Carmen Dell’orefice for Rouge, Fall/Winter 2012

At 83 years old, Carmen Dell’orefice is the world’s oldest supermodel.

She began her career at age 15 in 1946, when she signed a modeling contract for “Vogue.” Dell’orefice posed her first solo cover the next year, becoming one of the youngest cover models in the magazine’s history. In her youth, Dell’orefice worked with Condé Nast’s stable of fashion photographers: Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn and Horst P. Horst. After befriending Surrealist painter Salvador Dali, she became his muse.

After retiring in the later 1950s, Dell’orefice returned to modeling in 1978, and has been working ever since. Within the last five years, she’s modeled in advertising campaigns for Missoni for Lindex, Rouge and Rolex. Her last magazine cover was for “Harper’s Bazaar Thailand” in September 2014.