61 mins | Documentary, Urban
This movie is based on the true story of top supermodel Amina Warsuma, the first dark skinned African American model to go to Paris and become a top international fashion model in Europe. Karl Lagerfeld brought her to Paris and gave her two weeks to make it. Amina was an experiment, something new, and neither of them knew whether she would succeed or not. Yet Amina did become a success within those two weeks, and ended up staying in Paris for six months, becoming a supermodel throughout Europe that entire year.
Amina went to Paris as an unknown with no money and within a year became the biggest model in Europe, and she didn't stop there. She wore only clothing by Stephen Burrows, an American designer Parisians laughed at and mocked for his "carnival-like" and "bizarre" colors and cuts. American designers were not respected in Europe during Amina's stay there, and by showcasing them Amina was a walking billboard shouting that the American designers were coming. This was just the beginning, and Amina Warsuma was the signal of the great confrontation that was to come in the battle at the Palace Versailles in 1973. That night at the Palace Versailles changed everything. As a model, she became even more successful. The effects are still felt today economically thirty years later.
Director: Amina Warsuma
Writer: Amina Warsuma
Stars: Amina Warsuma
This movie is based on the true story of top supermodel Amina Warsuma, the first dark skinned African American model to go to Paris and become a top international fashion model in Europe. Karl Lagerfeld brought her to Paris and gave her two weeks to make it. Amina was an experiment, something new, and neither of them knew whether she would succeed or not. Yet Amina did become a success within those two weeks, and ended up staying in Paris for six months, becoming a supermodel throughout Europe that entire year.
Amina went to Paris as an unknown with no money and within a year became the biggest model in Europe, and she didn't stop there. She wore only clothing by Stephen Burrows, an American designer Parisians laughed at and mocked for his "carnival-like" and "bizarre" colors and cuts. American designers were not respected in Europe during Amina's stay there, and by showcasing them Amina was a walking billboard shouting that the American designers were coming. This was just the beginning, and Amina Warsuma was the signal of the great confrontation that was to come in the battle at the Palace Versailles in 1973. That night at the Palace Versailles changed everything. As a model, she became even more successful. The effects are still felt today economically thirty years later.
Director: Amina Warsuma
Writer: Amina Warsuma
Stars: Amina Warsuma
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00Hi, I'm Amina Warsuma, and welcome to my story about a black model in Paris.
00:00:16That would be me.
00:00:19It all started in 1972 when I was modeling in New York.
00:00:26I lived uptown with my family, and I had this urge to go to Europe.
00:00:32At that particular time, there weren't any black models in Europe at all.
00:00:37I mean, it was unheard of.
00:00:39The closest thing to a black model was Josephine Baker, but she was a nightclub dancer and
00:00:46showgirl, almost like Las Vegas.
00:00:49She brought Las Vegas to Paris.
00:00:53I had wished and wished and wished that I could go to Paris.
00:00:57I mean, that was just like a dream come true, with all the fashion and the great designers
00:01:03and the clothes, stuff that I couldn't ever afford, and the runways and the excitement.
00:01:13Paris was the fashion capital of the world.
00:01:16It was considered the fashion capital of the world then.
00:01:22New York was then Seventh Avenue.
00:01:25Now it's Fashion Avenue, but American designers weren't considered couture.
00:01:32They weren't considered designers.
00:01:34They were considered more ready-to-wear, sportswear, even though they were doing evening clothes
00:01:40and they were doing pillbox hats and they were doing fashion in the movies, but the
00:01:47French didn't consider them designers.
00:01:51So I went.
00:01:52I got a ticket from Karl Lagerfer, who was working for Khloe at the time.
00:01:58He was running Khloe, through Antonio Lopez, which I do have a photograph of.
00:02:05I'm in his book wearing a Stephen Burroughs pink lettuce gown, and Stephen was like one
00:02:11of the first to do the lettuce around the dresses and pants, the bottom pant leg would
00:02:19be lettuce.
00:02:21So Karl sent me a ticket, round-trip ticket.
00:02:26I came to Paris, they met me at the airport, they put me up in a hotel, and he told me,
00:02:32he said, you got two weeks.
00:02:35After two weeks, if you don't make it, you go back home, and I was like, oh my God.
00:02:42I was the only black woman that I saw in Paris.
00:02:48I saw Africans, but they weren't models, they were just walking the street from Africa.
00:02:59And when I got there, it was like this fantastic, the biggest thing that ever happened to me.
00:03:10I was like a dream come true.
00:03:13I had never been overseas, and all the excitement that was there was like, wow.
00:03:19I was only 17.
00:03:22Anyway, he said I had two weeks to make it.
00:03:28So I'm thinking, okay, how am I going to make it in two weeks?
00:03:31I'm there to do his show.
00:03:33He said, after that, I'm not going to support you.
00:03:39So, I did his show.
00:03:43And from that, I got with an agency called Crystal, at the time it was a modeling agency.
00:03:49From that show, all the press, all the newspaper, fashion people, from all over the world were
00:03:57at his show.
00:03:58And I walked out on that runway, and I instantly became a hit.
00:04:05Two weeks, I wind up staying six months in Paris.
00:04:08I worked for Courreges.
00:04:10I worked for Karl Lagerfer constantly.
00:04:15I worked for Dorothy Beas, and so many other designers.
00:04:19I found myself going from show to show.
00:04:23It was just fabulous.
00:04:26And I do have the pictures to show, and pictures will be shown throughout the tape of me in
00:04:33Paris and in Europe, walking the runway.
00:04:37Also in magazines.
00:04:38I did a great deal amount of work.
00:04:43After the show came, I was a hit.
00:04:45After two weeks, I started supporting myself.
00:04:47Now, the only thing that I found that was hard, I couldn't speak the language.
00:04:51The only thing I could say is, Garçon, s'il vous plait, Monsieur, Mesdames, Bonsoir, Au
00:05:00revoir.
00:05:01That was the only things that I could say.
00:05:04But most of the people in Paris spoke English.
00:05:06Somebody spoke English.
00:05:08So English was like a second language.
00:05:11Also, after the shows, we would go to these fabulous parties.
00:05:16I remember going to the club set.
00:05:18I think they called it New Jimmy's.
00:05:20No, no, no.
00:05:22That's Regine's place.
00:05:24I can't think of the name that he calls it now.
00:05:26He made it into this big nightclub, like a Studio 54, a Parisian Studio 54.
00:05:34And I would go there like every night, the club set.
00:05:37And he would give me free dinners, the guy who owned it.
00:05:39He was very nice.
00:05:40The French were very nice to me.
00:05:44I didn't have a problem with them.
00:05:48They seemed to roll the red carpet out for me.
00:05:52I never had to pay for anything, except, you know, I would go shopping.
00:05:56I would go on shopping sprees and buy all these French clothes, you know, ready to wear.
00:06:02Not evening.
00:06:03I got a gown from Corrèges.
00:06:06It was a pink gown, I remember, with a hooded long cape.
00:06:12And I had been invited to go to the Martins' party.
00:06:17I think they owned Martins' paint.
00:06:20And they were giving their daughter, she was like 16, and they were giving her a debutante.
00:06:26Kind of ball.
00:06:27And they spent almost like $100,000 on this party.
00:06:31And it was fabulous.
00:06:32It was like, the theme was Arabian, and they had big, you know, black African men, you
00:06:40know, muscle men, standing at the door, you know, dressed as giant genies.
00:06:45You know, when you walked in, you had to say, the man announced you,
00:06:50Madame Amina Warsuma, you know, is here, and you had to bow and curtsy to the daughter,
00:06:57she was 16, to the mother and the father, and the man would announce, it was such a
00:07:02fabulous party.
00:07:03And in those days, we went to fabulous parties.
00:07:06People gave parties, they would spend $100,000, $50,000, $60,000, $20,000, just on a party.
00:07:17Imagine.
00:07:19Then you had the Rothschilds, you had all the elite people in Europe who would come,
00:07:24the high society people, and they weren't a bit snobbish with me, and I found that to
00:07:29be really refreshing.
00:07:32They opened arms, and they welcomed me, and they were warm to me.
00:07:37And the funny thing, when I was in France, I didn't eat French food.
