so big and were they clean? And what was it?Looked to me like orange juice but I guess it helped and slowly started to feel a bit better. Alejandro recuperated much faster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am wearing one of this marvelous hand embroidered coats from kasmir and the golden brocade boots with snake leather I had made up in Delhi.

As soon as we could we took a flight to London where we stayed a few weeks to recuperate and get back from yellow to my normal color. We had sent all our treasures by boat from Delhi to NY. somewhere near the Canadian border as we wanted to go to Canada. It was a very interesting time in London, Tony and Susan Kent were there to produce a play with people they brought over from India and Rufus of the Living Theater was involved as well. Then there were our dear friends Dick Polak and his wife Edina ( Ronay) with whom we spend a lot of good times but by now our luggage had arrived at the other end of the world so we went. Wow, I don’t know how we did it, fly there take a  train to get our luggage and from there take the train to Vancouver(Canada) which took 3 days and 2 nights but it first had to cross the border, and that was scary because the Customs took us of all the people to be searched, and we had to open all our cases and as we had some presents for friends that were not allowed, we spent 2 scary hours that it took them but ( sigh of relief) we are on our way again in this long Double Decker train that shows us snow and more snow, snow on the Rockies, snow on the fields – It’s winter in Canada…

Love this drawing Salvador did of me in Singapore.

When we got booked for a few English magazine jobs in Marbella (1970-1971) it was a good time for us to leave Ibiza because we had decided to go to India & we needed enough money to stay there for a while…no plans as to how long or where from there, we just wanted to go. We left out treasures with friends as we planned to come back at a point…

Above and below some of the pictures by John Bishop in Marbella.

From Marbella to Milan, Italy, to do some serious modelling and I did, but have no pictures of that time. Ricardo Gay was my agent and I remember working a lot with Toscani and Aldo but…

Love this picture of Alejandro that Salvador took in Milan

and this one that he took on a trip to Morocco

We were booked for a photo shoot in Morocco with Tony and Susan (Bottomly) Kent, who had become good friends in Paris where we went after Milan and from where we planned to take off to India. Tony Kent was a famous photographer in Paris and I had met Susan before when I had come to Paris from London for work with Newton. I met her when I was sitting that spring morning on the Terrace of “The Deux Margots” ( beside the Flor) and I saw this incredible looking young woman crossing the street, short silky dress blowing in the breeze, high heel sandals, a little doggie in her arms and a raven black shuffled hairdo. She came straight towards me and set down beside me and introduced herself: Susan Bottomly. ( International Velvet of the Warhol Factory ) This was before I had met Nico in Ibiza but the 2 Factory girls both came up to me just like that, funny now that I realise that. Susan is still a good friend and she is still incredibly beautiful. Anyway we went to Marrakech for a photo shoot with Tony and Susan and we had a great time there while working and being together all of us friends, Paula Moore was the third model and Olivier Boelen , dear Dutch friend, kept everyone entertained.

Beautiful picture Tony Kent did of us.

We were going to go via Brussels to Delhi and had to buy the tickets in Belgium, but because we had an accident on our way from Brussels back to Paris, see Salvador’s story, we had to stay in Paris much longer then anticipated as Salvador had a broken ankle and could not walk. We rented a place and I worked with Helmut Newton almost every day  and also did some commercial jobs in Germany, a very busy time, cooking vegetarian meals which always took somehow a long time to make, taking care of Salvador who could not move much but could take care during the day of Alejandro as I was working a lot and sometimes had to take planes very early in the morning and come home tired but of course we were young and full of energy and plans…  My agency at that time was Models International, which was found by Simone d’Aillencourt and Christa Fiedler, (she is the mother of  Isabelle Marant), 2 incredible women indeed. They both had been very big models, especially Simone who was in all the magazines when I was still in school, always so elegant. They were good agents, like I said I worked a lot.…

Series for French Vogue by Helmut Newton ( with Alejandro).

 

 

Pictures by Helmut Newton for Nova

It was wonderful, we had a good time but now are going on the road again, see you in India!

Las Palmas

Via Madrid we went to Canary Islands to arrange Salvador’s papers and stayed a few months, first in Las Palmas  and from there to one of the other 7 Islands called Fuerte Ventura. This was an amazing ancient place which looked deserted with lots of sand and a few palm trees, incredible rocks that looked prehistoric. We lived in a wonderful little house overlooking the endless sea but that was it, there was not much more, one old cinema and some fisher men so after a while it started to feel lonely and after hearing some friends of ours were in Ibiza we decided to go there. Ibiza was known since the 50’ies as a place where artists went to find the peace and beauty they were looking for. In 1970 it was still quiet unspoiled and still quiet empty although already there were a lot of foreigners. Ibiza is a very special Island with marvelous farmhouses which one could rent or buy for next to nothing (not anymore) and of course the fact that many artists were there made it highly interesting.

