Marie Helvin

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Another recent interview, in The Guardian (image source - guardian.co.uk

Question time

Marie Helvin on being a feminist, maintaining her career after 50 and why she once nearly hit Fern Britton live on television

25 September 2008

Have you had Botox?
No. I'm a vegetarian. I don't want to have anything injected into me that I can't eat. I'm a real health nut. I look after myself well.

What do you think about the size zero debate?
I've never met a size zero person. Is Paris Hilton a size zero? I've met her. She looked very thin but she looked very healthy. She had beautiful skin.

When you were backstage at shows you must have seen models who were clearly ill?
Never - that's the truth. In my modelling time, bulimia and anorexia must have existed but I didn't even know what those words meant. If it was there, and it must have been, it was very hidden. If they were ill, it was because they were on drugs. Having said that, there was a very famous model, one of David Bailey's favourite models - no one had any idea that she was a heroin addict. Bailey didn't even know, so obviously stuff like that exists. It's just not always so evident.

Or the fashion world turns a blind eye?
I think that drugs exist in every business, whether it's fashion or music or films. It's a youth thing - young people do drugs; they just do. I did when I was a kid. I didn't do cocaine, but I liked smoking grass. I'm not condoning it, but I don't think you can just blame the fashion industry.

You were a fashion icon in the 70s. How does the industry treat women as they age?
It's not as easy as people assume it to be. It was really hard work to convince anybody to use me at 50. Twiggy's got her Marks & Spencer, and I do my things, but I can't think of any other model in her 50s. Jerry [Hall] is an actor these days, so who else is there? Part of the reason is because the advertising agencies are full of very young people, and their idea of 50 is not a true idea of what 50 is.

Are you a feminist?
Absolutely, I'm very proud to say that. I don't know why people are ashamed to say they are. Young women don't understand how hard women in previous generations worked to allow them to do what they are doing today. They're more interested in how they look. That's all right. They'll learn.

You married David Bailey at 19. Was that too young?
It has nothing to do with being young; it's more to do with why you want to get married. I was in love with Bailey but I got married because I wanted to stay in the country. I had a US passport, and in those days they would only give models a work permit for three months in a year, so I said, "We've got to get married."

You've been open about not wanting children. Does it annoy you that people don't seem to understand?
Yes. I appeared on This Morning and Fern Britton said, "So, Marie, the reason you decided never to have children was so you could keep your figure." I nearly hit her. I thought, "Are you insane? How do you know I don't have a medical problem?" There are loads of women that don't want children. What does it matter? I'm still a woman. I did get pregnant once - I had an abortion. So it's not a genetic thing. But none of my brothers or sisters have children so it's obviously something to do with the way we were brought up. I've never wanted to be a mother. I don't particularly like children. That sounds awful, but I have nothing to say to them.

You're annoyed about how the industry treats older women, but you're also promoting an anti-ageing product.
It doesn't matter how old we are, we all want to look the best we can. I don't see that there is anything the matter than that. My livelihood depends on my surface beauty, but when I wash my face I see a real person there. I don't see somebody that's thinking, "Oh my God, I'm 56, everything's crumbling." I don't believe women want to have that facelift look. Do you think Joan Rivers has beautiful skin? I don't think so.

What's your beauty regime?
I use a very mild soap, I feed my skin really well with food supplements, and last week I had an intravenous drip for two hours - it's vitamin C, selenium, B12 and zinc. I do that a couple of times a year to boost my immune system.

 

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A David Downton sketch, from November 1998 (image source - www.daviddownton.com).

 

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Marie as part of the group shot for UK Vogue's July 2007 issue, alongside Yasmin Le Bon, Cecilia Chancellor, Elizabeth Jagger, Erin O'Connor, Jacquetta Wheeler and Lily Cole, by Demarchelier (image source - www.vogue.co.uk).

 

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Fooling around with Helmut Newton in 1971, snapped by John Swannell (image source - www.chrisbeetles.com).

