bettina
text by EMANUELE COCCIA
Azzedine Alaïa’s exhibition on the model Bettina — and the fashion images of her dating from as far back as the 1950s — is much more than the celebration of the first French supermodel to become a major celebrity and household name the world over. Bettina Graziani, the “most photographed woman in France” — who was the muse of Jacques Fath and Hubert de Givenchy; whose beauty inspired the greatest photographers of the era, including Irving Penn; who was the companion to Prince Aly Khan after he divorced Rita Hayworth; who survived the terrible car accident in which the prince was killed in 1960; and whom Françoise Sagan called “an eminence rousse” — is there in the gallery on the Rue de la Verrerie. And at the age of 89, she is cheerfully signing exhibition catalogues.
Nothing in the photos of the redheaded Bettina…