Daphne Selfe is the world’s oldest professional model. Instagram @daphneselfe

LUX contributing editor and model at Models 1, Charlie Newman continues her online exclusive series, interviewing her peers about their creative pursuits, passions and politics

Charlie Newman

THIS MONTH: It comes as no surprise that the world’s oldest professional model, Daphne Selfe, who turns 91 next month, ‘doesn’t do retiring’. The British model has clocked up over 70 years of experience, working for the likes of Olay, Eyeko, and Dolce and Gabbana, as well as posing for artists, making TV appearances and writing a memoir. This year, she was included in the Queen’s New Year Honours list and was awarded a British Empire Medal for her contribution to fashion, and whilst she no longer wears high heels, she can still do the splits. Here, she tells Charlie how she got into fashion, and why the Queen is her style icon.

Charlie Newman: Firstly, let’s talk about your upbringing – what was it like and how do you think it informed your choice of career?
Daphne Selfe: I spent most of my childhood in Berkshire until my parents moved to Hertfordshire. I always had an eye on fashion because my mother was very beautiful, smart and always made my clothes, but my true love was horses, I was mad on horses. I learnt to sew but I didn’t really get into fashion until I started working at Helles (what John Lewis was) in the coat department. At the store, there was a competition for the cover of a local magazine. All the girls, including myself, went to meet the photographer, and I won! It turned out the photographer was a royal photographer called Gilbert Adams and funnily enough he knew my parents from an amateur Opera society! The last time he saw me I was 2 years old, so when I turned up all 5ft 10 and a half of me aged 19, he really took me under his wing and taught me how to behave in front of a camera. I did lots of little odd jobs for him, assisting him for a while whilst working part time at Helles. The store then had a fashion show and the agency who were supplying the models was one short, so I was propelled onto the catwalk and thought, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing?’ After that they all said I should join the agency. In those days you had 3 weeks of training to be a model. Mummy thought this was a lot better than breaking a collarbone and being kicked in the head by horses so off I went!

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After 3 weeks training, I belonged to the agency. I met my husband, Jim, through Gilbert Adams, because he was the lighting technician of the ballet show we were working on. We didn’t get married straight away because he was busy travelling and I was busy with my dance school. I did my ballet training far too late, at 19 years old, but I assiduously learnt because ballet is the basis of all dance. I learnt from a very interesting choreographer called Buddy Bradley, who was well known in the twenties for having put on an amazing musical called Evergreen with Jessie Matthews. I joined his company because I could sew and help with the costumes and because I loved dancing! Of course nobody went abroad in those days, so when his little company went to Belgium, Rome and Madrid, I was delighted to go with them!

Then I decided Jim was the one, so I got married and in those days you didn’t work once you got married, so I retired and had three children but always kept up with my dance classes. Jim worked in television and one of his friends asked me if I would be an extra in The Arthur Haynes Show. Jim happened to be the stage manager that day, and he said ‘What on earth are you doing here?’ and I said ‘I’m working!’ He thought that was terribly funny, then from that I did more and more extra work, as well as fashion shows and commercials.

Instagram @daphneselfe

Charlie Newman: How did your modelling career continue into later life?
Daphne Selfe: I was doing my extra work and in 1999 when I was 70 my agency asked whether I would do a fashion show at London Fashion Week for Red or Dead. I love prancing about in nice clothes so of course I did it! The stylist on the show, Jo Phillips, called me up three months later and said Vogue are doing an article on ageing and suggested I get involved. At the shoot was the scout from Models 1 and I’ve been with them ever since, some 20 years later! I didn’t give up the extra work once I was signed with Models 1 because I know how the industry can like you one minute and not the next. But then I was getting more and more modelling work so I had to drop the extra work in the end.


Charlie Newman: What has been a career highlight for you?
Daphne Selfe: I think going abroad for the jobs is the best thing, because I would never have been able to afford that otherwise. I mean I’ve been to Australia, China, Japan, Africa. Whatever next!

Instagram @daphneselfe

Charlie Newman: Having worked throughout many fashionable decades, what do you think style means today?
Daphne Selfe: It doesn’t matter what time you live in, you must wear what suits you because then people will always admire you in it, it’s very important not to be driven by the trends of the moment.

Charlie Newman: In a dream world, who would you want to dress you and why?
Daphne Selfe: Currently, I love Roksanda Ilinic’s designs. I love going to Roksanda’s shows now and wearing her clothes at events, they always feel very fun and boost my confidence.

Charlie Newman: What advice would you give to young models starting out their careers?
Daphne Selfe: Taking care of your health is the most important thing because modelling is hard work if you do it properly. It’s long hours, lots of hanging about, lots of physical activity and also you need a good work ethic. In other words, that means be on time, don’t mess about once you’re there, and stay off your phone.