00:07:40I would always eat spaghetti, because I didn't understand, you know, what the food was, and
00:07:47I was always kind of skeptical about eating food that I didn't understand, you know,
00:07:51I didn't understand the name of the food, what was in it, and I had to watch my diet,
00:07:56so that was another thing, too.
00:07:58So I would eat spaghetti, I would eat simple things.
00:08:00I didn't go, you know, like eating the heavy French food, like all the whipped cream, and
00:08:06the parfaits, and the pastries, and the, you know, because the food, French food is really
00:08:11kind of fattening, if you think about it, you know, but it's exquisite.
00:08:18But it's really fattening.
00:08:20So the parties, I would go out dancing every night, every night, every night, every night.
00:08:26And this is a funny thing, I didn't feel too far away from home, because I would go, when
00:08:30I went to the club set, after you ate dinner, there was a disco, like in the next room,
00:08:36and so the guy that was there, he was a black guy, he was a black guy, he was from America.
00:08:43So that was the only other black person I saw that was from America, but he was sort
00:08:46of like in the disco, he was the DJ.
00:08:48And he had all kinds of records, and I would always tell him, play James Brown, play James
00:08:52Brown, because James Brown was my favorite.
00:08:54That was one of my biggest inspirations for dancing, was James Brown.
00:08:59When I saw him at the Apollo Theater, I just said, oh my God, I just have to learn how
00:09:03to dance and keep dancing, and that's when I started dancing.
00:09:06But he would play James Brown, and I would dance every night, and that's how I would
00:09:09stay thin.
00:09:11So I would work all day as a model, and then I would go out at night and I would dance.
00:09:17And the people just welcomed me with open arms.
00:09:20And from Paris, one thing I did have a problem with was getting most of my money.
00:09:28I remember going to the agency, and I was asking them for my money, because I had worked
00:09:34so much.
00:09:35I was working, like doing three or four shows a day for like three or four weeks, and I
00:09:41didn't see any money.
00:09:42The only thing, my hotel bills were being paid, you know, I had a little money for food,
00:09:47they should have given me a little money for food, the agent, but I didn't see my money.
00:09:51And I wasn't the one talking directly to the client.
00:09:54Like here, you speak English, you can go directly to the client and say, oh, you know, pay me.
00:09:58I worked, you know, how many francs or whatever, how many dollars do you need to pay me?
00:10:03And I remember going into the agency and literally begging her for my money.
00:10:12And she didn't really want to give it to me.
00:10:18And I started crying and crying.
00:10:21She just sat there and watched me cry, and then finally she gave it to me.
00:10:25I can't remember how much, but it was quite a bit.
00:10:28You know, all the back work that I had, all the back pay that she had owed me was actually
00:10:33quite a bit.
00:10:34And it's like, okay, what am I going to do with all this money?
00:10:37Well, I did go on a shopping spree.
00:10:39So and then from there, I went to Germany, I went to Switzerland, I went to Spain, Barcelona,
00:10:49I went to Milano.
00:10:51I was with Guy Ricciardo in Milano.
00:10:52That was another big agent.
00:10:54I think now in Europe, all the agencies have joined together, almost like the euro dollar,
00:11:01where all the agencies in all the countries are connected.
00:11:06It's not just separate agencies.
00:11:08And in London, I went to London.
00:11:10I was with an agent in London.
00:11:13And the only other black girl I saw, she was Martinique, and her name was Josie.
00:11:19And she was from Martinique, and she was much darker than I, but she spoke French and she
00:11:24spoke a little English also, she spoke English and French.
00:11:28So that was the only other black girl that I saw.
00:11:32There was no black African American model in Europe in 1972.
00:11:38There was a black model named Daniel Luna, and she claimed to be Italian.
00:11:44She was lighter skinned than me, and she claimed to be an Italian.
00:11:49But I'm speaking about a dark skin African American model.
00:11:54I was the first one.
00:11:56There was another young lady that was there, but she was not dark skinned.
00:12:02I was the first dark skinned African American model, which made a big statement because
00:12:11in Europe, there wasn't affirmative action.
00:12:14There was no affirmative action.
00:12:17You could not say, oh, I am black, I am dark, I am dark French, hire me.
00:12:27I'm French, I'm French.
00:12:28There was no distinction between black French and white French.
00:12:33You were either Martinique, which were dark, you were very, very dark, I mean, you would
00:12:39be mistaken for a black person, and you said, well, I'm not black, I'm Martinique, but yeah,
00:12:45you're black.
00:12:46But you could not fight, and just 1972, affirmative action was just coming into play because you
00:12:56had all these black exploitation movies that were being shown in the cinemas in America.
00:13:05So blacks were really fighting, or they had been fighting for a place in corporate America,
00:13:14and they had been fighting for success.
00:13:19So affirmative action had just, you know, came into play, and so I became successful.
00:13:31And I don't think it was just because of affirmative action.
00:13:34I think I had been modeling for four years prior to that, from 1968, I, for four years,
00:13:42I walked around, I knocked on doors, nobody would hire me, nobody would test me, and I
00:13:50just kept knocking, and then some would and some wouldn't.
00:13:53So the ones that did test me, I counted as wins, and the ones that didn't, I just didn't
00:13:59look at it as a loss, I just kept moving forward.
00:14:03Because I was always told, when one man says no, go around the corner, another man will
00:14:11say yes.
00:14:12So you don't know what's around the corner, and I was always the type of person that,
00:14:16you know, I was adventurous.
00:14:17And I just didn't, I mean, for some reason, this was sort of like, before affirmative
00:14:24action I started doing this, you know, going around, and the only black model that was
00:14:30really big in America was Naomi Sims, we're talking about dark skin, because dark skin
00:14:36at that particular time, you didn't have Essence magazine, you had Ebony.
00:14:41And so dark skin models were not considered, how can I say, beautiful as a whole, you know,
00:14:52there wasn't really a market for them.
00:14:54So you had Ebony, who had the fashion fair, and she had a market where black models could
00:15:01go and work and model and go on the runways, which I never was a part of, I was in Ebony
00:15:09magazine, but I never was a part of the fashion runway, I think that was, you know, I was
00:15:14kind of young at that time, and I didn't think about runway at that particular point, I was
00:15:19basically thinking about print and being in photographs and creating my own style and
00:15:26my own look that was kind of unique from anyone else.