In the year we spend there we made many friends who are still our friends unless they left this world. We designed clothes, baked in the sun, (never heard of sunscreen then) had full moon parties and vegetarian dinners and the daily morning coffee at the Montesol. Some photographers came there to shoot summer editorials or I sometimes was booked on a trip to Africa for English Magazines and I went to the Ivory coast and Kenya.

 the Ibiza market

I was loving all the herbs that grow there and collected them in glass pots which were later taken away by the police for laboratory tests to see if that was Marijuana, which was not the case but still I was taken to the police station and had mug shots done for nothing and it even haunted us all the way to Canada years later when we thought to become Canadian but could not because of our police record in Ibiza which like I said was for nothing… The fact that Salvador was Spanish in this whole group of foreigners made the police look after us extra hard. Our friend Nancy Mehagian had a vegetarian restaurant together with her friend Sharon, called the Double Duck and we spend many a day there. Nancy is still cooking and also wrote a book . Then there was Cooky Debidour who became my closest friend, Edina Ronay and Dick Polak, also very close friends still and Karl Ferris the photographer who immortalized that time in Ibiza and his wife Anke who made the best veggieburgers, Raymond Steiner who is a photographer and film maker and his lovely wife Maree, Birgitta Bjerke the all time Queen of crochet and others, Also there were visits of some outstanding people like Jony Mitchell, ( Salvador drew her portrait) and Taj Mahal the great Blues man with whom we are still in contact as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magazines came to photograph us, Italian Vogue and the American Look magazine wrote articles and Deborah Turberville passed by and made pictures of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not to forget Nico ( The velvet underground) and that was very special because when I was home sitting outside on the porch one day, Salvador was not there at that moment, when I saw from far away someone coming through the field of Almond trees, a blond apparition that when getting closer I realized was Nico, she had heard about us and came to visit, just like that all by herself. I have been a fan of Nico always and still am, she was very special and I was thrilled she came to visit so to celebrate I made a big joint of hashish, yes that was all part of it in that time, and we smoked until she fainted right there. It was a bit scary because I did not know what to do but thank heavens it did not last long and we could laugh about it. Anyway there are many stories but not to be told here, just want to show you pictures of the things we made, Salvador’s work you can admire( I do) in Alegria’s Blog who is writing all about Salvador and his work and some of the pictures he made of me and our son Alejandro which are among my favorites.

Picture by Salvador Maron

We designed these wooden sandals and had them made up by a local carpenter, than hand painted them in all kind of patterns and colours.

The sewing machine was in the house already waiting for me and since we had no electricity this was perfect, the suit Salvador is wearing was made by me as well.

Loved that coat, velvet with leather applications, the bag was also one of our designs

The leather vest on the right was a typical example of what I was doing, lots of applications of snake and gold leather on suede, wish I had it now!

The golden bra I found in a vintage store in NY.                                        family self portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

… and I would not go anywhere without my YSL platform sandals, never mind it was almost impossible to walk with them on that Ibiza roads. Only when it rained or had rained we wore our own wooden sandals which kept your feet out of the mud.

“>My leather T shirts, here in gold of course. OMG wish I could make them now.

Ok, we are leaving Ibiza and are on our way to Marbella, and then Milan…… but that I tell you next time.

On one of our outings to Central Park a young man approached us and introduced himself as a Wall Street Genius, because they had said so in the papers as he was the youngest ever to make a million that fast.  He loved the way we looked and would we be interested to make clothes and sell them? Yes, we were! So soon our apartment was full of leather and studs and a sewing machine and every thing else we needed.

 We also got an assistant who would drive us around in a red convertible MG to get us whatever we needed and we started cutting and sewing, Salvador designed the vest I am wearing in the painting and I made it up of colored snake leathers and gold and silver and above a picture of me in my pink Star jacket, I have a monkey on my lap which is hard to see and I don’t remember where it came from, funny. When I look at it now I see we were very influenced by America and their super heroes…

 Below picture of what was my SKY jacket, you could snap the skirt on or off, love to make clothes with options and often make things reversible. I decided not to line any of the clothes but feel the leather on your skin and it behaves better around your body…

Remember I told you about Olé, the actor of the Living Theater who was staying with us around that time, this is him in the picture below. He liked to sew and one day made a pants for himself which was so hard and stiff it could stand up by itself. It was an amazing sight , this shiny red pants (patent leather) standing in the middle of the room, will never forget that image. Jimmy is no longer on this planet but we remember him fondly.

