Born 1922 as Maxine Birley in West Dean, West Sussex, English-Irish model and underground movie actress Maxime de la Falaise worked for Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1950s as a vendeuse mondaine which she explained as “a sort of muse who was supposed to encourage sales to the rich English”. She modeled for photographers such as Jack Robinson and Cecil Beaton. She “dressed with uninhibited chic” and according to The Independent, Cecil Beaton once called her “the only truly chic Englishwoman”.
Maxime de la Falaise in the 1940s and ’50s
While living in New York, Maxime de La Falaise wrote a food column for Vogue magazine. In 1980, she published a collection of these columns, with her own illustrations, under the title Food in Vogue. In 1973 she published Seven Centuries of English Cooking: A Collection of Recipes. She also wrote the foreword to My Kingdom of Books (1999) by Richard Booth.
Maxime de La Falaise died of natural causes, aged 86, at her home in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, in 2009. These glamorous photos captured a young Maxime de la Falaise as a model from the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Maxime de la Falaise in checked wool dress with patent leather belt and detachable nutria-lined cape by Jacques Fath, photo by Richard Avedon in Paris, Harper’s Bazaar, April 1948
Maxime de la Falaise in coarse white linen evening jacket exquisitely embroidered in silver and steel, worn with tiny embroidered hat of silver cloth, by Christian Dior, photo by Richard Avedon, Harper’s Bazaar, April 1948
Maxime de la Falaise in coat by Schiaparelli, Napoleonesque coiffure by Guillaume, photo by Clifford Coffin, Paris, October 15, 1948
Maxime de la Falaise in evening dress of nacre satin with draped skirt and strapless bodice encrusted with pearls and crystals by Jacques Fath, photo by Richard Avedon, Paris, Harper’s Bazaar, May 1948
Maxime de la Falaise in tailored linen jacket by Jacques Fath, photo by Richard Avedon in Paris, Harper’s Bazaar, April 1948
Leave a Reply