We couldn't afford to move, so we decided to start up a model agency.

Eileen Ford

Categorized in : Afford Up Start Model

I never worry about fat people worrying about thin people, because slender people bury the dead.

fat dead never people

I live in a wonderful world of make-believe. A world of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. A world of Winnie the Pooh and Edward Bear. Things like that. Wonderful things. Funny things.

live things funny world

I'm afraid to go to sleep; I don't like to lose control of myself. I don't like chauffeurs, either. I like to be in charge of my own destiny.

lose myself destiny sleep

I really prefer light-eyed models, They photograph more easily. Of course, I come from a light-eyed background, so maybe that influenced my taste.

background more photograph taste

American women mean a great deal to me. They're such lost souls, particularly the women of my generation. And women need so much help. They never have anyone to turn to. I help them understand how they can look better, how to do this, do that, get a job. And they're very trusting. Like little lost kids.

great look me women

Most of our models have just walked in off the streets, although I also find them on countless trips to Europe - particularly Scandinavia. I operate by instinct. It's a process I cannot explain, but the prettiest girl on the block is not always the best model.

best always girl process

I had a nice, pert nose but a plain round face and a mop of curly brown hair. That was not the photograph of a successful model.

face nice photograph hair

I got everything I wanted from my parents: Brooks Brothers sweaters and Spalding saddle shoes.

got parents everything shoes

None of the people I grew up with had identity problems. We all had perfectly marvelous lives.

problems up identity people

I feel that my ideas of beauty have been given very strong backing by Botticelli and a few others: Slender hands, long neck, long limbs - look at Nefertiti. She was very teensy-weensy with a long neck and wide-spaced eyes.

eyes look beauty long

My family believed I could do no wrong. That's probably why I have utter confidence in myself even when I shouldn't have.

wrong myself confidence family

The horrible thing about being me is that I have a very good eye about what people look like. Even me.

good look me people

I create a look, and I create a style.

create look style

I can't add above 10, I can't draw a stick figure, and I'm tone deaf. So I had to be able to do something. I found that something was picking successful models.

above something deaf successful

Grace Kelly was a very commercial model; she had no interest in being a fashion model. None at all.

she being fashion grace

I interview about three thousand models yearly, and I must see almost 20 tons of excess avoirdupois annually.

interview about see three

Our business was built on trust.

our built trust business

Most models are emotionally abandoned. They need me. I'm their mother.

need me abandoned mother

Models are a business, and they have to treat themselves as a business, which means they have to take care of themselves and give up all the young joys.

treat take-care care business

You never know when or where you will find the next new model, but you can bet someone from Ford Models will be looking.

looking new never you