00:15:32And at that time, they didn't have perms, and I think I was like one of the first, you
00:15:38know, women of color who used, I mean, there were women of color who used perms, because
00:15:43there was like perma-straight, and it was like lye, you put it on your hair, it made
00:15:46your hair straight, sometimes it even made your hair come out, and I just did it, and
00:15:52I would have like a Marcel, which was really nice, so I had this look about me that was
00:15:57unique, and this personality was very funny, I've always been very funny, but I had this
00:16:05personality that was pretty unique, a strong personality, great body, you had to have that,
00:16:13and I was kind of quiet, because I had a speech impediment, so I couldn't really talk like
00:16:19I can talk now, oh my god, once it went away, you should see me, I just don't stop talking,
00:16:25I had a speech impediment, so I was kind of ashamed of, you know, my vocabulary, I was
00:16:30kind of ashamed of talking to people, and also I realized that the schools didn't have
00:16:38the same books as the white schools had, so the vocabulary was quite different, my vocabulary
00:16:45was quite different, quite lower than the person who went to a white school in a white
00:16:53neighborhood, their vocabulary was different, they spoke different, it was a distinct difference,
00:16:59because segregation was a big part, even though we were integrated, we still were segregated,
00:17:07so that was a big part, and we had our own language, you know, now they call it Ebonics,
00:17:13but back then, it was just broken English, you know, you spoke, most people were from
00:17:19the south, so you spoke with a southern accent, or you spoke, you know, southern broken English,
00:17:28wasn't really proper English, you know, but you got your point across, so style was a
00:17:37big way of getting a point across, style and beauty and, you know, being a woman of color,
00:17:48that was always a big plus, a big point in, I think, our culture, you know, doing something
00:17:58with our hair, we always had problems with hair, you know, so when I went to Europe,
00:18:02they didn't have the products, and finding products for my hair, and makeup, that was
00:18:08another big problem, finding makeup that matched my skin tone, that looked good, I would have
00:18:15to go around and search, you know, every counter, you know, I would go to Lancome for the mascara,
00:18:21I would go to Estee Lauder, she had a makeup line that she had from ivory all the way to
00:18:28black, she had a base that was this color, I was like, wow, who is that color, I guess,
00:18:36you know, but I guess they're people that color, you know, like the old Black Sambo
00:18:42pictures, I guess they were doing something like that, I don't know why she had that color,
00:18:46maybe she mixed it, maybe she had it so you could mix it, but she had a color, and it
00:18:52was a fresh air base, and soon as, they would have a color for women of color, they would,
00:18:58once it got popular, because I would use it all the time, I don't know, you know, what
00:19:02happened, they would discontinue it, you know, she went on to something else, it's like,
00:19:07why do you discontinue it, I need it continuously, you know, now I have to search around and
00:19:12mix colors together, I had a makeup man in Hollywood, William Tuttle, who I would, you
00:19:19know, call and have him mix up a batch of makeup for me, you know, because you had to
00:19:24have it custom made, they weren't, they weren't, you know, they weren't makeup, they weren't
00:19:30products that catered to Black women back then, you had certain products, but it was
00:19:38like, okay, perma straight, and that thing was strong, I mean, it was like lye, you could
00:19:43do a process with that, but I would use like a half a jar, because if you keep it on your
00:19:50head, it would just burn your head, and it would just make your head so straight, you
00:19:53know, so I used that, but then we went to Europe, you know, there was no perma straight,
00:20:02there was no, you know, makeup that was my complexion, so I would have to buy enough,
00:20:09and when I, you know, have enough for when I was in Europe, if I ran out, I couldn't
00:20:13run out of my base and stuff like that, but, you know, like the lipsticks and stuff I could
00:20:17get, buy with, and mascara, and eyeshadows, I could buy that, you know, anywhere, but
00:20:25the base was really hard, and hair products were very hard, so when they came out with
00:20:30Ultrasheen, and Posners, and all these black products, later on, started flooding the market,
00:20:38I say, like the late 70s, late 70s, you could find stuff, and hair, it's like, what do you
00:20:47do with our hair, so when I would be in the fashion show, it was like, how do we do your
00:20:54hair, so I would have to do my own hair, because they didn't know how to handle my hair, they
00:20:58didn't have hot combs, they didn't have, you know, they had hot curlers, but they just
00:21:03didn't know how to handle my hair, so I would have my hair, I would fix my hair, do my hair
00:21:07the way I wanted to be done, leave it like that, I kept it short, fabulous, I had a style
00:21:12about me, and that look, I, you know, I ran it, I mean, I ran it to the gauntlet with
00:21:19that look, I just, you know, kept it, and it stayed for a while, you know, it stayed
00:21:25for many, many years, which was great. What is so interesting about it is when I went
00:21:35to Germany, I went to a hair show in Germany, which is, you know, I'm just saying, they
00:21:40didn't know how to do my hair, and they booked me for a hair show in Germany, but I wasn't
00:21:47doing, hair was not, I was not modeling hair, I was modeling makeup, and a guy who was,
00:21:55for his makeup, I was modeling his makeup, and he put the makeup on my face, and it was
00:22:01on a Mona Lisa's face, he had, the way he had the makeup was so funny, he had it on
00:22:06Mona Lisa's face, and then he tried to take that makeup from Mona Lisa's face, now does
00:22:13my face look like Mona Lisa, no, he takes the makeup from Mona Lisa's face, and he tries
00:22:19to put it on my face, and I was like, no, it doesn't look right, you know, it just doesn't
00:22:26look right, he was saying, everybody can wear this look, and I was like, no, not everybody
00:22:30can wear this look, you know, that look is for Mona Lisa, you have to do a makeup that
00:22:36looks good on me, and that was the problem being a black model, is when they did a makeup
00:22:43for someone who was Caucasian, they would try to put that same makeup on you, and it
00:22:49just, you know, I just have different features, it just didn't look right, and so I was like,
00:22:55oh, please just change it a little bit, or whatever, and he would not do it, so I mean,
00:23:00I guess I got a reputation for being kind of difficult, but I was like, it looks, it
00:23:05doesn't look right, you know, it doesn't fit my face, but I guess I'm supposed to be professional
00:23:09and say, okay, put it on, if it looks ugly, I'm the model, I'll just make it look beautiful,
00:23:14but I felt also being a model, you have to feel comfortable in the clothes, and this
00:23:18is what I loved about Karl Lagerfer, I never did a fitting for him, and he had several
00:23:23dresses and I would just, if I didn't like one dress, and I said, I don't feel comfortable
00:23:28in that dress, he would say, well, pick what you want, they all fit you, for some reason,
00:23:32I don't know how that worked, but they all fit, so whatever dress I picked that I liked
00:23:38fit me, and you feel comfortable, I think when you wear something that you feel comfortable
00:23:44in and you go out on the runway and you're in front of thousands of people, you want
00:23:52to feel, you know, like this dress fits me, and it makes, it enhances me, but sometimes
00:24:03as a model, you can work for a client and the dress does not enhance you, you have to
00:24:09enhance the dress, you have to sell the dress, and, I mean, not everything looks good on
00:24:19everybody, but you have to make it and you have to work it, and photographs, you can
00:24:24get away with it, you know, because you can pin here, tuck here, do whatever, but on the
00:24:29runway, when it's live, that dress better be the right dress for you, because people
00:24:35can see it, even, no matter how well you model it, you know, people can see right away, oh,
00:24:42that dress is not right for her, she shouldn't have had that dress on, you know, maybe some
00:24:46other model should have had it on, and, you know, that has a great bearing on whether
00:24:51the buyer is going to buy it or not, depending on how good it looks on the model, but one
00:24:57of my other things was, when I went to London, London was pretty good, London was really
00:25:04good, and I stayed with a friend, so that was pretty cool, and we still went out every
00:25:11night, I went to the club tramps and we used to dance, and I still had to, you know, keep
00:25:16myself thin, and I did a show in London, and what they did to me is they dyed my hair
00:25:28silver, silver, so I looked like an old woman, like silver, gray hair, but it was silver
00:25:39and they sprayed, and the show was fabulous, it was in a big auditorium, a lot of important
00:25:47people were there, but nobody recognized me. Another shoot I did in London was, I did the
00:25:55Sunday London Times, and I don't have that picture, because, and this is, I did this
00:26:01shoot with Josie, Josie happened to be in London also, and, like I said, she was the
00:26:07only other black model, but she wasn't an African American model, and we had to do this
00:26:13shoot in 32 degrees weather, on the beach, in London, in a bikini, and I was freezing,
00:26:24I mean freezing, I just, I'm very sensitive to cold, and I know, you know, I've seen the
00:26:30models, you know, they have to, you have to be on the top of a roof, and you have to be,
00:26:36and it's, yeah, 20, 19 degrees, and you have to be posing and pretend you're warm, well
00:26:43I couldn't, and the fact that I couldn't, you saw it on my face, and they put me on
00:26:52the cover of the Sunday London Times anyway, you know, so that goes to show you, they did
