http://parismorningsnewyorknights.blogspot.com/2015/12/an-ode-to-san-francisco.html Wild Young Minds: Lauren Hutton: the real American woman

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Lauren Hutton: the real American woman

68 & fabulous. May sound like something you'd hear from Sex and the City's Samantha, but for Lauren Hutton it's nothing but the truth. The first time I heard of her was while reading Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's coffee table book Influence. Lauren Hutton is one of their biggest inspirations and they interviewed her and have close personal contact with her. I immediately understood why they found her so inspiring, since she comes off as real, honest and a powerful woman.

One of the most admirable thing about her, is that she looks real. Though she absolutely doesn't look like she's 68 (I find her one of the most beautiful elder women I've ever seen, though my own grandma is still a beauty as well!), she has wrinkles and that makes her so much more respectable than all those Hollywood women using botox nowadays.

Lauren Hutton was born in 1943 in South Carolina. She was raised by her mother and stepfather(her parents divorced when she was young) and after graduation, she was one of the first ladies to attend the University of South Florida in 1960. A few years later, she moved with a disk jockey who was 19 years older than her, to New York. In this city she started working at the Playboy Club.

After she got a bachelor of arts degree, she quickly became of the most succesful models in America. Eventually she became very famous for the gap between her mouth (something modelling agencies cherish these days) but in the beginning she was advised to remove the gap. She tried doing this by using a particular wax to cover the gap. At last, she accepted the gap and it became one of the reasons she was known as 'The Fresh American Face of Fashion'. Her face is very accesible, friendly and open. Mostly, I love mysterious faces a lot more but Lauren Hutton has this certain thing. When she smiles, her eyes shine and that's a golden factor for a topmodel.

Besides modelling for Revlon, The Gap (coincidence?) and Vogue (on the cover 28 times!), Lauren Hutton also started an acting career. She had a part in 'The Gambler' next to James Caan. Other movies were 'American Gigolo' and 'Lassiter'.

She was a big fan of motorcycling, which I find very cool for a fashion model and such an elegant lady. But it wasn't always a party. In 2000, when she was 56, she had a huge accident on the road near Las Vegas. She was with many actors on a trip, when she lost control on a curve. The result: several arm and leg fractures, broken ribs, a punctured lung and many bruises.


'I'd like to be the first model who becomes a woman', is what she said. And I definitely think she succeeded in this. Wonderful as she was and is as a model (she's still signed at IMG Models, at her age!), the pictures where she's laughing, or the ones made in Africa, where's she's just wearing a simple costume and a hat, are the ones that appeal most to me.

No wonder Mary-Kate and Ashley gave her such a prominent place in their book. Lauren Hutton, who by the way never married, is strong, all-American yet edgy. May I look and act the same when I'm 68. That will be fabulous.


1 comment:

  1. She is absolutely iconic. A woman of not only beauty, yet one of substance. She's bad ass! I admire her tenacity for life, and her advocacy for what she believes in. Yes, there are many beautiful models out there, though, to me, Lauren Hutton is a rare breed, who defies all the odds...

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