Lauren Hutton — The Million Dollar Model

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Lauren Hutton was born on November 17, 1943 in Charleston, South Carolina. She moved to New York City in the mid 1960’s, and quickly became a top model. She has appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine a record 26 times. Known for her signature gap tooth, a trait she attempted to hide early in her career, but which eventually brought her a distinct look.

In 1973, Hutton finalized a deal with Revlon in a deal that lasted ten years. Twenty years after that she signed another deal with the cosmetics giant. She has also worked with Calvin Klien, David Jones, and her own brand called Lauren Hutton’s Good Stuff.

Lauren Hutton’s deal with Revlon was the modeling industry’s first million dollar contract, and it paved the way for increased compensation for top models for major campaigns.

Lauren Hutton Quotes:

“I’m not part of the cultural elite. I’m a down-home girl. Always have been, always will be.”

“We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be.”

“I had 30-something years’ experience in modeling, which is rare.”

“A lot of modeling is how much crap you can take.”

“In 1974, the modeling world changed. Jerry Ford and my lawyer negotiated the deal for the first exclusive contract in modeling history.”

Notable Work:

Revlon, Calvin Klein, David Jones

(Originally published in Medium)

From Wikipedia:

Early life

Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton

Hutton was born Mary Laurence Hutton in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Her parents divorced when she was young. After her mother remarried, her last name was changed to her stepfather’s name, “Hall”, although he never formally adopted her. She graduated from Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida in 1961, and was among the first students to attend the University of South Florida in 1961.

Hutton later relocated with former Tampa disc jockey Pat Chamburs, 19 years her senior, to New York City, where she worked at the Playboy Club. The pair later moved to New Orleans, where she attended Newcomb College, then a coordinate college within Tulane University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1964.

Modeling

Hutton returned to New York, changed her name to “Lauren Hutton”, and became a popular fashion model, “cover girl” (appearing on the front cover of Vogue magazine a record 26 times) and commercial spokesperson. She was advised to hide the gap in her teeth and tried using morticians’ wax to cover the gap; then came the use of a cap, which she would often swallow, laugh out, or misplace. Hutton eventually retained this “imperfection” and the All Movie Guide stated that it “gave her on-camera persona a down-home sensibility that other, more ethereal models lacked.”

In 1973, Hutton signed a contract with Revlon cosmetics, worth US$250,000 a year for 20 days’ work, a professional relationship that lasted for ten years. Hutton’s initial contract with Revlon involved representation of the Ultima II brand. Twenty years later, she signed a new contract with Revlon to be the spokeswoman for Results, a collection of corrective moisturizing treatments.

In 1993, Hutton performed as a runway model for designer Calvin Klein and The New York Times responded by publishing an article in Hutton was “just as good as the current flock of fledglings.”

In 1997, Hutton became a brand ambassador and appeared in multiple advertising campaigns for the Australian department store David Jones; in 2001, she was replaced by Megan Gale.

Hutton was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the “Modern Muses”.

Following her recovery from a motorcycle accident in 2000, she became the spokeswoman for her own signature brand of cosmetics, “Lauren Hutton’s Good Stuff”, a line of cosmetic products for mature women. The brand was sold primarily in the USA, but was also available through secondary distribution channels throughout Europe and South America.

In October 2005, Hutton was interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America program in relation to the future release of an edition of Big magazine that was entirely dedicated to Hutton’s career and included eight pages of nude photos. Hutton agreed to pose nude for the feature, titled “Lauren Hutton: The Beautiful Persists”, when she was 61 years old, and explained to GMA:

I want them [women] not to be ashamed of who they are when they’re in bed. Society has told us to be ashamed … The really important [thing] is that women understand not to listen to a 2,000-year-old patriarchal society.

Hutton, who is supposedly one of four women offered US$1 million by Larry Flynt to pose nude, also explained that she first sought permission from her 14 godchildren, who told her the photographs would be “inspirational”.

In 2008, Hutton accepted an offer from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to appear in the lookbook for their clothing line The Row, and explained in 2010: “I saw the clothes, and they were wonderful, real simple, minimalist designs… Ash had a place on the beach, so we did it at her place… And they would dance on the deck, and I would do what they were doing. And it was good.” During the same year, retailer Mango launched a fashion collection inspired by Hutton’s personal style.

Alongside celebrity models such as Iman and Paulina Porizkova, Hutton was one of the panel members in a roundtable discussion for the “Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” gala, an annual event organized by the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. Held in May 2009, the discussion occurred at New York’s Minetta Tavern. Photographs of Hutton were also displayed as part of a historical fashion exhibition that acknowledged the significance of models.

A third-party licensing brand of the Jim Henson Company, Henson Independent Properties (HIP), entered into an agreement with Hutton in November 2010 to act as the global licensing agent for her merchandising program. Targeted at women over 40 years of age, the brand launched products such as eyewear, handbags, and luggage, and home décor, globally in 2012. HIP’s senior vice president at the time referred to Hutton as a “trailblazer” in the press release.

Hutton was also a guest judge on the fashion designer reality television show Project Runway in 2010.

In terms of fashion work, 2011 was also a fairly busy year for Hutton, as it commenced with her selection as the house model for the Alexis Bittar jewelry brand in February. Designer Alexis Bittar, a recipient of the CFDA Accessory Designer of the Year award, personally selected Hutton after choosing Joan Collins for the previous year. Hutton stated that Bittar’s jewelry is “like art and still doesn’t look like anything I have ever seen.” Hutton then appeared alongside people such as actress Shuya Chang and Annie Lennox’s daughter Tali Lennox in the spring 2011 ad campaign for the Club Monaco retail brand. The lookbook was photographed by Ryan McGinley, the youngest photographer to be featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art at the time of the Club Monaco shoot.

As of March 2014, Hutton is represented by the IMG Models agency and is one of their “Special Bookings” models. Julianne Moore and Liv Tyler are also represented by IMG under the same category.

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