35 Stunning Photos of French Model Simone D’Aillencourt in the Early 1960s

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Born 1930 in Vizille, French model and talent agent Simone D’Aillencourt began her successful career in Edinburgh in 1954 after a visit by Lucie Clayton. She posed for the British magazine Vogue and then went back and forth between Britain and France. She worked regularly for Pierre Cardin, sometimes for Jacques Heim, and posed for various magazines such as Elle, L’Officiel, Vogue Paris or also Le Jardin des Modes. She posed for William Klein for whom she would become one of his favourites, Irving Penn, John French, Richard Avedon, also French photographer Georges Dambier or Jeanloup Sieff.

Simone D’Aillencourt in the 1960s

D’Aillencourt is best known as the subject of Melvin Sokolsky’s “Bubble” photographic series taken in Paris for Harper’s Bazaar in 1963. She made her final series of photographs in India, with photographer Henry Clarke, in 1969 after a successful career of 15 years.

Throughout her career, D’Aillencourt always kept with the trends over time, from the sophistication of the 1950s to the greatest freedom of clothing the following decade. Some time after she stopped modeling, she founded a modeling agency in Paris, Model International, which quickly grew, and then a second agency of a more modest size, Image.

D’Aillencourt died in Paris in 2017 at the age of 86. Take a look at these stunning photos to see portraits of Simone D’Aillencourt as a model in the early 1960s.

“After Balthus”, Simone D’Aillencourt, Harper’s Bazaar, 1960

Simone D’Aillencourt in abstract patterned silk surah dress of muted beiges and browns on white by Sophie of Saks Fifth Avenue, navy blue straw hat by Tatiana, jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels, photo by Karen Radkai, Vogue, June 1, 1960

Simone d’Aillencourt in brown and black wool tweed coat lined in bands of dark brown natural Russian fitch by Fred Haar, brown velvet hat by Irene of New York, photo by Tom Palumbo, Vogue, August 15, 1960