Model Woman: Eileen Ford and the Business of Beauty

by Robert Lacey

Overview

A revealing, no-holds-barred portrait of the legendary Eileen Ford—the entrepreneur who transformed the business of modeling and helped invent the celebrity supermodel.

Working with her husband, Jerry, Eileen Ford created the twentieth century’s largest and most successful modeling agency, representing some of the fashion world’s most famous names—Suzy Parker, Carmen Dell’Orefice, Lauren Hutton, Rene Russo, Christie Brinkley, Jerry Hall, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell. Her relentless ambition turned the business of modeling into one of the most glamorous and desired professions, helping to convert her stable of beautiful faces into millionaire superstars.

Model Woman chronicles the Ford Modeling Agency’s meteoric rise to the top of the fashion and beauty business, and paints a vibrant portrait of the uncompromising woman at its helm in all her glittering, tyrannical brilliance. Outspoken and controversial, Ford was never afraid to offend in defense of her stringent standards. When she chose, she could deliver hauteur in the grand tradition of fashion’s battle-axes, from Coco Chanel to Diana Vreeland—just ask John Casablancas or Janice Dickinson. But she was also a shrewd businesswoman with a keen eye for talent and a passion for serving her clients.

Drawing on more than four years of intensive interviews with Ford and her intimates, associates, and rivals, as well as exclusive access to agency documents and memorabilia, Robert Lacey weaves an unforgettable tale of a determined entrepreneur and the empire she built—a story of beauty, ambition, business, and popular culture as powerful and complex as the woman at its center.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062108098
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/27/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	355
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robert Lacey is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, including The Queen; Ford: The Men and the Machine; The Year 1000; and Inside the Kingdom. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Supermodels for Breakfast 1

1 Nothing to do But Look Pretty 12

2 Origins 20

3 The Most Talented Child Ever Born 26

4 Great Neck 31

5 The Bobbsey Twins 38

6 Young and Beautiful 45

7 Something Mellifluous 51

8 Model Student 58

9 Le Meilleur Moment De L'Amour 62

10 Jerry 69

11 Stylist 75

12 Agency 83

13 New Look 90

14 Goddesses and Masterpieces 97

15 Model Types 103

16 Scouts and Bookers 114

17 Ideal for Entertaining 124

18 Shoes Under the Bed 130

19 Bonjour, Paris! 136

20 Celebrity Models 143

21 In the Eye of the Beholder 152

22 Youthquake 1965 163

23 Rivalries 175

24 Breakfast at Seventy-Eighth Street 185

25 The Panorama 193

26 Model Wars 203

27 The Ford Empire Strikes Back 211

28 Cover Girls 219

29 Sex and Drugs and Supermodels 230

30 Hopping Like Bedbugs 239

31 Full Circle 246

Epilogue: Beauty Business 257

Appendix: Top Ford Models 265

Acknowledgments 267

Photographic Sources 275

Notes 279

Bibliography 313

Index 321

Editorial Reviews

As glamorous and gossipy as one could wish.” — Slate

“Ford’s status as a controversial, demanding figure isn’t ignored in Lacey’s portrait of one of the hardest working women in fashion. The juicy details of a tell-all are met with the nuance of a memoir in this portrait of the woman he recalls as the ‘matriarch of modeling.’” — New York Observer

“A high-powered page-turner.” — Daily Beast

“Unputdownable ... left me not only full of admiration for her achievements but also rather liking her....Lacey weaves riveting narratives into his account of the life of Ford ... with an eye for detail and juicy anecdotes.” — Financial Times

“Exhaustively and painstakingly researched, yielding a biography that serves as a testament both to this woman’s professional prowess as well as her personal life….In the world of fashion related biographies, this surely ranks up there with some of the best.” — New York Journal of Books

“A fascinating look at the woman who, perhaps more than anyone, shaped our ideas of what it means to be a sophisticated American beauty.” — People

“Culled from countless hours of interviews... Lacey diligently maps the agency’s explosive success and skillfully intertwines the glitz and cutthroat melodrama of the modeling world with Ford’s shrewd, intimidating business strategies, uncanny vision, and ability to merge beauty with fame.” — Kirkus

“In the fascinating Model Woman, author Robert Lacey paints Ford as an intriguing paradox….A wholly entertaining, insightful and slightly bitchy look inside the moneyed world of modeling.” — BookPage

“An intensive look at a highly competitive business, with fabulous turf battles and clashing egos among the biggest names in fashion.... A compelling portrait of a savvy businesswoman who transformed the modeling business.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

A high-powered page-turner.

Daily Beast

Exhaustively and painstakingly researched, yielding a biography that serves as a testament both to this woman’s professional prowess as well as her personal life….In the world of fashion related biographies, this surely ranks up there with some of the best.

New York Journal of Books

Unputdownable ... left me not only full of admiration for her achievements but also rather liking her....Lacey weaves riveting narratives into his account of the life of Ford ... with an eye for detail and juicy anecdotes.

Financial Times

As glamorous and gossipy as one could wish.

Slate

An intensive look at a highly competitive business, with fabulous turf battles and clashing egos among the biggest names in fashion.... A compelling portrait of a savvy businesswoman who transformed the modeling business.

