FILE - This Oct. 29, 1977 file photo shows Eileen Ford of Fords Models Inc. in New York. Ford, who shaped a generation's standards of beauty as she built an empire and launched the careers of Candice Bergen, Lauren Hutton, Jane Fonda, died Wednesday, July
New York:
Modelling agency founder Eileen Ford, who shaped a generation's standards of beauty as she built an empire and launched the careers of Candice Bergen, Lauren Hutton, Jane Fonda and countless others, has died.
She was 92 and died on Wednesday, according to Arielle Baran, a spokeswoman for Derris & Co, which handles public relations for Ford and announced the death yesterday.
Ford was known for her steely manner and eye for talent.
She demanded professionalism from her models, putting them on strict diets and firing those with a taste for late-night revelry.
Her discipline pushed Ford Model Agency to the top, making multimillionaires of both Ford and her late husband, Jerry, who handled the company's business affairs.
One of Ford's proteges, supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, said yesterday she felt "fortunate to have worked in the industry at a time when legends like Eileen Ford were still reigning. Being a part of the Ford Agency when I began my career was truly special. I will always remember Eileen and her indomitable presence with fondness and gratitude."
The typical Ford woman was tall, thin, often blond, with wide-set eyes and a long neck. Eileen Ford was known to tell hopefuls shorter than 5 foot 7 to give up their dreams.
The Ford look changed remarkably little over the years, and set a standard for the industry. Height and a willowy build remain paramount, though Ford was disdainful of the "waif" look typified by British model Kate Moss popular in the early 1990s.
Ford maintained that a model's charisma was as important as her looks, and prided herself on being able to detect successful personalities.
"There's a cockiness to them ... They're just going to be good and you can just tell it," she told Life magazine in 1970. "I see girls that I know I absolutely know will be star models within just a matter of weeks, and they always are."
For high-fashion photography, she said, an ample bust was a disqualifier because the camera adds pounds and curves distract from the picture. "A bosom is terribly detrimental because it cuts you all up in pieces," she told The New York Times in 1967.
She was 92 and died on Wednesday, according to Arielle Baran, a spokeswoman for Derris & Co, which handles public relations for Ford and announced the death yesterday.
Ford was known for her steely manner and eye for talent.
She demanded professionalism from her models, putting them on strict diets and firing those with a taste for late-night revelry.
Her discipline pushed Ford Model Agency to the top, making multimillionaires of both Ford and her late husband, Jerry, who handled the company's business affairs.
One of Ford's proteges, supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, said yesterday she felt "fortunate to have worked in the industry at a time when legends like Eileen Ford were still reigning. Being a part of the Ford Agency when I began my career was truly special. I will always remember Eileen and her indomitable presence with fondness and gratitude."
The typical Ford woman was tall, thin, often blond, with wide-set eyes and a long neck. Eileen Ford was known to tell hopefuls shorter than 5 foot 7 to give up their dreams.
The Ford look changed remarkably little over the years, and set a standard for the industry. Height and a willowy build remain paramount, though Ford was disdainful of the "waif" look typified by British model Kate Moss popular in the early 1990s.
Ford maintained that a model's charisma was as important as her looks, and prided herself on being able to detect successful personalities.
"There's a cockiness to them ... They're just going to be good and you can just tell it," she told Life magazine in 1970. "I see girls that I know I absolutely know will be star models within just a matter of weeks, and they always are."
For high-fashion photography, she said, an ample bust was a disqualifier because the camera adds pounds and curves distract from the picture. "A bosom is terribly detrimental because it cuts you all up in pieces," she told The New York Times in 1967.
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