Carmen Dell’Orefice is known as the oldest working model in the fashion industry. She was discovered when she was only 13 years old, and is still working today, at age 94. Her first contact with the fashion world was a flop. After being approached by the wife of photographer Herman Landschoff while riding a bus to ballet class when she was only 13 years old, Dell’Orefice saw her test photos go nowhere fast. Nevertheless, she was destined for greatness, and just two years later, at age 15, she graced the cover of Vogue Magazine for the very first time. At the age of 92, Dell’Orefice was featured on the cover of Vogue Czechoslovakia, this time as the oldest working model in the world. The model hasn’t had an easy life. In the early 1950s, she married Bill Miles, a man who exploited her career by taking her modeling agency checks and allowing her to have a $50 allowance. They divorced and Carmen married photographer Richard Heimann, who left her after she decided to retire from modeling in 1958. In 1978, she returned to modeling and has been working ever since.