We got some publicity, here the New Yorker with pictures of Caterine Millinaire

and an article in the German Twen (hottest avant-garde magazine at that time) with pictures by Anders Holmquist
We sold our designs to 2 stores: The Whip and Flukes, Best By and Co and this picture came out in Vogue:

A wrap around Butterfly and the all American Eagle

I know that Bill King did a color picture for Bazaar of the vest that’s in the painting, saw it but don’t have it, the girl that was photographed in it told me that he loved the piece. Nice! I love his pictures.

 We made a lot of leather clothes especially long coats and pants so when we went to Woodstock we were from head to toe dressed in leather, looking great but once we had found a place in the middle of that sea of people as far as your eyes would reach, it started to rain, but I mean rain! It did not stop the whole night and leather when it gets wet is unbearable, heavy and uncomfortable, so when the rain did not stop the next day either, we decided to leave, which was easier said then done. To pass through that crowd of thousands of people was something else, and I don’t remember how we got there but I do remember what it was trying to get out and walking miles and miles along the road full of parked cars… feeling dizzy because of not sleeping, hungry and wet. Don’t really remember very well who and what we saw but it was an incredible feeling to be there and it also was a great feeling to get out of there.

 We came out in this book… the picture was taken in Central Park, check Salvador’s pants.…

All together it was a great time with lots of funny things happening, like the young man from Wall Street brought us a gun one day, for our protection I guess but it made us paranoid so we flushed the bullets (there were 2 of them) in the toilet ( can you imagine)? And friends made a short movie of us throwing the gun in a river. Sometimes we would go and visit Salvador Dali and Amanda Lear on Sunday afternoons when they would receive friends in their Hotel suite, Salvador knew Amanda Lear from Marbella ( later in Spain I made a short movie directed by Salvador Dali) and well, like I said; crazy times but we also worked, Salvador painted, the clothes we made together and in between I was working as a model of which I will talk about next time…

 

LOVE and PEACE

Somewhere at the end of 1968 we arrived in

and we rented a room in the Chelsea Hotel we had heard about in LA, it was a place where artists, writers, painters, musicians, actors were staying and it was a wild place. New York itself was a wild place, like a jungle, with so much going on. We soon found a place of our own, 92nd, between Fifth and Madison, just a few steps to Central Park and exactly where the Guggenheim is. It was a great place, there even was a garden, we did not realize how lucky we were and all that for $250 a month. We soon became familiar with the scene and made friends or met friends we knew from other places.

Salvador in front of Kansas city which was THE place to meet and have this wonderful salads and steaks….

Salvador knew the actors of the Living Theatre he had met in Rome and Paris and who were now performing in NY. We would hang out with them quiet a bit and one of the actors, Jimmy Tirov ( alias OLÉ ) of whom I will talk later, even stayed with us for a while. They were extra ordinary people and we met others,Andy Warhol who interviewed us, the cast of Hair, great photographers and models, designers like Paul Ropp as well as a real life bank robber who was actually a very kind person and he told us he never wanted to be caught but rather be shot( he was shot later), police, lawyers and the whole bit. There were crazy parties, almost everybody we knew was into mind expanding and many drugs were available for that, especially LSD. There are many stories and adventures (not to be told here in the Cyber jungle) but I do like to show you the things we did, Salvador painted, we designed leather clothes ( next Blog) and I modeled for the American Magazines ( the next next one ). In the meantime we went for walks in the park and the streets with the baby and on one of these occasions a young photographer asked us if he could make pictures and that was Arthur Elgort, now a known fashion photographer.

                                     with our friend Miroslava, photo Arthur Elgort

We loved the photo booth and had great fun making pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 or making test shots with young unknown photographers, which are among my favorite ones of all the pictures I did… mostly because I was wearing my own clothes…

New York 1969 was quiet a year with somewhere in the middle Woodstock, where we went… it was a great year, it was a mind blowing year, it was an exciting year for New York and for us…

OH, and not to forget I saw Greta Garbo! I was looking at some pictures of a film theater and felt someone looking at me and when I turned I saw it was Greta, she looked me straight in the eye then turned and disappeared… I am since always a great fan of hers…

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……