We’re still a little fuzzy on exactly when every fashion model suddenly became a supermodel. We gather the term was coined during the 1980s, at which point people started looking at those who had modeled earlier and calling them supermodels too. We’ll go with the concept and label Carmen Dell’Orefice one of the first supermodels. Despite her exotic Italian name she was born in the U.S.—New York City to be exact, which was convenient, since it was ground zero for her chosen industry. She began her career at age fifteen in 1946 and continued—with a short retirement in the middle—until just a few years ago, making her one of the few models to work into her senior years. She also appeared in several movies, including 1966’s The Last of the Secret Agents? and 1996’s Sunchaser, which starred Woody Harrelson. The lovely images above, which were shot by Peter Basch, are usually said to be from around 1947, but that’s an obvious internet replication error. Dell-Orefice is clearly an adult in the shots, so they’re probably from around the early- to mid-1950s.
