China Machado
China Machado | |
|---|---|
 Machado in 1962. | |
| Born | Noelie da Souza Machado 25 December 1929 |
| Died | 18 December 2016 (aged 86) Stony Brook, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Fashion model, editor |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 2 |
Noelie Dasouza Machado (25 December 1929 – 18 December 2016), known as China Machado, was a Chinese-born Portuguese-American fashion model, editor, and television producer. She was the first non-white person to appear in a major American fashion magazine, in the February 1959 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.[1]
Early life and career[]
Noelie da Souza Machado was born in Shanghai, China to a Portuguese father from Macau and a Chinese mother.[2] Her maternal grandmother was from Goa. Her parents met in Hong Kong.[3] She spent the early portion of her life learning how to cook, sew, knit, and crochet.[4] After World War II, her family traveled to Argentina, Peru and Spain. At the age of 19, she met the Spanish bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguín. When the relationship ended, Machado moved to Paris and found work modelling for Hubert de Givenchy.[1]
According to Machado, she was asked to model for Balenciaga, but he was out of town, so they sent her to Givenchy instead.
They thought I was filling-in for a sick girl, so they grabbed me, put me in clothes, and threw me into the room where they were showing the collection. I barely knew anything about walking like a model, so I just copied the girl in front of me. At the end of the show, gorgeous Givenchy comes up to me and says, "Would you like to be in the cabine?" — that's what they called the group of models who worked for the house. That’s how it all started.[4]
She later worked for Oleg Cassini and Balenciaga. She worked for Givenchy for three years[4] and during this time, she became the highest-paid runway model in Europe, earning $1,000 a day.[3]
In 1957, she married the actor Martin LaSalle, the son of a diplomat, and a student of political science at the Sorbonne, whom she met in Paris. Nonetheless, for a year during their courtship, she left him for the Oscar-winning actor William Holden, returning to LaSalle to marry him. 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 called a "great mentor in her life". Machado and LaSalle had two daughters, Blanche and Emmanuelle. They divorced in 1965, after Machado had an affair with a friend of her husband's.[1] Avedon declared that she was "probably the most beautiful woman in the world." His photographs of her were the ones used in the February 1959 issue of Harper's Bazaar.[3]
It was 1958, and the publishers were saying, "We can't put this girl in the magazine. Everyone in the South will quit subscriptions and no one will want to advertise with us!" But they were published in February 1959, because — and I only found this out 20 years later—Dick had threatened to quit [his contract] if they didn't use them![4] Machado's modeling success opened the door "for generations of models of color, from Iman and Naomi Campbell to Jourdan Dunn and Sessilee Lopez."[3]
Machado worked for Avedon exclusively for three years before he got her a job as Harper's Bazaar's Senior Fashion Editor where, eventually, she became the Fashion Director[3] and ventured into other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television. In 1989, she was added to the International Best Dressed List.[5]
In 1991 she opened a gallery in Watermill, New York, when she left the fashion industry. Among the photographers who exhibited in the gallery were Hiro, Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Barbara Bordnick. The gallery closed in 1998, when she retired. She returned to modeling and the public eye at age 82 with an article in W[1] followed by interviews in the Spanish and German editions of Vogue, The Sunday Telegraph, and New York. She starred in an ad campaign for as well.[2]
Personal life, and death[]
Chinn had two daughters, Blanche and Emmanuelle, from her first marriage.[1]
Machado died on 18 December 2016, a week before her 87th birthday, at Stony Brook University Hospital from cardiac arrest.[6] She was survived by the two daughters, as well as by her second husband, Riccardo Rosa.[1]
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f Foley (March 2010)
- ^ a b Friedman, Vanessa (19 December 2016). "China Machado, Breakthrough Model Until the End, Dies at 86 (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Yuan, Jada (14 August 2011). "I Didn't Think of Myself As Good-Looking at All". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- ^ a b c d Into the Gloss (February 2014)
- ^ "The International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame: Women". Vanities. Vanity Fair. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Roberts, Kayleigh (15 December 2016). "Model China Machado Has Passed Away". Harpersbazaar.com. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
Sources[]
- Foley, Bridget (March 2010). "China Machado: Legendary model and Avedon muse China Machado has still got it". W Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- Weiss, Emily. "China Machado, Model". Into the Gloss. Retrieved 10 February 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". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- 1929 births
- 2016 deaths
- American female models
- Fashion editors
- Writers from Shanghai
- American people of Portuguese descent
- American people of Chinese descent
- People with acquired American citizenship
- Women magazine editors
- 21st-century American women