 

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Two shots from UK Cosmo, original issue not identified but included in a 'Best of Cosmopolitan' publication (image source - ebay.co.uk

 

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An interview in The Telegraph (text/image source - telegraph.co.uk

Culture clinic: Marie Helvin

22 Jun 2009

Last book read
Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution by Caroline Moorehead

Last film seen
The End of the Line, a documentary directed by Rupert Murray about the devastating effect that overfishing is having on our ecosystem

Last music heard
Chet Baker, My Funny Valentine

Last dose of live culture
North-West Passage – An Arctic Obsession at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

What would be your fantasy other job?
A musical singer-dancer, an Egyptologist or a marine biologist specialising in whale conservation.

If you had to represent your country in international competition, what would it be for?
I was once a very talented “lei-maker” (flower garlands worn around the neck in the South Pacific). I won the State of Hawaii’s “Most Unique Lei” celebrating “Lei Day” in our first year of Statehood (Hawaii is the 50th state). I made it out of lava that I had gathered from Mount Kilauea and pounded it till I got uniform pieces that were light enough to wear, and intertwined the lava with fresh flowers. I was in the newspaper with our State Governor… and my lei was displayed at the Bishop Museum.

What do you truly believe in?
Luck… and passing it on.

What, in human history, do you wish had never been invented?
Nuclear weapons.

If you could be stranded in one place in the world, where would that be?
Haines, Alaska-gateway to Glacier Bay. I was there last summer and just loved it. The absolute remoteness of the area, the warmth of the sun and the clean fresh iciness of the blue glaciers… So unlike my home in Hawaii. I’m planning to go back and spend next summer there.

What has been your greatest discovery online?
Food and skincare sites.

What is your definition of love?
“We love the things we love for what they are.” (Robert Frost)

Who, in the whole of history, would you most like to sit next to on a long haul flight?
Hawaiian Crown Princess Victoria Ka’iulani Cleghorn. She was the last heir to the throne of Hawaii and tried so very hard to keep Hawaii for the native Hawaiians, although she lost that battle and the islands were illegally annexed. She died when she was only 23.

How would you best like to be remembered?
As a mystery.

 

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Another more recent shot (dailymail.co.uk

 

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A new interview - and campaign (dailymail.co.uk

Marie Helvin: The model spills the beans on her past

14th November 2009

At 57, Marie Helvin - once described as 'the most beautiful woman in the world' - is as stunning as ever as the body of lingerie label Agent Provocateur's new collection. So what's her secret? No husband, no family, no mortgage and a devilish sense of humour, she confides to Jane Gordon.

When lingerie company Agent Provocateur asked Marie Helvin to be the face and body of their new demi-couture collection, she agreed on one condition: ‘I said to the photographer, “I have to do it before I turn 57.”

He said, “What difference does it make?” and I said, “It just does.” So we shot it in July, one month before my 57th birthday,’ she says with one of the long, dirty laughs that punctuate our conversation. In truth, of course – much as she might deny it – the model often cited in the 1970s as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ doesn’t look like your average 57-year-old. Although telling her this prompts both a defence of her youthful appearance and an attack on the way in which women become ‘invisible’ after 45.

‘I have no children. I have time to look after my skin, my body. I don’t smoke. I don’t have Botox. Anyway, who knows what a woman of 57 really looks like? How many women of my age do you see in fashion or cosmetics ads – even those that are being marketed to women over 45? Twiggy perhaps, but who else?’

We meet for a late lunch that she has pre-ordered – a modest salad embellished with walnuts and feta cheese, a little basket of fries (which she declares are ‘the best in London’) and a bottle of ice-cold chablis – in a restaurant close to the Chelsea home she rents.

Generous to a fault (she has never been interested in money), and deliciously indiscreet, she is amused to find herself the star of a risqué lingerie campaign just three years before she is due to collect her bus pass. ‘I’m used to working on my own as a model, but in this campaign I was faced with young, beautiful models. Their bodies are amazing! That was the only bit that was difficult for me.’