I was working with a Dutch photographer the other day and I was doing all my normal things; inventing poses, jumping around, all the usual. At the end he said to me ‘I’ve never worked with such an energetic model’ which did make me laugh! Just throw yourself into the shoot and give it everything.

Modelling can be horrendous too. I lost a big job the other day, but so what? It wasn’t my fault, it’s about what they want. It’s no good worrying about it, but I know a lot of people find that difficult. Being a model is very difficult if you don’t have much confidence because you have to put yourself in a room of people you don’t know and work with them effortlessly.

Instagram @daphneselfe

Charlie Newman: What keeps you happy and healthy?
Daphne Selfe: Well, I do a series of exercises most days, something along the lines of yoga, ballet, a little bit of weights but also static bicycle. Of course, I can’t do everything every day, but I do always do some stretching.

I suppose because I grew up in the war we never ate masses. We grew all our own fruit and vegetables so we had a very strict diet and that’s a mentality which never leaves you.

Charlie Newman: Who was your fashion icon when you were younger?
Daphne Selfe: I suppose in a way we always looked up to royalty, the young Queen, of course, was gorgeous. They all lived such glamorous lives, or so we thought. Whereas now, people don’t want to dress up anymore which I think is such a pity because I love dressing up!

Charlie Newman: Lastly, who is your role model of the month?
Daphne Selfe: It’s got to be the Queen, she’s absolutely fantastic! She always wears bright colours but is also discreet. I know of course she has money, but it really doesn’t cost a lot to look good. I’ve always made my own things and looked as good as anybody else.

Follow Daphne Selfe on Instagram:@daphneselfe

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in Villa Santo Sospir surrounded by his own sculptures and the artwork of Jean Cocteau

When artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar came across a 1960s film by Jean Cocteau, he was stunned to discover they were both addressing the same ideas in their work. Virginia Blackburn meets him to discuss his new exhibition – set in the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat villa that’s full of Cocteau’s creations

Art is the international language: it speaks to the soul, not needing to utilise any mother tongue, and that communication is about to manifest itself in a major new exhibition in the south of France. It speaks across generations, too, to fellow artists and connoisseurs. And this is what happened when the French/Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar chanced upon a video made in the early 1960s by Jean Cocteau entitled Jean Cocteau Speaks to the Year 2000. “It was an inspiration,” Behnam-Bakhtiar says. “He was talking about the same things as me: that humanity is on the wrong path. That it is too robotic rather than humanised. That the global system is against wellbeing and health. Jean Cocteau was talking about this in 1962 and saying, ‘Hopefully you guys will have opened your eyes up to it by now.’ And when I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ And that’s how it started.”

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The ‘it’ he refers to is his latest solo exhibition: Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau, housed in the beautiful and plush environs of Villa Santo Sospir at the southeastern tip of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Cocteau’s home for over a decade. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is also where Behnam-Bakhtiar is now based. Following on from his recent highly successful Oneness Wholeness exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery from May to June this year, this follow-up is designed to carry on a dialogue with Cocteau, quite literally in some ways. Cocteau and his circle, which included Picasso, Matisse, Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, Vaslav Nijinsky, Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich among many others, are very obviously the inspirations behind the work: Behnam-Bakhtiar has created two metres of sculptures of the historical figures who passed through the villa following Cocteau down to the beach. Does Behnam-Bakhtiar feel himself to be very much part of the tradition of the numerous artists who made this scorchingly beautiful part of the world their home? “Emotionally I’m very happy and excited to be here as a fellow French artist,” he says. “But it is also very upsetting because if Cocteau were here now he’d be so upset that we’re in an even worse state than we were when he made the video. These are the core values and beliefs in the work.”

The show contains a collection of mixed-media sculptures as well as a sound installation

In truth, although Behnam-Bakhtiar is often referred to as a French/Iranian artist, he is considerably more than that. Born in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1984, the young Sassan lived in France until he was 10, after which the family returned to Tehran. The rest of his childhood was spent in the land of his immensely distinguished fathers – the artist can trace his heritage back to Iran’s ancient Bakhtiari tribe through his mother Firouzeh Bakhtiar-Bakhtiariha, while his great-grandfather General Gholam-Hossein Khan Bakhtiar (Sardar Mohtashem), was Iran’s minister of war. His grandfather Abdolhamid Bakhtiar was a Majles deputy, while the late Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and General Teymour Bakhtiar were two of his great-uncles. Through his father, he is a descendant of the Qajar monarch Ahmad Shah. A stint at the American University in Dubai followed his time in Tehran, before moving back to France with his wife Maria Zakharchenko to obtain his MBA at the International University of Monaco.