00:27:01the shoot, they didn't care, put her on there, you know, but it was an interesting experience,
00:27:07I was sick for like six months afterward, but I was thankful, you know, I was really
00:27:13thankful about it, and then when I did get to London, I did meet another black model,
00:27:19but she was from Africa, and she lived in London, and she would model now and then,
00:27:27which was very nice, so on to Italy, Milan, first I went to Rome, I went to Rome, and I did a shoot
00:27:39in Rome, which was fabulous, I loved it, I ate so much, the Italian food was so great, oh my god,
00:27:47in Rome I gained 50 pounds, when I went back to New York,
00:27:52Wilhelmina sent me on an audition, and the client called her and told her, why are you
00:28:02sending this girl to me, she cannot fit the dress, so Wilhelmina calls me in the office and says,
00:28:10oh, you're too fat, I said, what do you mean I'm too fat, so I sent you to the client,
00:28:19and the client called me and told me that you are too fat, you couldn't fit the dress,
00:28:26so I can wear the same dress as so and so, she said, that was so and so's dress, so now you
00:28:31got to go on a diet, so they did have insensitives to make you lose weight, you know, they just stop
00:28:37you from working, because if you couldn't lose weight, you just didn't work, so if you stop you
00:28:46from working, you don't have any money, then you don't have any money to buy any food, so then you
00:28:49lose weight, either way, you know, they went, but anyway, I had a glorious time in Rome, I ate
00:28:58myself, and I enjoyed myself tremendously, then I went on to Milan, Milan I did a lot of shows,
00:29:04a lot of fashion shows in Milan, Italian Vogue, Lime Italiana, I did a whole issue of that,
00:29:13other magazines, I can't recall, there's so many, then from there I went to Switzerland, I did a
00:29:23catalog in Switzerland, I went there a couple of times, I loved Zurich, it was nice, crisp,
00:29:29cold, the chocolate was fabulous, the cows, the Swiss cow is amazing, I mean, he's like an elephant,
00:29:36and no wonder the steaks taste, that's the best steak I taste, I haven't tasted a steak like that,
00:29:43that was the best I've ever had, and I think it was like ten dollars in Swiss francs, American
00:29:51dollars, but it was just so delicious, I don't know, those cows are like, wow, I had never seen
00:29:58one until I came to Beverly Hills, and they were giving a show, and they had a cow, it looked like
00:30:05an elephant, and in the street on Rodeo Drive, and I was like, what is that, they said, that's a Swiss
00:30:12cow, my God, I'd never seen a Swiss cow, anyway, on to Spain, Spain was fabulous, it was romantic,
00:30:24it was beautiful, too bad I didn't have somebody to be there, Barcelona was great, to model in that,
00:30:30and do the shows, and there again, I didn't see any black models, then I come back to America,
00:30:40but before that, I'm going all over Europe, I'm living out of a suitcase, I'm in every magazine
00:30:48in Paris, practically, I'm in Vogue, I'm in Bazaar, I'm in We, I'm doing all the shows, I'm working
00:30:56with all the top designers, I'm going to the best parties every night, I'm eating the best,
00:31:00I'm drinking the best, I'm associating with some of the finest people in the world, so then I come
00:31:08back to America, and now we have all these black models coming in now, because affirmative action
00:31:17has totally kicked in, they're like eight, nine black models on the runway, when before you only
00:31:22saw one, and we got along pretty okay, everything was great, we all went to parties, we all worked
00:31:31together, so then I went back to Europe again, they started coming over, but I had already
00:31:38established myself, and I was already there, but I must say the French treated me very well, really
00:31:44wasn't snobbish to me, they rolled a red carpet out to me, they were very warm to me, and then I
00:31:50went back with the Palace Versailles, and I danced with Liza Minnelli, and this was supposed to be a
00:31:58fight with the French, but we were fighting in high heels, and to me it was a great experience,
00:32:07because I loved it, when we walked that runway, we just took the house down, brought the house down,
00:32:18I loved it, I didn't have a problem with the French, because I had been there already, now I don't know
00:32:23what they were saying about the French being this, and about the French being that, but I didn't have
00:32:30a problem with them, because I had been to France before them, everybody else seemed to have a
00:32:34problem with the French, but I thought it was fabulous, I was treated well, we were in the Palace
00:32:40Versailles, and it was fabulous, so we're gonna take a break right now, and I'll come back and tell
00:32:51you some more. Don't go away, I'll be right back.
00:33:21I just wanted to pour myself a glass of Rothschild's wine, I saw it, I mean I'm in California now, I saw it and I
00:33:31said, oh I'm gonna try this bottle, because I knew him when I was in Paris, they used to be at the
00:33:36club set all the time, and he would be dancing, this is his great-great-great-great grandson, but
00:33:43they're still one of the wealthiest families in Europe, and I never drank his wine, you know, so
00:33:50I'm having a taste now. Anyway, getting back to Paris, Josephine Baker, the Palace Versailles,
00:33:59Josephine Baker was starring in the show also, and I'll tell you what I liked about the Palace
00:34:03Versailles, I liked the fact that it was a show, it was like a Broadway show, and I had been taking
00:34:11dance lessons with Bob Fosse, Phil Black, who was like a protege of Bob Fosse, and Cabaret had
00:34:22just come out, and Anne Rankin, and Bob Fosse was a big, you know, big choreographer at the time.
00:34:29Anyway, I got a chance to do Palace Versailles. When they asked me to go, I said yes, but I had
00:34:40no idea that there was a feud between the French designer and the American designer. I had no idea
00:34:48that, you know, they were having this feud going on, so it was like, I just went because, oh, it's gonna
00:34:54be a show, Liza, we all flew on a plane together, she's gonna be doing the choreographing of the
00:35:02dance steps, her and Kay Thompson, and I was like, wow, you know, this is my chance to not only be a
00:35:10model and just model the clothes, but this is my chance to actually do dance steps, you know, as a
00:35:18team, you know, because when you model, you work as one, you really don't work as a team, you work as a,
00:35:25you have everybody else working as a team to make you comfortable, but you as a model, you are actually on your own,
00:35:36you're number one. So, and then I wanted to get into acting also, so I said, okay, this would be great if I go,
00:35:43but no one told me that this was this big, you know, political thing going on. I mean, you know,
00:35:51they didn't tell me that, oh, we're going over there to show the French that we're American
00:35:56designers, just like the French, and we can do couture, and, you know, I didn't know what was
00:36:03going on back and forth. I remember Anne Klein, I remember her crying, you know, somebody upset her
00:36:12really, really bad, but I didn't know who it was. I didn't know if it was the American designers that
00:36:18were with us, or was it the French, or was, you know, or was it someone who wasn't in the show.
00:36:26I didn't know, and I felt really bad for her, because she was a really sweet lady,
00:36:31but getting on to the dance steps, I was so happy to do the dance steps, because it meant, oh, I can be
00:36:38in a Broadway show, I can be in a musical, I can just not be a model walking down the runway and
00:36:45not saying anything. So we do the steps, and we do something, I mean, we, you know, we do it with
00:36:55the outfits. Each segment, I think we had several outfits. I know I did Anne Klein, I did Ralph
00:37:00Lauren, I did Stephen Burroughs, I know I did Halston, and each designer segment had a whole
00:37:09dance step, a story, singing and dancing, and it was just fabulous. It was really fabulous, and
00:37:20Josephine Baker, the French had her, and I had said, you know, she was the closest thing to a
00:37:25black model. She was my complexion, and she was like, oh my gosh, she was the toast of the town,
00:37:32and she had left America to go to Europe, because America was so discriminating towards her,
00:37:38and, you know, she was like a Las Vegas showgirl, but she couldn't play in Las Vegas, because of, you
00:37:43know, she was a woman of color. So in France, she could be who she wanted to be, and that was the
00:37:50thing about Paris. Paris was something like Hollywood. You know, you could be as big as you
00:37:56want to be, and be what you want to be, and the French let you. They love entertainment, and
00:38:03she looked fabulous. Anyway, in between the show, no, this was during rehearsal,
00:38:10we went to lunch together. This was like one of the greatest things that happened to me,
00:38:16it was to have lunch with her. So we go to this French restaurant,
00:38:22and when we walk in, there are six policemen, three on one side, three on the other side,
00:38:29and they're like, mademoiselle Josephine Becker, and they almost like take their coat off, like,
00:38:35walk on my coat, you know, you're a queen. She was treated like a queen there. She had a castle.
00:38:43I mean, I guess her dream for that, she could have never had that in America in her time,
00:38:50but the respect that they gave her, and I mean, movie stars don't get treated like that here.
00:38:58You know, they have to pay for, they have to pay for like bodyguards and whatnot, and she has cops
00:39:07willing to just, wow, when she walks in, just tip the hat, throw the coat on the floor, you know,
00:39:11walk on my coat. You gorgeous, gorgeous goddess, you. And so we had lunch together, and I found
00:39:19that she was very bitter about America and how they treated her, and those scars never went away,
00:39:31and I was surprised with all the success that she had, that the scars that she had from the 1920s
00:39:37and the 30s in America, she never forgot. She never forgot, and she kind of, it was kind of sad
00:39:44in a way because she was such a great talent, and I think that she would have been great in Las Vegas.