‘Between real lovers, I have my fantasy lovers. Last year it was Clive Owen. I am over him now’

She has no regrets about not being more sensible over her finances during a stellar career spanning the past four decades. Independent, she dismisses women who ‘live off’ relationships with men (her divorce settlement from photographer David Bailey in 1985 was just £100,000).

‘I was shocked,’ she says, ‘when, a couple of years ago, a man I was seeing gave me a diamond ring. It was the first time that had happened to me. When I was married to Bailey, I was a hippie chick; I wasn’t interested in jewellery. I remember Jerry Hall and Tina Chow used to say to me “You’re crazy. Get as much jewellery as you can and stash it.” The amount of jewellery Jerry has must fill vaults.’

These days Marie and Jerry – who were close friends as young models and during their marriages – are ‘friendly’ but not friends. Asked whom she remains close to from her past, she replies instantly ‘only Bailey’.

Her ex-husband – who married his current wife Catherine shortly after his divorce from Marie – calls her ‘all the time’ and they chat for ‘hours’. Does she get on with Catherine, who ironically was the face of Agent Provocateur two years ago?

‘I have the utmost respect and affection for Catherine. She has made Bailey very happy and given him three amazing children. He needed a family but I didn’t realise it. I was so shocked when we divorced and he married her, and one child after another arrived…’

Marie has never made a secret of her disinterest in children (she is visibly irritated by the presence of several babies in the restaurant during our meal). There is something rather endearing about her honesty on this subject, even if it does sometimes get her into trouble. ‘I can’t stand small babies. I would rather give birth to a kitten or a colt…a little pony,’ she says wistfully.

In many ways, Marie remains the hippie chick she was in the 70s. She doesn’t own a property and says that she could walk away tomorrow with ‘just one suitcase’ because she loves to be ‘free’. She has never remarried, although she was once engaged to Mark Shand, brother of the Duchess of Cornwall.

‘I was in love with him but I didn’t want to marry him. We spent Christmases with Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles. I loved Camilla – she was such fun – and her children, although I used to look at Tom and think, “I hope you get better looking, you’re a very unattractive child.” And look – he’s so handsome now! You know, even then, when she was happily married to Andrew, I was aware that something was going on with her and Charles. Maybe just a friendship…’

It’s difficult to keep up with the witty, slightly wicked Marie. Our conversation spins from Prince Charles (whom she admires) to Eric Clapton (‘a very unpleasant man’) and on through a startling cast of ex lovers and friends (Jack Nicholson and Peter Gabriel among them).

Marie says that one of her problems when she was young was that she ‘had no voice’ but now that she is older ‘you cannot shut me up’. She certainly talks more than she eats – I have demolished most of the ‘best fries in London’, she has nibbled at just two.

‘I am well trained. The only reason I am this slim is that I have to fit into the clothes. I have been on a diet for my entire life’

‘I’m well trained. The only reason I am this slim is that I have to fit into the clothes. The samples are size 8, and I am naturally a size 10 to 12. I have been on a diet for my entire life,’ she shrugs.

Funny and irreverent, she is as critical of herself as she is of other people. She loves ‘grown-up men’ (the only man she has ever been out with who is younger is Marco Pierre White) but has no interest in living with anyone apart from her two cats. ‘To be honest, the reason I have my cats is to force myself to think about something other than myself,’ she chuckles at one point.

She describes herself as a very ‘sexual’ person, although she insists she is not promiscuous (she was faithful to Bailey, despite his many infidelities). She has, she says, ‘genuinely’ loved all the men she has ever been with, but has always been wary of what she calls ‘emotional intimacy’, admitting that perhaps she avoids this to protect herself from heartbreak.

‘I remember one of my boyfriends, Neil Pearson, said to me, “You have to allow yourself to be hurt in order to really feel.” I thought “What a load of s***!” He didn’t last long,’ she laughs.

