The Replacement Girl 7/90. Avedon, Richard. Manhattan, 1950. A midcentury model’s portfol
The Replacement Girl 7/90. Avedon, Richard. Manhattan, 1950. A midcentury model’s portfolio was a simple affair — in Mullen’s case, just a slim manila folder with her name and that of the Ford Agency neatly handwritten on the cover. Inside, past a white page across which she’d scribbled ‘À retourner, please’, lay a handful of clippings showing her remarkable range; dewy and doe-eyed for Scavullo, introspective in a Bill Klein Vogue Paris spread, and alluringly sophisticated in a 1950 Bazaar editorial shot by Dick Avedon. ‘You have to make them feel beautiful.’ Avedon once said, talking about the models of Mullen’s generation. And Mullen clearly felt beautiful in the Bazaar shot, cast as a ruby-lipped 20th century Eve, skin glowing and limbs unfurling from a navy velvet Nelly de Grab bodice to tempt the male model with a lit cigarette. ‘The woman inside the clothes may look joyous, wistful, lonely, arrogant, bored, expectant, surprised, annoyed,’ Winthrop Sergeant wrote in a 1958 New Yorker profile of Avedon ‘—she may even weep, though weeping models have not been particularly popular with the editors of Harper’s Bazaar … she invariably seems to have been caught unawares by the camera at some evanescent moment, and everything about her expression and bearing suggests a drama beginning long before and concluding long after the click of the shutter.’ Avedon would become one of Mullen’s most loyal supporters, shooting four out of her five Bazaar covers, and booking her for lucrative ad campaign work as well as high-profile editorials. She came alive for his camera — whether rapt and dreamy in a fairytale Bergdorf Goodman ballgown, or wreaking havoc in a TV studio in a sleek trouser suit. They shared an affectionate, teasing relationship that would stretch across the decades; when the Met curated a retrospective of his work in 2000, Avedon sent Mullen a poster covered with an energetic, exasperated scrawl; ‘Barbara. This is an order! You must be at our opening. The Met Museum. Dick.’ #BarbaraMullen #TheReplacementGirl #Unbound #NellyDeGrab #Revlon #HarpersBazaar #RichardAvedon #1950. -- source link