30 Glamorous Photos of American Model Elise Daniels in the 1940s

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Elise Daniels (1923–1997) was born in Illinois, she spent her youth in privileged Palm Beach. After a brief marriage at 16, she followed her older sister to New York, and whilst there paid a visit to an old family friend. That friend turned out to be John Robert Powers, who started her on a run of striking success. But there was success — and then there was Dick Avedon.

The pictures they created blended his flair for atmosphere and her nuanced poise. In 1950, Avedon declared her the most important model he’d worked with: “Elise’s natural sense of movement, sense of elegance, sense of line, sense of a photograph, was directly responsible for the most recent change in my fashion pictures.”

Daniels spent her last years on the move, running towards fresh starts (or away from messy endings). Her last home was a council estate north of London; when her sister visited, she found a gorgeous flowerbed outside Daniels’ home — the only patch of color on the estate. “That was Elise,” she sighed. “This delicate, exquisite creature, who created beauty wherever she walked.”

Take a look at these glamorous photos to see fashion portraits of American model Elise Daniels in the 1940s.

Elise Daniels in short black shorts and Cholo coat very square and long-sleeved with scalloped yoke and hem by Carolyn Schnurer, photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Harper’s Bazaar, May 1945

Elise Daniels is wearing chocolate brown Forstmann wool curve-button suit with nutria lined hood from Hattie Carnegie, photo by John Rawlings, Vogue, September 1, 1946

Elise Daniels in a pinch-waisted jacket rippling longer in back of blonde velveteen bibbed in mink over a chocolate wool skirt by Kraus, photo by John Rawlings, Vogue, September 1, 1947

Elise Daniels in black Russian broadtail cape framed in mink by Esther Dorothy, black velvet hat with a filter of veiling at Bonwit Teller, photo by John Rawlings, Vogue, August 1, 1947