一天早上，可可•香奈儿(Coco Chanel)用挑剔的眼光扫视了一遍自己的工作室，然后宣称：“这些模特就像是在休假的女佣！”她说的或许没错。在上世纪20年代，当模特，无论是在室外还是在摄影棚内，都还没有被视为完全适合出身上流家庭女孩的职业。往最好了说，这是一个年轻人的新鲜事物；往最坏了说，这被看做一个丢脸的行当，或有点低俗，就像是“做戏子”。
直到1947年，丈夫去世后独自抚养孩子的芭芭拉•戈伦(Barbara Goalen)还在做洗衣妇和当模特之间犹豫不决；最终摄影棚胜出，而她后来成为那个年代英国最顶尖的时装模特。在美国，当玛丽•“咪丝”•泰勒(Mary “Mimsie” Taylor)肯求自己富裕的父母让自己为她最喜欢的杂志当模特时，简直震惊了。但玛丽患有一种血液病，可能活不过20岁。塞西尔•比顿(Cecil Beaton)答复了她写给《Vogue》的信，玛丽成了该杂志早期最爱用的模特之一，而她一直活到了93岁。
英国《Vouge》于1916年推出时，模特都没有留名。事实上，她们往往不愿露出面孔，用宽檐帽遮住脸部，头偏向一侧，有的时候干脆面部被彻底剪掉，用精美的蕾丝花边代替。毕竟，在那个年代，记者可以正儿八经地报道称——丝毫没有讽刺意味——“有一名年轻女性居然在刚刚和她跳完舞的年轻男士面前扑粉”。
现在意义上的模特，终于在杂志页面上留名是在上世纪20年代初。大多数情况下，她们仍然拥有另一份类似的工作：歌舞厅歌手（香奈儿就曾经当过歌手，尽管她绝口不提此事）或是当时的知名演员。这都是些“综艺”多面手，例如贝蒂•诺克斯(Betty Knox)（威尔逊-克贝尔-贝蒂三人歌舞演出）以及以诙谐歌曲闻名的莉莉•伍德(Lily Wood)。
许多伟大的早期模特，都是偶然进入这个行业的。“柳德”(Lud)，原名柳德米拉•费多谢耶夫娜(Ludmila Feodoseyevna)，是在给Vogue摄影工作室送包裹时被发现的。她弄错了工作室，最后一怒之下，把包裹扔向了摄影师霍斯特(Horst)，结果成为后者最钟爱的模特之一。莉•米勒(Lee Miller)刚刚走下曼哈顿的人行道就被Vogue的老板康泰•纳仕(Condé Nast)拉了回来，躲过了一辆高速飞驰的汽车，纳仕觉得她长得不错，可以为自己的杂志当模特。
尽管到了很久之后，模特才能够推出自己的指甲油系列，或出资开餐厅，但当时的模特也相当聪明干练。她们都勇敢无畏。罗曼诺夫家族的公主娜塔丽•帕蕾(Natalie Paley)在逃往西方国家之前，家族大多数成员都被杀害。托托•库普曼(Toto Koopman)作为盟国间谍被俘虏，关进拉文斯布吕克(Ravensbrück)集中营，但幸存了下来，后来成为梅菲尔(Mayfair)艺术界受人尊敬的常青树。即便是曾经被称为“蛇蝎美人”的柳德，也打赢了自己的战争。相互憎恶的艾尔萨•夏帕瑞丽（Elsa Schiaparelli）和可可•香奈儿都对柳德偏爱有加，她被两个人拉来扯去，直到有一天她彻底离开模特事业。后来，听说她加入了一家巡游马戏团，嫁给了团里的驯兽师。
译者/管婧
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034901
When Coco Chanel ran a critical eye over her atelier one morning and declared, “These models look like housemaids on a day off!” she was probably close to the mark. Modelling during the 1920s, in and out of the studio, was not yet a profession considered entirely suitable for girls from smart families. At best it was a juvenile novelty, at worst it was considered shameful or slightly provincial, like “taking to the stage”.
As late as 1947, Barbara Goalen, who was left to raise her children alone after her husband’s death, had wavered between taking in laundry and modelling; the studio won, and she became the British mannequin ne plus ultra of her day. In the US, Mary “Mimsie” Taylor’s well-to-do parents had been appalled by her plea to model dresses for her favourite magazine, but she was suffering from a blood disease and was not expected to survive her teens. Cecil Beaton answered her letters to Vogue and she became an early favourite (she lived to be 93).
When British Vogue was launched in 1916, models were not credited. In fact, they often seemed to shy from view, their faces hidden by wide-brimmed hats, heads tilted away, or in some cases cut off altogether in favour of a fine lace trim. This was, after all, the era in which a correspondent could report – without irony – on the “spectacle of a young woman … actually powdering her nose in the presence of the young man with whom she had just been dancing”.
Models, as we now know them, finally began to see their names on the magazine’s pages in the early 1920s. For the most part, they still had parallel careers: cabaret singers (as Chanel had once been although she kept it quiet) or popular actresses of the day. These were “variety” all-rounders, such as Betty Knox (of the Wilson, Keppel and Betty triple-act) and Lily Wood, famous for her comedy songs.
Many of the great early models fell into the profession by accident. “Lud”, born Ludmila Feodoseyevna, was spotted while delivering a parcel to the Vogue studios (she got the wrong studio and ended up throwing it at the photographer, Horst, in a temper, and became one of his favourite models). Lee Miller stepped off a Manhattan sidewalk only to be pulled back from the path of a speeding car by Condé Nast, owner of Vogue, who thought her looks good enough for his magazine.
Long before models could launch their own nail-varnish lines or bankroll restaurants, they were still clever and adroit. They were also fearless. The Romanov princess Natalie Paley saw most of her family murdered before reaching the west. Toto Koopman, captured as an Allied spy, survived Ravensbrück to become a respected fixture of the Mayfair art world. Even Lud, once described as “a lethally beautiful Medea”, survived her battles. The favourite of both Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel (who loathed each other), she was pulled back and forth between the two of them until one day she upped and left modelling entirely. Later it was heard that she had joined a travelling circus and married the lion tamer.
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