Booklist

A fascinating look at the woman who, perhaps more than anyone, shaped our ideas of what it means to be a sophisticated American beauty.

People

In the fascinating Model Woman, author Robert Lacey paints Ford as an intriguing paradox….A wholly entertaining, insightful and slightly bitchy look inside the moneyed world of modeling.

BookPage

Ford’s status as a controversial, demanding figure isn’t ignored in Lacey’s portrait of one of the hardest working women in fashion. The juicy details of a tell-all are met with the nuance of a memoir in this portrait of the woman he recalls as the ‘matriarch of modeling.’

New York Observer

An intensive look at a highly competitive business, with fabulous turf battles and clashing egos among the biggest names in fashion.... A compelling portrait of a savvy businesswoman who transformed the modeling business.

Booklist

Unputdownable ... left me not only full of admiration for her achievements but also rather liking her....Lacey weaves riveting narratives into his account of the life of Ford ... with an eye for detail and juicy anecdotes.

Financial Times

As glamorous and gossipy as one could wish.

Slate

Unputdownable ... left me not only full of admiration for her achievements but also rather liking her....Lacey weaves riveting narratives into his account of the life of Ford ... with an eye for detail and juicy anecdotes.

Penelope Tree

In the fascinating Model Woman, author Robert Lacey paints Ford as an intriguing paradox….A wholly entertaining, insightful and slightly bitchy look inside the moneyed world of modeling.

Amy Scribner

Exhaustively and painstakingly researched, yielding a biography that serves as a testament both to this woman’s professional prowess as well as her personal life….In the world of fashion related biographies, this surely ranks up there with some of the best.

Jeffrey Feiner

Ford’s status as a controversial, demanding figure isn’t ignored in Lacey’s portrait of one of the hardest working women in fashion. The juicy details of a tell-all are met with the nuance of a memoir in this portrait of the woman he recalls as the ‘matriarch of modeling.’

Hunter Harris

05/01/2015
In 1939, college freshman Eileen Otte briefly modeled for fashion czar Harry Conover. Preferring to be behind the camera, she became a stylist and eventual model booker. Frequent biographer Lacey (The Queen) recounts the life of Eileen Ottensoser (1922–2014) as she transitions to Otte, then Ford to hide her Jewish heritage—and succeeds in building a fashion dynasty. Ford Models became synonymous with leggy blondes as Eileen scouted in Scandinavia and sold the Cinderella syndrome, hiring girls from modest backgrounds and assuming the role of mother and matchmaker. Lacey interviewed Eileen along with former models and even competitors to vividly present the history of Ford models, noting that the industry transformed when Eileen's business partner-husband Gerard "Jerry" Ford ensured payment, introduced cancellation fees, and negotiated million-dollar contracts, notably for Christie Brinkley at Cover Girl, Lauren Hutton at Revlon, and Karen Graham at Estée Lauder. Yet the crux of the book is the "models wars" of the 1980s and 1990s when Ford faced tough competition from upstart agencies Wilhelmina and Elite. Described by peers as ambitious and assertive, Eileen struggled to maintain dominance. VERDICT A treat for biography lovers and those interested in the business side of beauty. Fashion mavens will appreciate Eileen's musings on the rise of supermodels as bona fide celebrities.—Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Library Journal

2015-03-16
How Ford Models rose to power under the auspices of a no-nonsense doyenne. British biographer Lacey (A Brief Life of the Queen, 2012, etc.) colorfully portrays the agency founded in 1947 by Eileen Ford (1922-2014) and her husband, Jerry, and the ensuing modeling empire that would become a pre-eminent force throughout the industry's heyday. A third of this biography focuses on Ford's pert Long Island youth as a voracious reader and Nancy Drew fan who found pleasure in high school "sorority socializing." She changed her Jewish surname from Ottensoser to Otte in order to ensure her acceptance into an elite university (she graduated from Barnard College). An outspoken and bumptious young woman, Ford's "on-the-fly" (and swiftly annulled) wedding to naval officer Charles Sheppard was followed by her nuptials with 20-year-old Jerry Ford in 1944. A department store advertising gig procuring models stoked her interest in fashion merchandising and the possibilities of combined talent management with her husband. Culled from countless hours of interviews with talent scouts, bookers, celebrities, and Ford herself, Lacey diligently maps the agency's explosive success and skillfully intertwines the glitz and cutthroat melodrama of the modeling world with Ford's shrewd, intimidating business strategies, uncanny vision, and ability to merge beauty with fame. The author clearly demonstrates that Ford was a multifaceted woman through both her chilly if well-respected industry reputation and her morality as a doting mother of four who forgave the infidelities of her husband. For as tyrannical as Ford's legacy has painted her, Lacey concludes his biography with a heartfelt, bittersweet road trip in the summer of 2010 during which Ford, then 88, became a contemplative, almost melancholy tour guide along the streets of her Long Island childhood hometown. A briskly written, unapologetically frank portrait of "the empress of American modeling—a mixture of Mary Tyler Moore and Barbara Walters, but tougher."

Kirkus Reviews