Photograph Description

Contact sheet of a fashion shoot taken by Duffy of Nicole de Lamargé for Queen Magazine in 1965. Initially, the magazine was called ‘The Queen’ but in 1953 was invigorated by its new owner and became known just as ‘Queen’. Queen attracted a much younger audience and embraced the ‘Swinging Sixties’ Queen magazine supported the pirate radio station ‘Radio Caroline’ and when it first went on air it operated from their editorial offices. Duffy as ever; was in the thick of an anti-establishment arena.

Nicole de Lamargé was a firm favourite and features many times in Duffy’s fashion shoots but he was not alone; Guy Bourdin and David Bailey worked with her regularly. De Lamargé started modelling in 1958 when she was recruited by the Catherine Harlé modelling agency in Paris who also represented Amanda Lear, Marianne Faithfull, and Verushcka who Duffy shot throughout the sixties and seventies.

Nicole had an amazing skill of transforming her image. Duffy said of De Larmargé “I did hundreds of thousands of fashion soots. In those days the models did all their own makeup. the thing about this model – and by god she was bright – was how she built up her face. Underneath she was dead ordinary – once, I didn’t recognise her in the dressing room!” Duffy shot a 17-step guide to how she used to apply and remove her makeup and wigs for Nova Magazine.

In the Autumn of 1966, her modelling of a Cacharel pink crepe blouse on the cover of French Elle launched the entire company by selling 10,000 pieces making her a star of the swinging sixties. Tragically she lost her life in a car accident in Morocco, April 1969. Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive