Lauren HUTTON - On GOING YOUR OWN WAY

SIX DECADES into her SINGULAR she's still an ADVENTURER-one NAVIGATED her winding path through FASHION by BEING THOROUGHLY and UNAPOLOGETICALLY HERSELF

- JESSICA MATLIN

Trench coat, ARMANI. Necklaces, AGMES, FOUNDRAE, and LISA EISNER JEWELRY. Rings, ALIGHIERI. Watch, ROLEX.

Photographs by CASS BIRD

Styling by KATELYN GRAY

SIX DECADES into her SINGULAR she's still an ADVENTURER-one NAVIGATED her winding path through FASHION by BEING THOROUGHLY and UNAPOLOGETICALLY HERSELF

I grew up in Charleston and Miami and Tampa. My idea of beauty was a giant orange and yellow grasshopper with pastel wings that I saw when I was a little girl. I chased my cousin Artie around with it!

When I moved to New York and became a model, I didn't know anything about the industry. I got a job modeling for Christian Dior for $50 a week. Once I started working, I made myself an athlete. I uncrossed my eyes. (Dick Avedon used to look up at me from behind his camera and ask, "Are they straight yet?") I jumped around. I worked hard. But by 1972, there weren't many of us models left. All the big girls like Veruschka, Twiggy, and Jean Shrimpton had basically split. I wish I got to see them model at 40, 50, 60, and 70. And then in 1973, I read about Catfish Hunter; he was a baseball player who refused to play without a contract. He said he was in a youth-oriented business-and at that time, the modeling world wasn't any different. I was about to become 30, and I knew I was about to expire, and wanted to protect myself with a contract that would guarantee I kept working for years to come. So I got a contract with Revlon. At the time, it was the biggest one in modeling history.