Simone Micheline
Bodin (1925 – March 2, 2015), known professionally
as Bettina or Bettina Graziani, was a French fashion model of
the 1940s and 1950s and an early muse to the fashion designer Hubert de
Givenchy. She also has been a designer of knitwear and, later, a poet and
composer.
Bettina & Prince Aly KhanIn the mid-'50s she was persuaded by Prince Aly Khan, ex-husband of Rita Haworth to
retire from modelling and settle down to a quiet, albeit luxurious, domestic life.
In 1960 disaster strikes when Aly Khan is killed in a car accident, which Bettina survives,
though she’ll suffer a miscarriage. She inherits Khan’s Chantilly château, Green Lodge
(which she will later sell to Khan’s son, Karim).
In 1967 Bettina, “the green-eyed railway worker’s daughter” goes back to modeling at
the age of 42.
And all because she’s bored. Bettina works for Coco Chanel, but she has a problem,
for as the couturier says of her, “She needs to lose a little weight. I have told her to follow
my example and don’t eat at weekends.” After presenting Chanel’s collection in July,
Bettina says, “It was fun to do it once. I never will again.”
Bettina in Jacques Fath, 1950
Bettina in Givenchy winter dress, 1955Graziani wrote poetry, composed music and appeared in two French films (Bete Balanço,1984, and La folie douce,1994). But fashion remained her great passion. In 2010, she wasappointed a commander of France's Order of Arts and Letters.In later life she attended theParis fashion shows each season, promoting the work of the designers Azzedine Alaia andYohji Yamomoto. She noted how the models had changed. "They are so young, andthey all look the same."- ©The Daily Telegraph, London
