China Machado
Machado in 1962.
Born
Noelie da Souza Machado

(1929-12-25)25 December 1929
Shanghai, China
Died18 December 2016(2016-12-18) (aged 86)
Stony Brook, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Fashion model, editor
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1957; div. 1965)​
  • Riccardo Rosa
Children2

Noelie Dasouza Machado (25 December 1929 – 18 December 2016), known as China Machado, was a Chinese-born American fashion model, editor, and television producer. She was the first model of color to appear in a major American fashion magazine, in the February 1959 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.[1]

Early life and career

Noelie da Souza Machado was born in Shanghai, China to a Portuguese father from Macau and a Chinese mother.[2] Her maternal grandmother was from Goa. Her parents met in Hong Kong.[3] She spent the early portion of her life learning how to cook, sew, knit, and crochet.[4] After World War II, her family traveled to Argentina, Peru and Spain. At the age of 19, she met the Spanish bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguín. When the relationship ended, Machado moved to Paris and found work modelling for Hubert de Givenchy.[1]

According to Machado, she was asked to model for Balenciaga, but he was out of town, so they sent her to Givenchy instead.

They thought I was filling-in for a sick girl, so they grabbed me, put me in clothes, and threw me into the room where they were showing the collection. I barely knew anything about walking like a model, so I just copied the girl in front of me. At the end of the show, gorgeous Givenchy comes up to me and says, "Would you like to be in the cabine?" — that's what they called the group of models who worked for the house. That’s how it all started.[4]

She later worked for Oleg Cassini and Balenciaga. She worked for Givenchy for three years[4] and during this time, she became the highest-paid runway model in Europe, earning $1,000 a day.[3]

In 1957, she married the actor Martin LaSalle, the son of a diplomat, and a student of political science at the Sorbonne, whom she met in Paris. Nonetheless, for a year during their courtship, she left him for the Oscar-winning actor William Holden, returning to LaSalle to marry him. The couple eventually settled in New York City where Machado met Diana Vreeland and through Vreeland, Richard Avedon, with whom she developed a very close friendship and called a "great mentor in her life". Machado and LaSalle had two daughters, Blanche and Emmanuelle. They divorced in 1965, after Machado had an affair with a friend of her husband's.[1] Avedon declared that she was "probably the most beautiful woman in the world." His photographs of her were the ones used in the February 1959 issue of Harper's Bazaar.[3]

It was 1958, and the publishers were saying, "We can't put this girl in the magazine. Everyone in the South will quit subscriptions and no one will want to advertise with us!" But they were published in February 1959, because — and I only found this out 20 years later—Dick had threatened to quit [his contract] if they didn't use them![4]

Machado worked for Avedon exclusively for three years before he got her a job as Harper's Bazaar's Senior Fashion Editor where, eventually, she became the Fashion Director[3] and ventured into other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television. In 1989, she was added to the International Best Dressed List.[5]

In 1991 she opened a gallery in Watermill, New York, when she left the fashion industry. Among the photographers who exhibited in the gallery were Hiro, Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Barbara Bordnick. The gallery closed in 1998, when she retired. She returned to modeling and the public eye at age 82 with an article in W[1] followed by interviews in the Spanish and German editions of Vogue, The Sunday Telegraph, and New York. She starred in an ad campaign for Cole Hann as well.[2]

Personal life and death

She had two daughters from her first marriage.[1] Her second marriage was to Riccardo Rosa, a former businessman and furniture exporter. They had been together since the late 1970s, and married in 2003 or 2004.[6] From 1960 until her death, Machado resided in New York. She and her second husband lived in Sag Harbor, Long Island.[3]

Machado died on 18 December 2016, a week before her 87th birthday, at Stony Brook University Hospital from cardiac arrest.[7] She was survived by her two daughters, as well as by her second husband.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Foley, Bridget (March 2010). "China Machado: Legendary model and Avedon muse China Machado has still got it". W Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 Friedman, Vanessa (19 December 2016). "China Machado, Breakthrough Model Until the End, Dies at 86 (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Yuan, Jada (14 August 2011). "I Didn't Think of Myself As Good-Looking at All". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Weiss, Emily. "China Machado, Model". Into the Gloss. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "The International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame: Women". Vanities. Vanity Fair. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  6. ↑ Silver, Dena (28 May 2014). "Fine China Machado". Front Row Daily. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  7. ↑ Roberts, Kayleigh (15 December 2016). "Model China Machado Has Passed Away". Harpersbazaar.com. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
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