“I use my face as a canvas.” Nicole de Lamargé (1938 – 1969) rarely troubled the pages of American fashion magazines. But at home, in France, her success was unrivalled — particularly at Elle, where Helene Lazareff put her on the cover 25 times. Karl Lagerfeld proclaimed her the ‘Elle girl par excellence,’ whilst to Grace Coddington, then starting out as a model, she was simply ‘my idol.’
Nicole de Lamargé in the 1960s
Like Anna Karina, de Lamargé was discovered by Catherine Harlé in late-Fifties Paris, and became her agency’s first great star. She started out with assignments for Jardin des Modes and Vogue, but was quickly adopted as Elle’s unofficial face, collaborating with boyfriend Peter Knapp (the magazine’s art director) to incarnate the new decade’s breezy, self-possessed spirit. She found success on the other side of the channel too, working with London photographers like Parkinson, Bailey, Duffy and French.
“I keep changing my look, you see.” Nicole explained to an interviewer in early 1969. “I get very bored… I don’t think about my face anymore. It’s just instinct.” Later that year, she featured alongside Andy Warhol and the Beatles in Bailey’s epitaph to the Swinging Sixties, ’Goodbye Baby and Amen”, with bouffant curls, tongue sticking out, a cigarette dangling from her hand. Next to her name, in the index, Bailey placed the single word ‘deceased’; a few months before publication, whilst on holiday in Morocco with her second husband, de Lamargé had died in a car crash.
Take a look at these fabulous photos to see the beauty of Nicole de Lamargé as a model in the 1960s.
Nicole de la Marge, circa 1960s
Nicole de la Marge in wool and fur ensemble called “Stockholm” by (Marc Bohan) Christian Dior, Autumn/Winter Collection Charme 62 Line, photo by Mark Shaw, Paris, 1961
Nicole de la Marge, photo by Brian Duffy, French Elle, August 1962
Nicole de la Marge in black long-sleeved lace top belted and bowed with satin over purple smooth tweed skirt by Susan Small, photo by Michael Williams, Harper’s Bazaar UK, August 1964
Nicole de la Marge in coat, dress and curè hat in complimentary tweeds mingling amethyst and brown by Jaeger, photo by Michael Williams, Harper’s Bazaar UK, August 1964
Leave a Reply