迪奥专用模特要什么条件？腰围不到一尺四

在超级模特出现之前，曾经有一些“人体衣模”，都是活生生会呼吸的女性。她们笔挺地站着，为高级定制时装的设计发挥了不可或缺的作用。设计师和工匠往人体模特身上钉、戳或是裹上布料，把草图和创意付诸实践。

1950年，英国模特简·达内曾经在巴黎的迪奥公司全职工作。获得这份工作就足以让她登上当时的英国报纸，不过她也写了本书介绍经历。《模特女郎》于1956年出版，书中走入时装秀、时装屋和摄影棚的幕后，揭示了非凡魅力背后的辛苦努力。

如今，达内的女儿卡蒂尔·葛莉辛截取回忆录中的一部分重新出版，书名叫《为克里斯汀·迪奥工作》（Zuleika Books出版社），配合伦敦V&A博物馆举办的“克里斯汀·迪奥：梦想设计师”展览。

葛莉辛说，她母亲去法国是从威尼斯当模特回国的路上，当时花了几天时间敲设计师的门找工作。

“她只找能够认出香水牌子的设计师，因为她就是这么记名字的。每个人都愿意请她，所以她应该还不错。”葛莉辛说。“她确实条件不错，很漂亮而且很优雅，还可以很好地适应了设计师的要求，腰围才18英寸。”

尽管达内不会说法语，但冷不防地找设计师还是成果颇丰，最后接受了迪奥工作室的聘用合同。

“当时她们得9点钟打卡上班，就像在工厂一样。然后她就一直站着，真的是站着，然后被推过来推过去，身上被钉着或别着布料。”她女儿解释说。

2016年母亲去世后，葛莉辛在衣柜深处发现了一件迪奥的衣服。

“那是件漂亮的羊毛精纺高腰连衣裙，款式叫‘诺内特’，是克里斯汀·迪奥的原作，上面还有编号。如果在上面做测试，很可能会找到迪奥的DNA，因为这是1950年他用我母亲当模特做出的衣服。”她说。“1950年春克里斯汀·迪奥来到伦敦做萨沃伊时装秀时，我母亲穿的就是这条连衣裙。”这条裙子也是V&A博物馆展览的展品。

在萨沃伊酒店秀的镜头中，达内穿着一件名叫“纯真”的初入社交圈少女白色礼服，一件叫“铃兰”的白色刺绣礼服，一件叫“纠缠”的丝绸外套，还有用草边花边制作的晚餐礼服。

达内在离开迪奥后，她的知名度继续上升。

葛莉辛说，1951年《时尚》走出不寻常的一步，邀请达内和其他几位模特去澳大利亚参加活动。“衣服之前就已就位，但衣服送到之后他们发现当地也有漂亮女孩，就让当地模特当模特。但杂志还是为五个女孩包飞机，又安置在奢华酒店里。后来这五个女孩成了所谓的‘超级模特’。”

达内在马略卡岛写了回忆录，她在岛上还跟摩纳哥王子雷尼尔王子和格蕾丝·凯利王妃来往，当时两人正在度蜜月。

“她可以花一整天时间写书，不用担心食物，因为可以去很棒的游艇上吃晚饭。”葛莉辛说。她说，在她母亲跟凯利当时的合照中，“两人看起来真的很像。都是典型的50年代风格，戴着围巾和尖框眼镜。”

两人的相似之处还不止这些。后来达内也嫁给了王子，一位移民到英国的俄罗斯皇室。她成了乔治·葛莉辛公主。

后来几年里，她写了另一本关于模特的书，经常参加智力竞赛，为时装店提供建议，也做了不少慈善工作。

在1997年迪奥50周年纪念展上接受美联社采访时，达内回忆过当时的兴奋感：“战后人们普遍穿着朴素，服装配给和优惠券很普遍，当迪奥出现在大家眼前，给人一种非常强烈的感觉，原来时装可以极其女性化，浪漫又美丽，而且可以用如此多的布料。”（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

Before there were supermodels, there were “mannequins”—living, breathing women who played an active role in designing haute couture by standing very, very still. Designers and artisans would pin, prod, or tuck fabric and toiles to the mannequins to bring sketches and ideas to life.

In 1950, one such mannequin, the British model Jean Dawnay, went to work full-time in Paris at the fashion house of Christian Dior. This contract alone was enough to earn her newspaper coverage in Britain at the time, but she also wrote a book about her experiences. “Model Girl,” published in 1956, went behind the scenes of fashion shows, couture houses, and photoshoots, lifting the veil on the hard work that goes into glamour.

Now Dawnay's daughter, Katya Galitzine, is re-releasing a section of the memoir as “Working for Christian Dior” (Zuleika Books) to coincide with the “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” exhibition at the V&A Museum in London.

Galitzine says her mother arrived in France on the way back from a modeling job in Venice and spent a few days knocking on designers' doors, asking for work.

“She only went to the Houses whose perfumes she knew, because that was how she knew the names, and every single one of them wanted her, so she must have had something,” Galitzine says. “I mean, she did have something. But she was very beautiful, she was very elegant. She adapted very well to whatever people wanted, and she had an 18-inch waist.”

Although she spoke no French, Dawnay's cold calling paid off, and she accepted a contract at Dior's atelier.

“They had to clock in, like in a factory, at 9 o'clock, and then she would stand, literally stand and be pushed around and shoved around and pricked and pinned,” her daughter explains.

Galitzine found one Dior dress hidden at the back of a wardrobe after her mother died in 2016.

“There was this beautiful, wool worsted tight-waisted dress that's called 'Nonette' that was original Christian Dior, numbered. If you did a test on it, it would probably have his DNA dust on it because he actually made it on my mother in 1950,” she says. “And it was the dress that she wore at the original Savoy show that brought Christian Dior to London in spring 1950.” The dress is part of the V&A show.

In footage of the Savoy Hotel show, Dawnay wears a white debutante dress called “Innocence,” a white embroidered dress “Muguet de Mai,” a silk coat called “Ravel” and a dinner dress made of straw lace.

After Dawnay left Dior, her celebrity status continued to rise.

In 1951, Vogue took the unusual step of sending her and several other models to an event in Australia, Galitzine says. “Clothes had been sent to locations, but once the clothes got there, they'd find pretty local girls, local models, to be the model. To actually pay on an aircraft for five girls and put them up in a hotel—that was enormous. So those five girls became ‘supermodels.’”

Dawnay wrote her memoir in Majorca, where she socialized with Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, who were there on their honeymoon.

“She'd spend all day writing her book and then not have to worry about food because she'd go to this fantastic yacht and have dinner,” Galitzine says. In photos of her mother and Kelly from that period, she says, “they looked so similar actually. They're very much that '50s style with the scarves and their pointed glasses.”

The comparisons didn't end there: Dawnay also went on to marry a prince—a Russian emigre to Britain. She became Princess George Galitzine.

In later years, she wrote another book about modeling, made regular appearances on quiz shows, advised stores on fashion, and did charity work.

In an interview with The Associated Press at a Dior 50th anniversary exhibition in 1997, Dawnay recalled the excitement of those days: “After the war, with the austerity and clothes rationing, coupons, when Dior came on the scene, it was such a sensation—these incredibly feminine, romantic, beautiful clothes with so much material.”