Image courtesy of Ford Models
Fashion Reverie takes a look back at the life of the legendary Eileen Ford. Considered the grande dame of the modeling industry, Eileen Ford died on Wednesday, July 9.
Ford Models: Images clockwise Brook Shields, Grace Jones, Naomi Campbell, Cheryl Tiegs, Lauren Hutton
Singlehandedly, Eileen Ford changed the modeling world from catch can, badly managed industry to a serious business where models signed million dollar yearly contracts. Ford Models, founded in 1947 by Eileen Ford and her husband managed some of the top models in the industry from Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Naomi Campell, Grace Jones, Verushka, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Jerry Hall, and Christy Turlington to model/actresses Jane Fonda, Ali McGraw, Lauren Hutton, Kim Basinger, Brooke Shields, Candace Bergen, and many others.
Starting her agency out of her parent’s home, Eileen Ford, a former model herself, quickly established a five-day workweek for models and helped organize a voucher syste for models, allowing them to be paid in advance of payment to the agency from clients. (Traditionally models waited some times up to a year to be paid from modeling assignments.)
Some of the agency’s early successes were the careers of Dorian Leigh and Carmen Dell’Orefice, with those early models making upward of $3,500 a week. In its 20th anniversary, Ford Models could boast of making $100,000 a week in bookings.
Image courtesy of beautyflashblog.com
During the 1970s and 80s, Eileen Ford had to compete with rival agencies Elite Models and Wilhelmina for top models, prompting Eileen Ford to open offices around the world, expanding her model board to include plus size models, older models, children and artists. In 1980, Ford launched one of the first international modeling competitions, Ford Supermodel of the World.
Ford Models was sold to investment banking group Stone Tower Equity Partners in 2007. At the time of her death, Eileen Ford was 92.
—William S. Gooch
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