This joint European/Middle Eastern influence has given Behnam-Bakhtiar an insight into both cultures and beyond: he prefers the description “citizen of the world without boundaries” and has spoken often of his desire to bring a new focus to work from the Middle East. Since springing on to the art scene in 2009, he has become a hugely successful international presence, with exhibitions all over the world and his works selling through Bonhams and Christie’s and other major auction houses. He has now set up the Fondation Behnam-Bakhtiar in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, as well as an art gallery in nearby Monaco, which shows Iranian artists alongside other international names. And he is very clear about the influence Iran’s artistic history has had upon his own work. “In terms of influence, the Persian cultural heritage is vital,” he says. “When I was a kid in Iran, I went around with a camera and a sketchbook, around all the famous cities in Iran – Shiraz, Isfahan, of course Tehran. I focused on all the architectural sites and they made me what I am today. There is a huge legacy from Iran.”

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But it is the new exhibition that has been engaging him of late. “Oneness Wholeness is a very personal body of work that started about seven years ago,” he explains. “I was going through a very difficult time in terms of my health and so I began to focus on energy, everything that connects us to everything, the universal language. This was merely a beginning, and at the start I couldn’t decide whether to put it in front of an audience as it was so personal.” The work ended up at solo show drawing on thousands of years of Iranian culture, employing ancient Persian motifs, patterns and landscapes to create huge mixed-media paintings calling to mind the Zagros mountains in south-west Iran that are still home to the Bakhtiari tribe. Now the work will progress further in the Villa Santo Sospir.

Behnam-Bakhtiar is based in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, where his new exhibition is taking place

However, Behnam-Bakhtiar is keen to emphasise that his vision is not based solely on the circumstances of his upbringing. “I do have two different cultural backgrounds,” he says. “But something within me has been present ever since I was a young kid back in Iran. I would look at the world and ask what is wrong with it on a human level. A seed was planted in me back then.”

Like so many before him, Behnam-Bakhtiar chose to base himself on the Côte d’Azur because of the extraordinary natural qualities of the area. “It is a very special place for any artist,” he says. “I chose to reside here because of the natural beauty, the light, the sea and the energy. In coming to France I was coming back home and it feels right – a person has to listen to a gut instinct. I was lucky to be able to feel these extra things.”

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Behnam-Bakhtiar professes to feel marvellous today, in marked contrast to the events of seven years ago that eventually led to the recent body of work. He is reluctant to go into too much detail, but explains, “I felt ill due to emotional pressure when a series of events led to my health deteriorating seriously. I started doing things such as Kundalini meditation in order to be able to find myself again. When I finally got out of the cage or trap, I wanted to tell the world about it. I talked to my family and friends and the work came about very naturally – it was not forced or planned, it just happened. Saatchi related to the values I was talking about and the same thing happened at the Jean Cocteau Museum. A lot of things are very wrong with our way of life and more people understand that.” This process of self-discovery has continued: last year Behnam- Bakhtiar opened his third eye, which entirely changed his take on life.

Back at Villa Santo Sospir, another element of the new exhibition is a sound installation, a literal dialogue between the two artists, as they will be talking to one another, their voices echoing through the beautiful building covered with the work of Cocteau. Behnam-Bakhtiar sounds as excited as a child when he talks about it. “I thought a sound installation was a very interesting idea,” he says. “Cocteau was residing here for years so he had a huge connection to the place. When I started to research his work, how he lived and what he did, this huge connection came about. The owners of the museum said, ‘This is too good a match.’ I’m very proud to be able to continue in his footsteps.”

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This is especially significant because Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar will be the last artist to exhibit in the Villa Santo Sospir as it is in its current state. After the exhibition the villa will be closing down for restoration by the interior designer Jacques Grange, while the grounds will also be renovated by landscape architect Madison Cox.

But this exhibition, as with all his work these days, is informed with a mission to change the very way in which people think. “One of the biggest issues is for us as humans to understand that we are so much more than we think we are,” he says. “When I realised this, I changed as a human being. My DNA changed. We need to move forward, to be different, to live lives in a different way, to reach different levels of life. When you look at the world today, it’s very easy to get depressed, but you still need to live day after day with love and I apply that even to the people who hurt me. I used to be very angry with people who hurt and mistreated me, but you have to realise you must treat people with love. Things have been created to divide races and countries whereas we are all brothers and sisters really. Life is not about conflict.”

