The Truth About Modelling

‘My only purpose is to write the kind of book that I would have liked to have read when I started.’
Jean Shrimpton, 1964

Icon of the sixties and one of the first supermodels, Jean Shrimpton rose to fame alongside photographer David Bailey. Together they revolutionized fashion photography with a new gritty street style. Perceptive, personal and disarming, The Truth About Modelling covers the early years of Shrimpton’s life and career including her transformation at Lucie Clayton’s modelling school from a naive country-loving teenager into a Vogue and Harper's Bazaar cover girl. She describes the frenetic life of a model in the 1960s and making a success of working with renowned photographers such as John French, Norman Parkinson, Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy and of course Bailey. Offering a fascinating insight into both sides of the camera, she includes her own interviews with the photographers and tips from many of her model contemporaries, including Celia Hammond and Tania Mallet. Timeless in its wisdom, this lively autobiographical guide to the art and business of modelling will inspire anyone setting out on the same path today.

First published in 1964, this book is part of the V&A Fashion Perspectives Series. Selected by V&A publishing in consultation with our world-leading fashion curators, the Fashion Perspectives series offers an access all areas pass to the glamorous world of fashion. Models, magazine editors and the designers themselves take readers behind the scenes at the likes of Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Dior, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue in the golden age of couture.