Mod60s

Modeling in Paris

In the mid summer of 1966 I was an art student, studying fashion illustration in New York City. Because I was so tall and thin, people were constantly encouraging me to try to be a model. I did not think I had a chance, but after a slow start I was accepted by the Ford agency and sent to Paris to pose for the magazines and walk the runway of Pierre Cardin and Jean Patou and others. I was under contract to Paris Planning.

The Paris Planning agency was on Rue Tronchet in Paris, near the Madelaine, a monumental church with columns. I remember going up an elevator into a beautiful, very Mod office, decorated in a very futuristic style with white walls, gleaming glass, plastic and chrome. They had an overhead slide show of all the models playing, projected on the wall, quite innovative at the time. Many of the top American models of the day were in the show. They had added my pictures from Mademoiselle.

Francois Lano, the owner was such a dear, so fastidious and good humored. He was dapper, elegant and well dressed with a little mustache, who treated the models as ladies. Maria was his partner. I remember they were measuring our hips. They were excited about sending me over to Pierre Cardin for a fitting. I would be modeling his spring 1967 Collection on the runway for private clients, exclusive buyers and the invited World Press. Diana Vreeland and all the top editors were going to be there, including my editor friends from Mademoiselle, Nonie Moore and Deborah Blackburn.

The photos were to be taken in the evening when the clothes could be borrowed from the designers. They had to be photographed quickly and sent back an hour later. Hundreds of couture dresses were being sent around Paris all through the nght by special messengers. Thew would appear in newspapers and magazines through the news bureaus, sometimes the very next day. By dawn all the dresses had to be back and put into order for the fashion show the next day. it was a frantic time, fraught with anxiety. Sometimes an important dress might be lost for awhile or delayed.

These pictures have resurfaced today in the book Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation.

In the evenings, Francois told me that Vogue Patterns had booked me for their selections from the Cardin Collection, as well as Dior and Patou, Yves St. Laurent and more, The photographer was Richard Dormer. Those pictures are on the Internet in several places today.

With all the new media attention, Cardin needed girls that would look good in the glare of the flashbulbs at the end of the runway. He decided he would have the current crop of new young American cover girls and editorial models. So the opportunity was opening up for more American photo models to conquer the sacred runways of Paris. Forget about the fact that we had no idea how to walk properly. None of us ever did runway in New York. All that mattered is that we would look pretty on camera.

The regular house mannequins were still used for private showings to the actual clients, the aristocrats and movie stars that could afford these super expensive one of a kind fabrications. They hated us for taking their places at the main press show, and we really couldn’t blame them. In New York, we had to put up with the influx of Swedish, Danish, German, Dutch, Swiss, French and British models, being imported by the Ford Agency. It was the survival of the fittest. Models were sent to Europe to get tear sheets from European magazines.

There were no model scouts, no great chains of modeling schools, no Internet to post your pictures to. If you wanted to be a model you could find out who was the best agent and send your pictures in. Ford used to get 1000 pictures a week from would be models.

About this time I met my lifelong friend, the irrepressible Susan Brainard. She was the best friend of Wallis Franken, who stayed on in Paris for years.

Gregg Nystrom is an artist living in Houston,
TX. All his life he has been fascinated with
drawing people, especially their faces. The
movie stars from Hollywood and the beauties
of the modeling industry particularly held his
interest. From the silent stars of the 1920s to
the modeling greats of the 1960s, they were all
inspirations to him. As a child, he always loved
miniature things, and this combined with his
fascination for drawing people has evolved into
his paper doll artwork which is now being
recognized around the world.

Having grown up in the 1960s, Gregg still
vividly remembers the bright colors and mod
patterns of the fashions and those things have
stayed with him. He has always been
interested in the models in the fashion
magazines, wanting to find out more.

SEE GREGG NYSTROM ON MINI MAD MOD 60S.COM

Author: Mod60s

Swiss Ads and Editorial

Paris in the 60s

Nystrom Paper Dolls

Helmut Newton 1972

HELMUT NEWTON 1972

Annie Liebowitz

Vanity Fair 1994

Peter Beard – Esquire 1994

Helmut Newton – Elle 1967