Behnam-Bakhtiar’s own health issues have had a huge bearing on this, of course. “I have been given a gift to live with a purpose,” he says. “Don’t forget the beauty of life. If you’ve had big health issues, you realise it’s silly not to walk on the beach and enjoy it. Anyone can be wise but you have to trigger that. My ultimate message from this exhibition is that you have to transcend as a human being. Understand you have to change life for the better. Stop being zombies. It is a spiritual revolution we are looking for now.”

Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau runs until 30 September at Villa Santo Sospir

To view more artwork by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar visit sassanbehnambakhtiar.com or follow the artist on Instagram @sassanbehnambakhtiar

Villa Santo Sospir

The Villa Santo Sospir is placed, appropriately enough, on the avenue Jean Cocteau in Saint- Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This is where, according to local lore, Cocteau was invited to spend a week’s holiday by its owner, the socialite Francine Weisweiller, in 1950 and ended up staying for more than a decade. It was a wise move on her part: previously the interior was all whitewashed walls, but Cocteau asked whether he could draw the head of Apollo above the fireplace in the living room, and went on to cover the entire house with his art. For most of his frescoes, Cocteau was inspired by Greek gods and mythical creatures, but he also referenced images of the Riviera, such as fishermen and their nets. Cocteau called it the “tattooed villa” and later said: “When I was working at Santo Sospir, I became myself a wall and these walls spoke for me.”

Famous artists of the Riviera

With its beautiful scenery, extraordinary light and pleasant climate, the French Riviera has long been a draw for famous artists. Cézanne was the first to arrive in the 1880s, but many others soon followed: Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and poor, haunted Vincent van Gogh, who was based in Arles. Pierre-Auguste Renoir moved there for the light and bought a home in Cagnes-sur-Mer, which he turned into a studio for his Impressionist paintings. Chagall lived in Saint-Paul de Vence, as, briefly, did Picasso: it is said that he stayed at the Colombe D’Or hotel and traded paintings for meals.

Watch Jean Cocteau Speaks to the Year 2000, the short film that inspired exhibition:

Dutch model and yoga teacher, Rianne Ten Haken

LUX contributing editor and Storm model, Sydney Lima continues her online exclusive series, interviewing her peers about modelling life and business.

Sydney Lima

THIS MONTH: Dutch model, Rianne ten Haken was discovered at the tender of age of 14 by Elite models, making her debut on the runway alongside Gisele Bündchen for Marc Jacobs spring 2004. In between, shooting campaigns for the likes Chanel, Versace and Givenchy and starring in Lenny Kravitz‘s music video for “The Chamber”, ten Haken teaches yoga on retreats across the globe.

Sydney Lima: How did you get in to modelling?
Rianne ten Haken: I got discovered on the street in Amsterdam by Jeroen van der Mast, who was then at Elite Amsterdam. He asked me if I wanted to compete in the Elite Model Look (contest) that year and I did. I won the international final and have been working non-stop pretty much since then.

SL: What has been your favourite shoot to work on?
RTH: My favorite shoot was the Jean Paul Gaultier ‘le classique’ fragrance. I have been working for Cartier for many years and they have become like family to me. So shooting this beautiful project with them was truly an honor and a very memorable experience that I will treasure for life.

SL: What has been your proudest working moment?
RTH: Having two Italian Vogue covers in a row has definitely been my proudest moment!

SL: How did you get in to yoga and why did you decide to train as a teacher?
RTH: I got into yoga when I was really stressed out with work, life and traveling. I took some time off and I emersed myself in yoga. I discovered what it did for me and how good it made me feel. It became a mild obsession and a big passion for me. When I did the teacher training, my goal wasn’t to become a teacher I just wanted to learn more about it but during the training I discovered that I really loved teaching and sharing what I had learned.

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SL: How did you find the time to train as a yoga teacher alongside modelling?
RTH: Where there is a will there is a way, my grandmother used to say. It’s about prioritizing what’s important to you and what makes you happy.

Sydney Lima: Where has been your favourite place to teach?
Rianne ten Haken: The retreat I did in Nicaragua with Surf Yoga Beer was definitely one of my favorite spots to teach, the location the people, the sunset, everything was on point!

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SL: Did modelling have any influence over your decision to become a yoga teacher?
RTH: Modelling and the fashion industry can be very creative and inspiring. I met so many talented, interesting people that I realized I had and wanted to be more than just a pretty face. I understood that to have longevity in your career you need to grow as a person and develop your skill set. And seeing all these people around me being daring and exploring their potential really motivated me to do the same.

SL: What plans do you have for 2017?
RTH: So many plans, so little time! I’m doing some research now to find new places to do my next retreat. On my way to Africa at this moment to find a great location. I want to teach a lot, want to share my light with many people that cross my path! In my wildest dreams I want to find a location for my first yoga studio!