The New York
Fashion Models of
the Forties

The trade of the fashion model was very different in the Forties – it was an era in which a model was just as likely to book a commercial artist as she would a photographer:

“Most models receive five dollars an hour for posing, and a few get seven fifty or ten dollars an hour…Models like Meg Mundy or Helen Bennett who rarely earn less than $150.00 a week are in the upper brackets and are the sort of girls that the average male would pass without a second glance…”
“Many of the models are bitter, unhappy girls inside. They soon grow disillusioned with their dream of modeling as a gateway to theatrical glory; they learn that their height is against them.”

In 1951 this lass was consuming a good deal of time at the Conover Agency…

– Click here to read about the highest paid model of the Forties: Jinx Falkenburg.

– Click here to read about “The Power’s Girls”

Click here to read more articles about 1940s fashion models.

– Click here to read about World War Two fashion