Carmen Dell'Orefice Quotes

• I have had more magazine covers in the last 25 years than I have had in my whole elongated career. [...] Today I am in a territory that business considers unmarketable: age and white hair. Slowly, however, I started to own that territory little by little because I stood up for age.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Hair, Years, Careers

  "FASHION ICON CARMEN DELL’OREFICE ON LOVE, SEX & SECRETS TO HER SUCCESS". New You Interview, www.newyou.com. February 10, 2015.

  39 Copy quote

• My philosophy is the balance of remembering the past but not living in it, to know where you are in the moment, to project a little in the future and be ready to change. It's how you experience the grace to enjoy the smell of the pavement after a rain - the little things in life to make you satisfied. I never settle for anything that doesn't give me a modicum of pleasure if not total joy and satisfaction. It's allowed, that's what we're supposed to feel. How can we, from an empty cup, offer a stranger a drink of water? You have to fill that cup to the brim!

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Philosophy, Rain, Past

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  9 Copy quote

• There’s always a boyfriend... Whatever else I have to give up on, I won’t give up on love.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Giving Up, I Won't Give Up, Giving

  "Carmen Dell’Orefice, 80-Year-Old Model, Lost Fortune To Madoff" by Ellie Krupnick, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 9, 2011.

  11 Copy quote

• We're all works of art in progress.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Art, Progress, Works Of Art

  19 Copy quote

• Fashion is more about taste than money - you have to understand your body and tailor clothes to your needs; it's all about the fit. I do the alterations myself - I'm quite a seamstress - it's the influence of my Hungarian mother.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Mother, Fashion, Clothes

  28 Copy quote

• When asked her view of cosmetic surgery, Carmen Dell'Orefice replies, '”That's a very polite way of asking me, I'm sure, ‘Have you had a facelift?' Well, if you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fall, Views, Ceilings

  23 Copy quote

• I'm totally formed by my mother's interest in fashion. As a Hungarian immigrant, she couldn't afford clothes. She made all her clothes from patterns. It was not dépassé to make your own clothes, it was a respected skill and it was financially expedient. I learned that doing it yourself, having self-discipline and working went hand in hand. To work passionately at something is the key. I'm fortunate and blessed to have had, for the most part in my life, the privilege to work at something I'm passionate about.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fashion, Blessed, Passionate

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• The key to overcoming adversity is to be ready to understand that you have enough, no matter what rug is pulled out from under you. You can't live in fear, or thinking "I'll never figure it out." The more consciously we can understand what we're experiencing, the more that is our protection. So, we run into adversity, but we don't have to stay there if we have imagination and a way to help ourselves change course. Sometimes we can't - knowing the difference is wisdom and the acceptance that we have enough.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Running, Adversity, Acceptance

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm a working woman of 80 trying to work out what the image I can project is. How I can do it with, you know, dignity.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Work Out, Trying, Dignity

  17 Copy quote

• I didn't marry to have children. I married to have a relationship, and I was blessed with one child. I was an only child, too - my mother was smarter than most women today; she just had me.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Mother, Children, Blessed

  18 Copy quote

• I don't live for stuff and things, and if I had to live in a cardboard box, I would put curtains on it.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Stuff, Boxes, Curtains

  15 Copy quote

• The minute we don't finance the arts, the accountants, attorneys and politicians keep taking the cream of money off the top and it doesn't trickle down unless all of society understands that we must support the arts, whether it's ballet, opera, fashion. Fashion is like opera, is like ballet, is like theatre. It's a visual theatre.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fashion, Art, Support

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  8 Copy quote

• As a model, I didn't have an identity; I was a chameleon, a silent actress. I was an amorphous thing. I wasn't full of personality, I was full of solitude and solemnity. I wasn't a cover-girl type.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Girl, Personality, Solitude

  "Carmen Dell’Orefice, 82-Year-Old Model, Lands YOU Magazine Cover", www.huffingtonpost.com. July 8, 2013.

  15 Copy quote

• Facion goes in cycles but nothing has changed. When it's ridiculous it's more ridiculous than ever, and when it's wonderful it becomes more wonderful than ever because now more people think: "I dress the body I have, not I have to change the body to wear the fashion." That's what I admire about the growth of the fashion industry. I also think it's wonderful that there is the opportunity to use different textures and fabrics on different colour skins. I am inspired by that.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fashion, Opportunity, Thinking

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• My life has been amazing. How many other ladies of 76 can say that the snapshot on their senior citizen's card was taken by Norman Parkinson?

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Senior, Taken, Citizens

  11 Copy quote

• I was friends with Salvador Dalí until the day he died. Lucky me. I can't say why. I didn't live to be noticed, I lived to enjoy the excitement of doing right that day, and I knew I was doing it right when they would have me back. That was the thrill for me. I yearned to be validated because my mother was stern and I never did much right, that's how I perceived it.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Mother, Lucky, Excitement

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• The money I've earned has enabled me to keep my life in my own hands. I had a terrific body, and I got paid for using it.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Hands, Body, My Own

  10 Copy quote

• We were so poor that my mother would often leave me in a foster home until she could raise enough money to rent rooms for us.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Mother, Home, Rooms

  11 Copy quote

• If you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fall, Ceilings, Rooms

  "‘About Face’: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ Film Focuses On Aging Supermodels" by Laura Rowley, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 27, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

• My mother was harsh and constantly told me I had jug ears and heaven knows what else. But she was devoted and a hard worker.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Mother, Hard Work, Heaven

  16 Copy quote

• If your ceiling is falling down, don't you call someone in? I apply the same principle to myself.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fall, Ceilings, Principles

  9 Copy quote

• I'm doing the best I can with the ravages of time on my body and I'm a work in progress. I can't write a memoir because I can't do it this week or next week... I try to be an inspiration to the young to respect their older people; we can't stay the same, but we do the best we can with what's left. You can't whine about stuff, you have to learn to eat humble pie along the way and keep going, because the alternative is going to happen.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Inspiration, Writing, Humble

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• Fashion matters to the degree that it is, for the sighted person, the first language we speak to each other. We are... "judge" is a very harsh word, but we're taking in and we're evaluating. Who is this person? What do I have in common? Do I respect them? All of that is that unspoken visual impact.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Fashion, Judging, Common

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm loath to do interviews. What comes out is generally not what I meant or thought I was saying or thought they were asking.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Asking, Interviews

  9 Copy quote

• Even with a computer, I can't get rid of all the papers in my life.

  Carmen Dell'Orefice

  Paper, Computer, Papers

  6 Copy quote

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