There is a man in her life right now, but it is not serious, she says. Then there is Viggo Mortensen: ‘Between the real lovers I have my fantasy lovers. Right now it is Viggo, but last year it was Clive Owen. I am over him now. Before that it was Gabriel Byrne…’

Marie laughs when I ask her about her ambitions (‘At 57?’), but admits that she would like to become the face of a fashion brand that catered for ‘grown-up women’ as long as she could have some input in the design. She has plans, too, for a series of health, fitness and wellbeing books for women over 45. But she has no interest in modelling for more than a few more years.

‘I don’t see myself as the next Carmen Dell’Orefice. I’d rather be fat and happy, sitting on a beach in Hawaii eating pizza. That’s my dream – to eat without feeling, “Oh no, I have a job tomorrow,”’ she says, glancing covetously at the now-cold ‘best fries in London’.

The Agent Provocateur Soirée collection launches this weekend and will be sold at Harrods and Selfridges, London, and Agent Provocateur, Manchester. Tel: 0844 4995202, agentprovocateur.com.

Marie Helvin will be selling some of her clothes from the 1970s and 80s – including designs by Ossie Clark, Azzedine Alaïa and Yves Saint Laurent – on 8 December through Kerry Taylor Auctions. For more information, visit kerrytaylorauctions.com.

 

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In the last pic she looks so much like Joan Collins I cannot believe it

 

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"The b*tch", wasn't it? It seems it was (moviemarket.com

 

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Oh, wow. I'm so glad for Marie that the resemblance was no coincidence. Joan Collins is fantastic, but Marie has that innocent thing that turned into something pure, yet mature.

 

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Some classic snippets in this interview about her wardrobe (dailymail.co.uk

Why Marie Helvin is done with her designer clothes

03rd December 2009

I've collected beautiful clothes since I started modelling aged 16 - I'm 57 now. Each garment holds a special memory for me, but I've decided to sell the lot.

I love fashion, but I don't really do shopping. I'm just not interested in 'possessions' any more; I knew this would happen to me one day. I'm interested only in buying land in my native Hawaii, so that one day I can live there and have the space to rescue animals.

I don't have any children, but I can leave my land to an animal sanctuary. That is what I dream about, not bags, not shoes.

I always wear the same thing: a tight white shirt - I have about 50 - and tight black trousers.

I have some wonderful memories, though. Take the designer Azzedine Alaia - my life was perfect during his heyday, the late Eighties. I wasn't with Bailey [her ex-husband, David Bailey], I was fooling around like crazy - Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel - and all the time I was in Alaia.

I have a lot of Karl Lagerfeld in my wardrobe, too. He was great fun, very naughty, although it took me a while to understand his accent. I did his catwalk show once and I had to walk down the runway holding a parrot - it was biting me the whole time.

Anyway it is time to move on, besides I no longer fit into most of my wardrobe! As a model, I could not go over 110lbs, which for my height, 5ft 9in, is tiny. I remember turning up for a fitting for an Yves Saint Laurent couture show and he pointed at my breasts and said: 'What are those?' I had only put on five pounds.

When I look at pictures of myself from the Seventies, I think, 'Look at my bones!' Now, I weigh 130lbs, although I still look small because the extra weight is muscle -I spent most of the Nineties in the gym.

I did Armani's show only once, in the mid-Eighties. There was me, Janice Dickinson, Pat Cleveland and Jerry Hall, and we were all smoking and drinking champagne, and Armani totally flipped out. He never hired us again.

I quit smoking when I was 40, but in those days, none of us ate and so we smoked and drank to stave off the hunger. Yves liked to party and there was a time when we were staying up all night. The new girls all look the same, and why do they have to be so young? It's silly. They look like they need to go to a party and eat!

One of my favourite designers is Antony Price. He was the master, so ahead of his time. I met him through my friend Jerry Hall. We were inseparable for a while, but we rarely swapped clothes.

