China Machado

China Machado
Born Noelie Dasouza Machado
Shanghai, China
Occupation Fashion model, editor
Known for Fashion model, fashion editor
Spouse(s) Martin LaSalle
Riccardo Rosa

China Machado (Noelie Dasouza Machado) is a former fashion model, an editor and television producer. She is the first non-white person to appear on the cover of a major American fashion magazine, in the February 1959 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.[1]

Early life

Machado was born in Shanghai, China. Her Portuguese father was from Macau, her maternal grandmother is from Goa. Her father met her mother in Hong Kong.[2] She spent the early portion of her life learning how to cook, sew, knit, and crochet.[3] After World War 2, her family traveled to Argentina, Peru, and Spain. At the age of 19, she met the Spanish bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguín.[4] She moved with him to Rome, where she had bit-roles in films, when she was 20[5] and was with Dominguín for almost two years.

Career

When the relationship ended, she moved to Paris and found work modelling for Hubert de Givenchy.[6] According to her, 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."[7] At this time she changed her first name to China (pronounced CHEE-na). She later worked for Christian Dior and Balenciaga. She worked for Givenchy for three years[8] and during this time, she became the highest-paid runway model in Europe, earning $1,000 a day.[9]

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".[10] Avedon declared that she was “probably the most beautiful woman in the world.” [11] His photographs of her were the ones used in the February 1959 issue of Harper's Bazaar. "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!"[12] Machado's modeling success opened the door "for generations of models of color, from Iman and Naomi Campbell to Jourdan Dunn and Sessilee Lopez."[13]

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."[14]

She 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[15] and ventured into other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television.

In 1989 she was added to the International Best Dressed List, founded in 1940 by Eleanor Lambert.

Personal life

She was married to French actor Martin LaSalle; they had two daughters: Blanche and Emmanuelle. Machado currently lives on Long Island, New York with her present husband, Riccardo Rosa. [16]

References

  1. ↑ Foley (March 2010)
  2. ↑ Yuan (14 August 2011)
  3. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  4. ↑ Foley (March 2010)
  5. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  6. ↑ Foley (March 2010)
  7. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  8. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  9. ↑ Yuan (14 August 2011)
  10. ↑ Foley (March 2010)
  11. ↑ Yuan (14 August 2011)
  12. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  13. ↑ Yuan (14 August 2011)
  14. ↑ Foley (March 2010)
  15. ↑ Into the Gloss (February 2014)
  16. ↑ Foley (March 2010)

External links

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