00:39:51She would have been great at the Cotton Club, you know. She would have been great, but you know, at the
00:39:55Cotton Club, I think they only had like light-skinned women, you know, dancing or white women. I don't
00:40:00know. I wasn't born back then, but I did a movie called The Cotton Club. Anyway, that was a very
00:40:08interesting lunch. After that, I mean, she got over it. She got over it. She had furs and diamonds
00:40:16and a castle, and she was a countess, you know. She got over all of that, and she was like the
00:40:22belle of the ball of Paris, and all of Europe knew her. So, you know, who needs America? I do.
00:40:32But I was sort of like there, and they treated me, I mean, wonderful, and whatever war that was going on
00:40:43between the French and the American, it was like a war on high heels. Well, we won, and I helped
00:40:50open up, I helped open up the door so that American designers could show their clothes
00:40:57in Europe. From that one show, and all of Europe was there,
00:41:04it really opened up the door for American designers.
00:41:10After that,
00:41:13I worked all the time, constantly, but by that time, other models started coming in, and they
00:41:18started working, and everybody wanted to stay with me, of course, you know, and they started working,
00:41:23and they started, you know. Now, it wasn't so much of a, how could I say, a novelty anymore,
00:41:32because now you got the runways over there flooded with Black models, and then Yves Saint Laurent,
00:41:38that's all he used with Black models after a while. He didn't use it for a long time. He only
00:41:43used Black models on the runway, and I'm glad that I started, you know, the trend. I'm very glad that
00:41:49I did, and I was the first one, and I was a pioneer, and I, you know, was a trailblazer, and I'm glad I did,
00:41:57but being alone in Europe at 17, and when I went to Europe, I only had 17 dollars in my pocket.
00:42:06I didn't have any money, and I just went and just said, and that's the kind of person I was,
00:42:13you know. I'd live for today and not think about tomorrow, and I thought life was quite interesting
00:42:19when you live like that, you know, because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring,
00:42:23and you don't know who you're going to meet, and that's what's so great about modeling and traveling
00:42:28all over the world. You don't know who you're going to meet, who you're going to see. You don't know
00:42:32what the next day is going to bring, you know. Nothing is set in stone. You, I mean, you just,
00:42:38you just have to go with it, and for 10 years I did, and after that, you know, I went into acting,
00:42:47and now I'm an actress, and I find acting similar to modeling in a way, but you kind of know what's
00:43:00going on a little bit. With modeling, you don't know what's going to happen. I guess when you
00:43:04begin, when you become a big star, you don't know what's going to happen because a client from out
00:43:08of left field can call you and say, hey, you know, hey, we got you a job in Timbuktu somewhere,
00:43:17and you know, just jump up and pack your stuff and come on over. You know, we saw your movie.
00:43:22We like you. We hired you. I don't think it's that easy in Hollywood, but I think you have to
00:43:27audition. You really have to work really hard, but modeling is really hard because you really work on
00:43:31yourself, and it's very external, and so I'm going to take another break right now,
00:43:41and I will be back to talk about more of a Black model in Paris.
00:43:59So
00:44:18I will love you strong. I will love you. I will love you true.
00:44:29I will love you. Hope my love is never through.
00:44:38Welcome back to a Black model in Paris. Where was I? Oh, I went to Paris with $17 in my pocket.
00:44:48Now, that wasn't because I didn't have any money. It's just that the money that I had
00:44:54was being held up because I had worked quite a bit in America, and it seemed like I didn't get
00:45:00paid as fast as everybody else did, so when I did get paid, I would buy things and, you know,
00:45:07spend money, and I didn't worry about it. You know, the world was my oyster, so I took a risk.
00:45:14How I got the job was I worked with Antonio Lopez, who was Puerto Rican. He was a Puerto
00:45:20Rican illustrator, and he knew Karl Lagerfer, and he had suggested to Karl that I come over to
00:45:28Paris because it was something new, and he always, you know, wanted something new and original,
00:45:35and so Karl paid for my plane ticket. It was a round-trip ticket, and when I got to Paris,
00:45:42they met me at the airport and everything, and they said to me, well, what Karl said to me, well,
00:45:49I'm going to support you for two weeks. If you don't make it in two weeks,
00:45:53I'm going to send you back home, and I was like, wow, that's the fastest, you know,
00:46:00I mean, if you can't make it in two weeks, usually people give you six months. They give you a year,
00:46:04but two weeks? I did his show, and what was fabulous about Karl is I didn't have to have a
00:46:14fitting. Every dress that he had fit me, so if I didn't like one dress, he would say, you don't
00:46:23like that one. You don't feel comfortable in that. You can go ahead and wear something else,
00:46:29and I would pick whatever I liked, and I would wear it because I always felt that a model should
00:46:35wear what she likes. I think she models it better. You feel more confident in something that
00:46:42you feel good in, as opposed to something that you don't, but from a professional standpoint,
00:46:50if the dress is ugly, and you're a gorgeous model, and they put this dress on you,
00:46:55you have to sell the dress, no matter, you know, what it looks like, but when you walk on the
00:47:03runway, they can tell whether or not the dress is for you. I mean, if the dress is not for you,
00:47:13and you're wearing it, the buyers, and the photographers, and the editors that are sitting
00:47:18in the audience, you know, will look at that dress and say, oh, you know what? That dress is not
00:47:23for her. She looks good, but the dress is not for her. It should have been put on somebody
00:47:28that was for her. I don't know how, you know, if the model wears it well and makes it her own.
00:47:36You know, you have to make the clothes your own. You have to make it and work it, you know,
00:47:42according to your body, and that can be difficult at times, but if you know fashion,
00:47:53and you know how to wear clothes, and that's another thing too, you need to know how to wear
00:47:56clothes. Also, for you photographers, you need to know how to photograph clothes, and I guess
00:48:03photography is a lot more easier, because if you have, I did a catalog shot, and the outfit was too
00:48:09big, so they put clothes pins in the back, and they pin it, and they make it look, you know, like it fits,
00:48:15and they have a steam iron to steam it and everything, so it fits, and it looks perfect.
00:48:21So, a photograph you can work with a little bit, but runway you can't. Anyway, I did call show,
00:48:32and I wound up staying in Paris for six months. I was the talk of the town, the talk of the town,
00:48:42actually. We went out to restaurants every night, and at that time, I wore nothing but Stephen Burroughs
00:48:49clothes, because I couldn't afford Karl Lagerfeld's clothes, and he was generous. He was very generous.
00:48:56He took me out to dinner every night. He took me to the best places in Paris. I worked for him
00:49:02quite a bit. He was very generous. We shot videos in his home. He was very nice to me, and
00:49:10I am very grateful for that, and my career launched from that, you know. So, if you get a designer that
00:49:21likes you and, you know, that wants to hang out with you and be with you, do it, you know, because
00:49:29you learn a lot, and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about, you know, French culture. I learned a lot
00:49:36about the restaurants, you know, and another thing, too, I didn't eat French food. I would eat spaghetti
00:49:43or something simple, because I couldn't understand the menu, and I was on a diet, and French food is
00:49:50very good, but it's very fattening, so a lot of the French food I could not eat, or I did not eat,
00:49:57because I was kind of like skeptical. If I don't know what it is, you know, I can't understand the
00:50:02menu, I'm not gonna eat it, but that was one of the benefits that I didn't get to enjoy was the good
00:50:12French food, because when you're a model, you have to watch your weight, and you can't, you know, just
00:50:20eat anything you want. You have to have a great body, and you have to stay a certain size. Now,
00:50:29mind you, don't starve yourself. Don't get skinny, I mean, you know, like skin and bones, because that
00:50:35has happened to me, too. I've gotten skin and bones, and then I've gotten overweight. You know, you just
00:50:40have to make sure that you stay in the middle. If you're the size, what, I was a size eight
00:50:46at the time I was modeling, but usually they're like two, four, five, something like that, but
00:50:54if you can, if you can manage it, manage it. What I do is eat lettuce and tomatoes and put
00:51:05lemon on everything. I call it an elimination diet, which I got out of, oh my god, I can't
00:51:11think of the book, Back to Eden, it's a book, and they had it on, it was an elimination diet,
00:51:17and you put lemon juice on everything. You eat, like, lettuce, tomatoes, raw cabbage,
00:51:27whatever you eat, you put lemon juice on it, and that seems to eliminate the fat out of the system.
