Marisa Berenson Talks 'Titties,' Tom Ford and Actresses vs. Models at Her Book Launch

The idea of having a charmed life seems very far-fetched these days, but Marisa Berenson is living proof that it's possible. Elsa Schiaparelli is Marisa's grandmother, and Diana Vreeland was a good family friend who put Marisa in Vogue at the age of 16 (well, actually, Marisa first appeared in Vogue as a baby when her christening portrait, shot by Irving Penn, was printed in the glossy.) She went on to have a stellar career as a model, being lensed by the likes of Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Hiro, and Richard Avedon. She eventually smashed through the model/actress barrier, with a breakout turn in Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon. While we could go on and on about her accomplishments and career, luckily we don't have to: Marisa has a book out now titled Marisa Berenson: A Life in Pictures (Rizzoli, 2011) which was edited by Steven Meisel. As the title suggests, it's a pictorial retrospective, and much like Marisa herself, stunning and completely fascinating.
Author:
Publish date:

The idea of having a charmed life seems very far-fetched these days, but Marisa Berenson is living proof that it's possible.

You’ve been both an actress and a model. What do you think about big American magazines putting mostly actresses on the covers instead of models? It went through a stage and I remember a turning point. There was that time after I did Barry Lyndon (1975) my agent said to me, ‘Oh Marisa you’ve got to tone down, you have to go around looking like the girl next door with no makeup on and jeans because that’s what everybody wants now.’ And I thought, 'Oh..no! I’m not that.' The actresses went through that period when they wanted to be taken seriously as individuals and intellectually kind of prove that they were serious--no glamour, no nothing. That got them to a place where no one wanted to photograph them anymore, and they were so NOT glamorous. Then the supermodels came along in the 80s and took over the actresses’ place. They were the stars. All of a sudden all these great-looking, glamorous girls were being photographed like they were actresses. They took over. Then [the actresses] woke up and said, 'Wait a minute. These girls are taking our spotlight.' Now Hollywood has gone back to being ultra glamorous which it should be, because it’s all about dreams, isn’t it? That’s what people want—to dream, to get away from their dreary, sad lives. I think [the actresses] have taken over again because they have more personality than the models.

What do you think about the revival of 70s fashion now? It’ll never be the same, because it’s a whole different world. You can be inspired by the past but you can never copy it.

Related Stories

Style

Alice Temperley Talks Her New Book, London Fashion Week vs. New York Fashion Week and Dressing Pippa Middleton

Alice Temperley has been making her feminine and gorgeous clothes for ten years now. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, which is quite an accomplishment in the fickle world of fashion, she released a new book last week, called True British: Alice Temperley (Rizzoli New York, 2011). The book includes a foreword from Lucy Yeomans, Editor of Harper’s Bazaar UK, and images from international fashion magazines, Temperley campaigns and events. In addition to all these pretty pictures, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at her fabrics and design process, too. We were wowed by Temperley's spring 2012 show in London a few weeks ago (and also admittedly by the fact that Pippa Middleton was sitting front and center at the show) and got to have a chat with the Brit designer via email about her thoughts on London style and London fashion week, those comments she made about New York Fashion Week being too commercial, and Pippa Middleton.

Business

Cook Like a Catwalker: We Chat with the Model Author of New Cook Book Model Kitchen

Fashion and food are truly having a love fest lately. Karlie Kloss launched a line of kookies, Jourdan Dunn has her own cooking show (so do we, for that matter), and we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of butter found in our fave fashion industry insiders' Thanksgiving recipes. Next up on the food/fashion continuum? A cook book written by models. We caught up with the model before the holidays to find out more about the book and what kind of recipes his model friends contributed (because, yes, for the last time, they really do eat!). Read on.

Business

Tom Ford Talks Galliano, Racism, and Why He'll Never Design Elasticized Pants

Time Out Hong Kong finally put its very bizarre and extremely entertaining interview with Tom Ford online. While some quotes about his thoughts on parenthood made the rounds last week, we finally got to read the whole thing this morning and almost spit out our coffee at several points. (Like when he recounted the tale of a German journalist questioning whether the flowers in his room were fake or not, because Americans have a lot of fake things.) The Hong Kong-based journalist attempted to ask Ford questions ranging from his new movie to beauty standards in Asia, and he was met with some strongly worded responses, to say the least. Here are some of the best excerpts: