China Machado
| China Machado | |
|---|---|
| Born | Noelie Dasouza Machado |
| Occupation | fashion model, editor |
China Machado ( Noelie Dasouza Machado) is a former fashion model, an editor and television producer. She is the first non-Caucasian to appear on the cover of a major American fashion magazine, in the February 1959 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.[1]
Life
Machado was born in Shanghai, China. Her father was Portuguese and her mother was Chinese. After World War 2, her family settled in Argentina and then Peru. At the age of 19, she met the Spanish bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguín.[2] She was with Dominguín for almost two years.
When the relationship ended, she moved to Paris and found work modeling for Hubert de Givenchy.[3] At this time she changed her first name to China (pronounced CHEE-na). She later worked for Christian Dior and Balenciaga. During this time, she became the highest-paid runway model in Europe, earning $1,000 a day.[4]
In 1957, she married the actor Martin LaSalle. (They divorced in 1965.) The couple eventually settled in New York City where Machado met Diana Vreeland and through Vreeland, Richard Avedon, with whom she developed a very close friendship and calls a "great mentor in her life".[5] Avedon declared that she was “probably the most beautiful woman in the world.” [6] His photographs of her were the ones used in the February 1959 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Machado's modeling success opened the door "for generations of models of color, from Iman and Naomi Campbell to Jourdan Dunn and Sessilee Lopez."[7]
Carol Squiers, curator of New York’s International Center of Photography, describes an Avedon picture of her: “She’s this sort of soigné, devil-may-care woman who’s all fixed up and very proper, but she also has this slight attitude, like: You don’t like it? Tough."[8]
In 1989 she was added to the International Best Dressed List, founded in 1940 by Eleanor Lambert.
Machado eventually became an editor at Harper's Bazaar, followed by other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television.
She lives on Long Island, New York with her current husband, Riccardo Rosa.[9] She has two children, Blanche and Emmanuelle.[10]
References
- Foley, Briget (March 2010). "China Machado: Legendary model and Avedon muse China Machado has still got it.". W Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- Yuan, Jada (14 August 2011). "I Didn’t Think of Myself As Good-Looking at All". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
External links
- Cowles, Charlotte (29 August 2013). "China Machado: Avedon’s Muse Talks Modeling at 83". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- Mackay, Mairi (24 October 2011). "China Machado: The woman signed as a model at 81". CNN. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- Mulkerrins, Jane (5 March 2013). "China Machado on her fabulous life". Telegraph.UK. Retrieved 2 January 2014.