BUSINESS OF BEAUTY
A lot has changed in the modeling industry over the past sixty years. The photos below (via Gothamist) shed a bit of light on the venerable Ford Model Agency in its first few years of existence when Mrs. Eileen Ford and her husband, Jerry, ran the rapidly growing business from a small office in a less-than-ideal part of New York City. Today, the agency has been sold, and its editorial women’s board is run from a sprawling, Rafael de Cardenas designed penthouse just south of Central Park.
If the evolution of the modeling industry is a topic that interests you, check out this interview with the 90-year-old Eileen Ford from V Magazine.
‘Eileen Ford’s modeling agency is on third floor, with a funeral parlor and a cigar store flanking its entrance.’
‘Ford Modeling Agency co-owners Gerard Ford & his wife Eileen manning 4 telephones at once as they answer call requesting one of their 34 high fashion models in the 3rd floor office.’
‘On the telephone, Eileen Ford getting a massage to relieve tension felt from holding telephone in shoulder position.’
‘Eileen Ford applying ointment to blister of model Sandra Nelson’s feet.’
‘Eileen Ford conducting her job of running the Ford Model Agency, while model Jone Pedersen entertains Ford’s daughter.’
….fast forward sixty-four years…
The agency today as imagined by head honcho, Paul Rowland, and Rafael de Cardenas from Architecture at Large:
Ford’s top models as featured on the cover of McCall’s in April 1955, in a 1966 photo by Ormond Gigli, and in a 2011 spread in V Magazine which is a bit
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