00:51:34I don't know, they have this other diet now where they drink the, they have the lemon juice, and they
00:51:39have the cayenne pepper, and they have the syrup, and that's one of these, like, crash diets
00:51:46that they take for, like, two or three days and get themselves super, super thin, or just thin,
00:51:53but that's what I do. The elimination diet seems to work for me because I'm eating,
00:51:59and I'm eating, you know, you can eat three meals a day, but eat all salads,
00:52:06you know, no starches, no pasta, no carbs, eat apples, drink plenty of water,
00:52:16and you lose it, and you gotta watch it, though. You're gonna be craving cookies and potato chips
00:52:23and all these chocolates and donuts, and you will crave, and you know, you just have to fight it.
00:52:31I mean, if you could just take a little piece of it, you know, and you'd be okay, but if you take
00:52:36the whole thing, then it's gonna be like, okay, you lost control. Anyway, getting back to Paris,
00:52:45so I had to stay thin, and I would walk the catwalk, and I was the toast of the town. I
00:52:51worked for everybody who was anybody, and at that time, there wasn't another black,
00:52:56a dark-skinned model. I mean, they were Africans in Paris, but they weren't on the runway. They
00:53:02were not African-American, so that this was a big thing. This was a breakthrough, and this is
00:53:09why I say if I could break through the industry when there wasn't an industry for me,
00:53:18you could do it, too. As a photographer, as a fashion model, as a designer, you could do it,
00:53:26too. You just have to have your package together and be confident, especially as a model. You have
00:53:37to be confident in your body. You have to have a great body, and you have to be confident because
00:53:42you're gonna be surrounded by beautiful, gorgeous, naked women all the time when you do fashion
00:53:50shows, and you can't feel, you know, you can't have a lack of confidence. You can't feel, oh,
00:53:57she's prettier than me. Oh, because there's always going to be somebody prettier than you.
00:54:01There's always going to be somebody who has better skin, who has better hair, who has better legs,
00:54:06who has better buttocks, better bust. You have to be confident with your package,
00:54:13and that is the key, and positive, and roll off, you know, and people are going to reject you.
00:54:20People are going to tell you, no, you're not my type. You're not my look.
00:54:25Just let it roll off your back. Don't even, I mean, if it's something constructive,
00:54:31like you need to lose weight, or you need to get your skin fixed because your skin is bad,
00:54:37or you need to get your teeth done because your teeth are crooked, you know, take that,
00:54:42but if it's just something where, oh, you know, someone's better than you, oh, blah, blah, blah,
00:54:47and all the she, she, shaw, shaw, she, she, you know, and shilly-shally stuff, just ignore it,
00:54:52or you're not my type. I can't hire you. You know what? Too bad. When you become a success,
00:54:58they all want to hire you. They're all going to want to say, oh, my God, now, you know,
00:55:02I'm ready for your look, so I ate spaghetti. I would go to the club set at night,
00:55:13and the guy who owned the club set was a nightclub. He used to let me have free dinners,
00:55:18and I would eat food, and I would eat spaghetti, but I would do a small portion of it,
00:55:23so it wouldn't be too much, and then I would dance the night away.
00:55:32I would dance until the wee hours of the morning and then get up and go to work,
00:55:37so I burned the candles at both ends. I had so much energy, but I would dance off of James
00:55:43Brown. I love James Brown, so I wasn't so, like, alienated when I was there because I had my James
00:55:49Brown music at the clubs. You know, I had my spaghetti, my little comfort food, and then,
00:55:55you know, I was very popular, so it wasn't so hard for me personally. Professionally,
00:56:04I had to be on it, you know, because I was the leader. I was setting the trend for so many to
00:56:13follow behind, and believe me, quite a few Black models started coming to Paris after me. Yves
00:56:22Saint Laurent started using only Black models. That's all he would use in his show, and
00:56:31it seemed to work, so we're going to take a break right now, and we'll be back with a Black model
00:56:38in Paris.
00:57:09I will love you, I will love you long. I will love you, I will love you strong.
00:57:28Welcome back to a Black model in Paris. Well, I left off at Japan, I think. I went to Japan,
00:57:36and I worked for a weekend, and I was like, there were no Blacks there either, not one.
00:57:44No whites did I see, but, you know, usually whites usually go, but I went, and I was modeling some
00:57:52pearls, Mickey Motos, I think, and that was a good shoot. The funny thing about that shoot,
00:57:59there was a Japanese lady there, and she was trying to get me to sign with her and sign with
00:58:04her, and I was at, well, at the time, I was at Wilhelmina, and I couldn't do it, but all went
00:58:12well there. Getting back to Paris, the Palace Versailles. Well, this job was offered to me.
00:58:19I didn't know it was a fight in high heels. I thought I was just going on, you know, a trip
00:58:26to Paris to work for several American designers, and we were going to do a show at the Palace
00:58:31Versailles to help raise money, I think, to refurnish it, but I got the chance to dance
00:58:41with Liza Minnelli, which I thought was really great, because I thought, all my friends are on
00:58:47Broadway. I'm not on Broadway. I'm a model, and this was a chance that it wasn't just modeling.
00:58:52It was steps, dance steps. There were segments, and Liza choreographed the dance steps, her and
00:59:02Kay Thompson, and it was almost like a show, and it's something I had never done before with the
00:59:08group, and we did Anne Klein. We did Stephen Burroughs, Halston, Oscar de la Rente. Who else
00:59:17did we do? I can't think of another designer that we did, but I think those were the designers
00:59:23that Ralph Lauren, yeah, those are designers that went, and what they were trying to do
00:59:31was to prove to the French that American designers weren't ready to where they could do couture,
00:59:39because the French, from what I heard, didn't think American designers could do couture,
00:59:45and they were the only ones that could do couture, but I was treated very well,
00:59:49and they had Josephine Baker. She was somebody that was on their side of the show. She wasn't
00:59:55with the, she wasn't in the American part. She danced on the stage. She was fabulous.
01:00:05After we went to have lunch, this is during rehearsal, we went to have lunch, and she was
01:00:11treated so much like a queen. My God, the police, you know, Mademoiselle Josephine Baker,
01:00:17she lived in a castle. She was like dark-skinned, like my complexion almost, but she was a showgirl.
01:00:24She wasn't a model, so she basically was the first black showgirl in Paris, and she was treated like
01:00:33the cream of the crop. I mean, she was queen of Paris. What more could you want? Because
01:00:37America at the time was sort of racist. Back in the 1920s and 30s, when she first started out,
01:00:44I think she wasn't light-skinned enough, and at the Cotton Club and all of the Sugar Hill Club
01:00:51and all these clubs that they had up in Harlem, after our spots, that they had dancers and whatnot,
01:00:57but this show was something like it. Only thing, we did an Anne Klein segment. We did the dance
01:01:03steps when we came out. We did a Stephen Burrell segment, and we walked that runway like it wasn't
01:01:08walked, like it has never been walked before. We brought the house down, and it was a big, significant
01:01:16job for me because that was in 1973. Just this year, 2011, I was honored by the Mayor of New York
01:01:27and Mayor Bloomberg, and they had given the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, gave a big
01:01:35luncheon, and they honored me and the other girls who participated in the show. But that was sort of
01:01:44like, in their history, that was the first time a group of black girls went to Paris, but I was there
01:01:50before. I was there in 72. So I was sort of used to the French, and I was treated very nice.
