I was the Kate Moss of my day, atypical of what the public wanted, which was Brigitte Bardot. I was always tall, skinny and angular. But now, society has bought 55 years of my marketing 'Carmen,' and I'm considered beautiful. I hope that empowers older women.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

Categorized in : Day Beautiful Hope Women

I have had more magazine covers in the last 25 years than I have had in my whole elongated career. [...] Today I am in a territory that business considers unmarketable: age and white hair. Slowly, however, I started to own that territory little by little because I stood up for age.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

careers hair years

My philosophy is the balance of remembering the past but not living in it, to know where you are in the moment, to project a little in the future and be ready to change. It's how you experience the grace to enjoy the smell of the pavement after a rain - the little things in life to make you satisfied. I never settle for anything that doesn't give me a modicum of pleasure if not total joy and satisfaction. It's allowed, that's what we're supposed to feel. How can we, from an empty cup, offer a stranger a drink of water? You have to fill that cup to the brim!

Carmen Dell'Orefice

rain philosophy past

When asked her view of cosmetic surgery, Carmen Dell'Orefice replies, '”That's a very polite way of asking me, I'm sure, ‘Have you had a facelift?' Well, if you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

Carmen Dell'Orefice

ceilings views fall

We're all works of art in progress.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

progress works-of-art art

Fashion is more about taste than money - you have to understand your body and tailor clothes to your needs; it's all about the fit. I do the alterations myself - I'm quite a seamstress - it's the influence of my Hungarian mother.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

clothes fashion mother

I didn't marry to have children. I married to have a relationship, and I was blessed with one child. I was an only child, too - my mother was smarter than most women today; she just had me.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

blessed mother children

There’s always a boyfriend... Whatever else I have to give up on, I won’t give up on love.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

i-wont-give-up giving-up giving

I'm a working woman of 80 trying to work out what the image I can project is. How I can do it with, you know, dignity.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

dignity work-out trying

As a model, I didn't have an identity; I was a chameleon, a silent actress. I was an amorphous thing. I wasn't full of personality, I was full of solitude and solemnity. I wasn't a cover-girl type.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

solitude girl personality

I don't live for stuff and things, and if I had to live in a cardboard box, I would put curtains on it.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

curtains boxes stuff

My life has been amazing. How many other ladies of 76 can say that the snapshot on their senior citizen's card was taken by Norman Parkinson?

Carmen Dell'Orefice

senior citizens taken

We were so poor that my mother would often leave me in a foster home until she could raise enough money to rent rooms for us.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

mother home rooms

My mother was harsh and constantly told me I had jug ears and heaven knows what else. But she was devoted and a hard worker.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

hard-work mother heaven

If you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

Carmen Dell'Orefice

ceilings rooms fall

The money I've earned has enabled me to keep my life in my own hands. I had a terrific body, and I got paid for using it.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

my-own body hands

The minute we don't finance the arts, the accountants, attorneys and politicians keep taking the cream of money off the top and it doesn't trickle down unless all of society understands that we must support the arts, whether it's ballet, opera, fashion. Fashion is like opera, is like ballet, is like theatre. It's a visual theatre.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

support fashion art

I was friends with Salvador Dalí until the day he died. Lucky me. I can't say why. I didn't live to be noticed, I lived to enjoy the excitement of doing right that day, and I knew I was doing it right when they would have me back. That was the thrill for me. I yearned to be validated because my mother was stern and I never did much right, that's how I perceived it.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

excitement lucky mother

I'm loath to do interviews. What comes out is generally not what I meant or thought I was saying or thought they were asking.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

interviews asking

If your ceiling is falling down, don't you call someone in? I apply the same principle to myself.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

ceilings principles fall

Even with a computer, I can't get rid of all the papers in my life.

Carmen Dell'Orefice

papers computer paper