Carmen Dell’Orefice Turns 80!

A toast to Carmen Dell’Orefice, the world’s oldest working model, who last week had her 80th birthday. Here’s to timeless beauty. She first appeared on the cover of Vogue in 1947, and she’s only gotten more beautiful. Here’s to overcoming obstacles in life. Even as a famous young model, she made so little money that she was known to roller skate to her bookings to save on bus fare. In the 1980s, as a long-established model, she lost her fortune in the stock market, and so she was forced to part with her modeling photographs that were taken throughout her career by selling them at Sotheby’s. And most recently, in 2008, she was swindled out of what was remaining by Bernie Madoff. She sold her story and personal photographs she had of Madoff to Vanity Fair for their cover story about the pillaging Ponzi-Schemer. Here’s to classical elegance. She still graces the runways of designers Alberta Ferretti, Adrienne Vittadini, and many others, with her now signature shock of white hair cut into the perfect bob. And here’s to aging with grace. Here’s to octogenarians rocking the runways. Here’s to finding your passion, and living it to the fullest. Here’s to Carmen Dell’Orefice.