Born 1929 in Shanghai, Chinese-American fashion model China Machado worked for Givenchy for three years and during this time, she became the highest-paid runway model in Europe, earning $1,000 a day. She was the first model of color to appear in a major American fashion magazine, in the February 1959 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
China Machado in the late 1950s
Machado worked for Richard Avedon exclusively for three years before he got her a job as Harper’s Bazaar’s Senior Fashion Editor where, eventually, she became the Fashion Director and ventured into other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television. In 1989, she was added to the International Best Dressed List.
In 1991, Machado opened a gallery in Watermill, New York, when she left the fashion industry. Among the photographers who exhibited in the gallery were Hiro, Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Barbara Bordnick. The gallery closed in 1998, when she retired. She returned to modeling and the public eye at age 82 with an article in W followed by interviews in the Spanish and German editions of Vogue, The Sunday Telegraph, and New York. She starred in an ad campaign for Cole Hann as well.
Machado died in 2016, a week before her 87th birthday, at Stony Brook University Hospital from cardiac arrest. Take a look at these fabulous photos to see portraits of China Machado as a fashion model in the late 1950s.
China Machado in beach dress of white cotton swiped with khaki and green by B.H. Wragge, photo by Lillian Bassman, Harper’s Bazaar, December 1958
China Machado in orange print tunic over black shorts in Cone cotton by Brigance, photo by Lillian Bassman, Harper’s Bazaar, December 1958
China Machado in Siamese tiger jacket that closes in back by Scaasi, photo by Gleb Derujinsky, Harper’s Bazaar, November 1958
China Machado, pale damask dinner dress and jacket by Ben Zuckerman, hair by Kenneth, photo by Richard Avedon, New York studio, November 1958
China Machado in a brief knitted wool tunic that buttons up the side by Geist & Geist, photo by Richard Avedon, Harper’s Bazaar, December 1959
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