01:02:00We had parties, we had dinners, and it was just a fantastic thing to do, and it was a chance to get
01:02:05to work as an actress, dancing, singing, because they had music and we had to sing to the music,
01:02:12do the dance steps, and not just model the clothes. And we had to do five segments,
01:02:19and I thought that that was something that introduced me to modern jazz and a way to
01:02:29be more of a showwoman than just a model. So that was great. Now, from what I understand,
01:02:40some of the designers had some problems with the French designers. It was a little competition
01:02:45there, but I didn't see any of that. My experience was totally positive. And after that,
01:02:54well, before that, they were using black models on runways, but I think after that,
01:02:58they really started using black models on runways. So that opened the door, that was the launch pad
01:03:07of American designers being introduced to Paris in Europe. And it took off like a flash, and that
01:03:16was because me as a model and the rest of the models did our job so well, and we worked those
01:03:24clothes and we worked that runway until it just was a fantastic show. And from what I understand,
01:03:30there were other things happening that weren't good, as the backgrounds, you know, that broke,
01:03:38or they couldn't have it, so we couldn't use any background, so it made it look
01:03:42much more modern than it would have. But I mean, it was just a delight.
01:03:51My other experiences in Paris was very good. I just worked and worked and worked, and
01:03:58I'm going to tell you what you guys need to be in the fashion industry, because I think that's
01:04:09very important to be able to break in and to make a living at it. You know, I did it for 10 years.
01:04:17I lived out of a suitcase, of course, that was my only compromise, but it was a wonderful life.
01:04:24And you get to go, and you get to travel, and you get to meet people, and you go to nice parties,
01:04:29and there's always something happening with fashion. It's exciting, you know.
01:04:35And as a model, what you need, well, you need good pictures. That's number one. But the first,
01:04:45what you really need, you need good skin, good teeth, good hair, because like I said,
01:04:50our hair was a problem, so I would keep mine short, and I would wear pieces, you know. But
01:04:57if you have good hair, they're going to be combing the hair and picking in the hair.
01:05:02And for years, my hair was very thin in the back, where I got, you know, so many different
01:05:09hairdressers were on my hair, until it was just a mess after a while, and sprays, and hot curlers,
01:05:16and hot combs. But you need good hair to start with. You need good skin. You need a great body,
01:05:25a body that the clothes can just fit on. Now, either you can be a body where
01:05:34you're like, just the dress hangs on you. It hangs on the body, and you are modeling the dress.
01:05:42Or, you can have a body where the dress models you. So, I had mentioned before, earlier,
01:05:53that sometimes you get dresses that don't look good, but you have to work with it, and make sure
01:06:03make sure that you make it work. You sell that dress. It's much easier in print than it is on
01:06:11the runway. I said this before, but those are the things that you need, and you need to keep your
01:06:16weight down. So, that's another thing. And you need to be original. You need to have a personality
01:06:23that is very strong. And some girls are very quiet, you know, but they have a strong presence.
01:06:29They don't talk a lot. They're not friendly. You know, they're not open. They're friendly,
01:06:33but they're not open, and outgoing, and bubbly, and, you know, they don't have a strong personality,
01:06:38and they are very successful as models also, because they're very professional. You need to
01:06:43be on time, because time is money, and they get very, you know, upset when you're not on time.
01:06:51You need to be able to get along with everybody, you know, just get along, even if you, you know,
01:06:58sometimes it gets kind of competitive, you know, with a bunch of girls. It gets very competitive,
01:07:04and you need to be able to hold your own. And you need to be very secure with yourself,
01:07:08and I think I mentioned that before. Also, you need to be someone who's a go-getter, you know.
01:07:15You should be someone who takes the initiative, and not be afraid of rejection, because like I
01:07:21said earlier, and I'm not going to repeat it again, that's a part of the business, and
01:07:29a lot of people are not going to hire you in the beginning, and sometimes you have to build up that
01:07:37clientele, and build that portfolio up. Now, one thing I had, I had a client, and I had a
01:07:44one thing I had, kind of like, I was kind of lazy with, was taking new pictures, and you have to
01:07:50constantly take new pictures, because once I started working, I was just using the tear sheets
01:07:55from the magazines, which you'll see later on, in the, in my portfolio, but I needed to, as time
01:08:05went on, I needed to take new pictures, I needed to advance my look, and I just didn't really do
01:08:12that. I just worked what I had, worked with what I had, traveled, and traveled, and traveled, and traveled.
01:08:18So, you need to be able to do that, and take different pictures, and just be the best that
01:08:25you can. Now, it's all color. Back then, it was black and white, you know, so color, we see everything,
01:08:31everything. HD, we see everything, you know, so you have to make sure that your body's perfect. No
01:08:38cellulite. Your legs, I mean, my leg didn't always have great legs, but I mean, they went with my body,
01:08:49you know. I mean, I didn't have a big body and skinny legs. I had skinny legs, skinny body,
01:08:54but legs are pretty nice to have. I always had nice hands. Hands are pretty nice, because you can
01:08:59be a hand model. So, those are the parts, you know, if you have a nice mouth, you can be a lip model,
01:09:07you could do lipsticks, and, you know, toothpaste ads, and stuff like that. Anything that has anything
01:09:14to do with the mouth, and a smile. So, that's another good thing that I want to tell you guys,
01:09:22and we're talking about before, is there a lot of drugs, a lot of stuff in the business that,
01:09:30you know, is decadent in the business. Well, in every business, there's a decadent side,
01:09:35you know, in a business such as that, in the movie business, the singing business,
01:09:40the fashion industry, there's always a decadent dark side, but as an individual, you have to make
01:09:48the choice on which road you want to take, because there's so much happening, and you have to really
01:09:59stay focused, now more than ever, because there's so much competition in it, you know, so many girls
01:10:05coming up, you have to be healthy, energetic, and just be on it, you know, get your sleep,
01:10:16and I never got my sleep, I was always burning the candle at both ends, but it didn't look
01:10:23bad on me, you know, I just had all this excess energy, so I used that to my advantage, but,
01:10:33and like I said, some people are going to tell you no, and some people are going to tell you yes,
01:10:38and let me see if I'm missing anything, something else that you need to have in order to be in,
01:10:44to be successful in the fashion business, versatility, that's another thing, and now some
01:10:50girls can only do certain things, but now they want girls to be able to do commercials, like I said,
01:10:55like I said, that wasn't for me, but be able to do commercials, be able to do print, be able to do
01:11:02catalog, high fashion, ready-to-wear, swimwear, I've done swimwear, I've done lingerie, I did
01:11:10high fashion, I did ready-to-wear, high fashion looked more better, it looked better on me than
01:11:16ready-to-wear, so, I mean, I was just so much into high fashion, wearing high fashion all the time,
01:11:22I never had any really simple day clothes, that was just me, you know, and make sure that you find,
01:11:30seek out good photographers, like I said, go to the agencies and find out which photographers are
01:11:37testing, do not pay anyone a thousand dollars for a portfolio, if anybody tells you that you need to
01:11:44do that, that is a rip-off, because I have so many people that are ripping people off in this business,
01:11:54it's become, oh my god, it's, I mean, it's just awful, and telling them that they're going to be a model,
01:12:00they can be this, they can be that, you have to pay a certain amount of money, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:12:07your body is your capital, your whole look is your capital, and that's what you bank on,
01:12:15and like I said, now, you may not even need film now, because they got the HD camera, so, and they,
01:12:22and they just put it on a disc, or, you know, what, and you just go and get it blown out, I mean,
01:12:28print it out, and you put it in your portfolio, so, find that, now, also, now, in fashion,
01:12:36things are very creative, because from what I understand, photographers have this, you know,
01:12:43all this equipment, and for fashion, they have all this equipment, because it has to be creative,
01:12:47it has to be this, it has to be that, when then, we just did a simple picture, so, I don't know if I would
01:12:53advise you guys to be too creative, I mean, if you can, you can, but if you can take just a simple
01:13:00picture, showing your beauty, your body, the clothes, you know, remember, it's to sell the clothes,
01:13:09if you're doing a bathing suit, it's to sell the bathing suit, whatever you're modeling,
01:13:16modeling hairs, you know, products, or whatever your hair, you could, you know, I guess with hair,
01:13:21you can do something really creative, and maybe you can go to some hairdressers, and say, oh, I want,