OSSIE CLARK DRESS
Ossie Clark was a genius. My favourite dress was made for me by Ossie. It's in pristine condition, a velvet and chiffon gown with a plunging neckline that he cut onto the cloth – he didn't use a paper pattern. I never saw Laurent do that, never saw Givenchy do that… The dress is a miracle, with no stretch, so you have to shimmy into it. It has the narrow gold label sewn on the outside that became his trademark in his final years.

YVES SAINT LAURENT RIVE GAUCHE JACKET
Yves Saint Laurent is another favourite: He was a Leo, like me, so we got on really well. He was so gentle, and he loved us models. He hired me and Iman as his house models - he was one of the first designers to use black and Asian girls on the catwalk. Working with Yves meant I got to see how a couture dress was made. I know it sounds ridiculous but I truly felt I was in the presence of a great artist. Once, he stuck me in the head with a hat pin during his Moroccan collection and some blood trickled down my forehead and he fainted.

He would just give all the couture clothes to the gang: Me, Paloma (Picasso), Nan Kempner, Lauren Bacall, until one day his business partner said: 'No more giving gowns away! It must all go into the archive.' But Yves managed to give me the black and white printed Rice Gauche jacket I wore for my wedding to David Bailey in 1975. Under the jacket I wore a white jersey T-shirt dress by Yuki, a fake flower in my hair and gold sandals. I was very young when I got married and it was important to me to do everything right because I was marrying a man who had been married to Catherine Deneuve. I remember The Sunday Times ran a piece the next day which said, 'Doesn't she look ridiculous? It's November and she's not wearing stockings!' I was so upset.

STELLA MCCARTNEY CHEMISE
Do I like any new designers? I love Stella McCartney: I have a bottle green and black lace bias-cut chemise I bought from her graduation collection in 1995. I think she might bid for it at the auction.

JEANS
My favourite brand is Rock and Republic. I have a pair in every style: high, low, flared, straight. They are very sexy…

HANDBAGS
I have about 25 Hermes Birkin bags in different colours - I know there is a waiting list for this bag, but if I want one I just call them up, and I never have to wait. I have a couple of Gucci bags from when Tom Ford was there. I like Tod's, I have a Mulberry Picadilly bag and I have a great big Louis Vuitton tote, but my favourite bag is an old wicker picnic basket. It was woven by Native Americans, and I carry it all summer. Everyone thinks I've brought my own food.

SHOES
I'm addicted to Roger Vivier shoes: They have a platform, which means they are so comfortable. I used to have 50 pairs of Manolo Blahniks but I sold them all. I sold all my jewellery, too, and watches. I used to have so many watches but then I thought, Why do I need so many? I have one Hermes watch now, and the face is so small I can never read the time. I never wear heels during the day: I love soft, beaded Minnetonka mocassins.

BEAUTY
I love candles: My favourite is by Prada. My favourite perfume is by Hermes - it makes you smell of lemons, and I love Flower Bomb by Viktor & Rolf.
I have always used soap on my face, which amazes people. I cut my own hair, and recently I even dyed it myself. I love, too, the Revive range of skin care from Space NK, but I can't afford it. I know I'm blessed with good luck. I don't look or feel like an ordinary 57 year old.

 

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A new shot (telegraph.co.uk

 

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A YSL cosmetics ad, directed by Howard Guard, around the end of the 70s/early 80s:



youtube.com/hillmarc

 

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Jerry and Marie by Bailey, on the cover of Tatler, I think it's September 1985 (ebay.co.uk/magazine-arena

 

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Another Tatler cover I'd never seen before - March 1980 (same source

 

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Marie on the cover of UK Cosmo October 1976 (ebay.co.uk/oldreadables

 

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Harpers & Queen June 1977, shot by Bailey (ebay.com/devocanada

 

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Linea Italiana October 1974, shot by Bailey (same source

 

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Marie with Jerry, posing with Bruce Oldfield (dailymail.co.uk