01:13:26I'm doing a test shot, and I want to do a nice hair shot, can you do my hair, you know, and I can give
01:13:31you a picture, and they may, you know, do it on comp, and do something really fabulous, and avant-garde,
01:13:40and you got a nice shot there, you know, but you should have every range, so, when you go to the agency,
01:13:48they can see that you can do several things, and you're versatile, and you look,
01:13:52and you're modeling, but like I said, don't get too creative a way out, unless you have an art
01:13:59direct, an art director that wants to work with you also, and they will, you know, okay, we have this
01:14:04idea, we want this, we want that, you know, we want you coming out of a waterfall, or I have some idea,
01:14:10I want you coming out of a guy, a model, not a model, oh, I wore Calvin Klein,
01:14:21and this is what I want to say, I wore Calvin Klein, and a photographer wanted me to do a shoot
01:14:29coming out of a seashell, he had this idea, and so I borrowed the Calvin Klein bathing suit,
01:14:36and I put it on, and I'm standing there with my hands up like that, and I'm coming out of this
01:14:42seashell, you know, and I'm holding on to this pole, and the seashell is really big, and you see me,
01:14:47and it's a beautiful black and white photograph, I will probably put that on here too, so you guys
01:14:53can see that, but that was sort of creative, you know, something like that, or, you know, you're
01:14:59coming out of a sink or something, or a TV set, or a book, so you open a book, and here you are,
01:15:08you know, but you can do that, and as photographers, you need to do a lot of test shots too,
01:15:17you need to do a lot, photographers who want to break into this business,
01:15:21and then after you do so many shots, and you walk around, and you try to get a rep
01:15:27to take your photographs to magazines to see if they will hire you, so photography, but if you go,
01:15:35if you hang out with the shows, and you start taking pictures of the fashion shows, and
01:15:39you know, you keep this, these slides, that's a good way of getting shots, if you can, if you're
01:15:48in New York, and you can go on 7th Avenue, or you can go down to the Fashion Mark, and you see a
01:15:53runway show, and you're going to ask the designer, can you come in and take pictures, that's a good
01:15:57way of getting, you know, film without getting a model together, getting the clothes, getting the
01:16:04hair together, putting everything together yourself, it's already done, and you can use the pictures,
01:16:11you know, with their consent in your portfolio, and they may want some shots, and you keep some
01:16:16shots, so that's a practical way of doing that. For designers, when I worked with many designers,
01:16:23and I also used to sew clothes, and make my own clothes when I didn't have money,
01:16:28designers, you have to do original designs, and they have to look original, you know, don't knock
01:16:40off anybody, because if you knock off someone, like ABS does, you know, I knock off the couture
01:16:48designers, they knock off the designers, and they give it to you at a cheaper price,
01:16:54but I wouldn't advise you guys out there to do that, I would advise you guys to do something
01:16:58original, and if you have a model, you know, and get a photographer to shoot your stuff,
01:17:05and you have a portfolio also, so everybody needs a portfolio, it works, makeup artists,
01:17:14you need a portfolio too, and you need to get in on these shoots,
01:17:20and take a photograph, have photographs taken of your work, so you can present yourself
01:17:29as a professional makeup artist, and they can hire you for the shows, maybe, and also,
01:17:35maybe you can get in and do the makeup for a fashion show, and have a photographer take pictures
01:17:41while you're working, or while, you know, maybe you do it for free, you could talk to a designer
01:17:47and say, you know what, I'll do it for free for you, because I need to work on a portfolio,
01:17:51and I'm new, would you, you know, could you let me do the makeup, and they may just do that,
01:17:58you know, it works, one hand washes the other, and you have a photographer there,
01:18:02taking the pictures, well, you got a makeup portfolio, and you didn't pay anything,
01:18:10you just paid to get the pictures developed, and that's it, so, you know, instead of putting it
01:18:18all together yourself, if you can't do that, you know, you're not in a city that allows,
01:18:24that has a fashion show, where you can do makeup, then you're going to have to maybe go to a beauty
01:18:30salon, and while the ladies are doing their hair, you can ask to do makeup, and have a photographer
01:18:39take the pictures, so they're doing hair and makeup together, you know, and you have a portfolio.
01:18:46Now, this is the people, you know, that's in Oklahoma, or somewhere in Midwest, where fashion,
01:18:53and you want to be a model, and you want to be a fashion designer, or a photographer, and you have
01:18:58these big dreams of coming to New York, and going to Paris, and Europe, good, come on, but try to be
01:19:09professional, and ready when you get here, you know, not someone coming to New York
01:19:18with, you know, little money in their pocket, no pictures, no nothing, you know, and I'm just coming
01:19:25to New York, and I'm going to try to get into the fashion business, and I don't have anything,
01:19:29I don't have anywhere to start from, you know, I got to start, I got to do everything in New York,
01:19:35we used to do that, people did that many times, I know that's what I said, I know girls who came from
01:19:39California to New York, and became top models with one picture, sent a picture in, and
01:19:44Wilhelmina said, put her on a plane, bring her to New York, I'll pay the bills, so that was then,
01:19:53now it's like, you have to be ready, you have to be at least on the first level, for someone
01:20:00to establish, to pick you up, and offer you help, to take you to the next level,
01:20:12professionalism, so at least you're ready, as someone, as opposed to someone, I'm not ready at
01:20:18all, and look at Vogue, look at Bazaar, look at all the magazines, you know, if you're in a small town,
01:20:26and you can't get them, go online, and see if you can subscribe to them, where they can come to your
01:20:31home, in the mail, and that way, you can see what fashion is, what the pictures are doing, it's always
01:20:38constantly changing, I mean, you know, every season, they have to do, every month, they have to do an issue,
01:20:43you know, so it's always constantly changing, and you need to be up to date on everything,
01:20:52where back then, when I was modeling, it was a bit slower, you know, it was changing, but not as fast,
01:21:00you know, also, for you makeup artists, make sure you do a summer, winter, fall, spring
01:21:08look, hairdressers, summer, winter, fall, spring look, models, the same thing, you know, you need a look
01:21:17for all seasons, and every time the season changes, a new makeup line comes out, so they're
01:21:24advertising this, and this is every year, you know, to get rid of the old products, bring in the new
01:21:30products, this is, this is the new color for spring, you know, if you can, if you're somebody like I was, I
01:21:35was very psychic, and I could basically tell you what colors was gonna, like, come in, and I would
01:21:41get it in my mind, what color, like, chartreuse, or whatever, would come in, like, a year, or two years
01:21:45before it would come in, before it would be popular on the market, and I would be doing this, so if you
01:21:51can, you know, see into the future a little bit, and see what's coming, and do it, that would be great, so
01:21:59now that I told you guys, oh, and diet, I told you about my elimination diet, I already spoke
01:22:04about that, so I don't think there's anything else that I can say about a black model in Paris,
01:22:11as, just as a fact that I was breaking into a market, and this is what you have got, you guys
01:22:20are going to be doing, you're going to be breaking into a market, you know, and you have to set the standard,
01:22:28you know, you have to raise the bar, you have to set the standard, you have to be original,
01:22:33and everyone is original, but play up what you have, play up what you have, and
01:22:44work with it, practice, practice in front of the mirror also, too, that happens, and like I said, if
01:22:50you don't have a good, you know, you're quiet, you're shy, I would advise you to read a lot, so you know
01:22:56how to talk on many different subjects, because, you know, people want to talk to you, and they want
01:23:01to take you out to dinner, and they want somebody interested, and they like being entertained,
01:23:04you know, and if you're not somebody that, you know, I don't want to entertain anybody, I just want to
01:23:08come in and go to work, go back home, I think that works, too, you know, you may go into catalog work,
01:23:16there were a lot of models who were like that, who worked nine to six, and they weren't entertaining,
01:23:21they didn't go out to parties, they didn't network, they just went to work, oh, and they made, you know,
01:23:26two or three thousand dollars a day. Now, the only other thing that was a drawback with me
01:23:31was, because I was black, I did not get the same pay rate as my Caucasian counterparts,
01:23:39so, counterparts, so that was a problem, but you know what, I didn't worry about it, I made enough,
01:23:46a lot of money, and I also had a lot of fun, it offered me a life, it offered me an education,
01:23:52and without it, I wouldn't be here talking to you guys. So, thank you for watching
01:24:01A Black Model in Paris, I hope my documentary has been entertaining and educational for you,
01:24:07and I hope it can help you to move forward with your career in fashion. Thank you.