My-Highlights: Vintage Fashion Story – Willy Van Rooy

Willy Van Rooy on the cover of Vogue – 15 Sept 1967

Ph. taken by David Bailey

A few days ago my mother in law sent me an article about a fashion model. But not the kind we know from TV. It is a story about a girl who turned into supermodel, supermother and superdesigner. And so I had to make it part of My-Highlights. Although the material is a little old, it’s always interesting to read what fashion was many years ago. This story is about Willy Van Rooy – born on April 1st, 1941 in Hague. Her career as a model started officially at the pension  nowadays  age of 26 with perfect measurements and height of 5’8. At that time models used to do make-up themselves, smoke a lot and go around carrying huge suitcases full of their own wigs, gloves, even shoes for the photo shoots. Before posing in front of the lenses of famous photographers like Norman Parkinson, William Klein and David Bailey, Willy had some experience in Spanish ads for hair products, carpets, etc. In the 70s she was already in the runaways for Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Thierry Mugler. She was on the cover of Vogue and constantly on the pages of Bazaar, Elle and all fashion magazines. They called her Helmut Newton’s favorite!

At some point Willy van Rooy started designing jewelry for Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. In the mid 80s she settled down in Spain and created her own shoe line which had tremendous success. Her clients were Madonna, Cher and other celebrities. At the end of the next decade she moved to Los Angeles and became Paula Abdul’s personal stylist and designer.

Today Willy Van Rooy lives with her husband “in an old ranch in the middle of nowhere” – Sherwood, Oregon. She is still making jewelry which she sells online on etsy.com. She likes painting, sewing, taking pictures and working with Photoshop. Her authors accessories are featured in the French dictionary of fashion and albums about Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. If you would like to read more about Willy Van Roy, see some pictures and find out her point of view about fashion, please visit: http://www.minimadmod60s.com/Willys_story.html. I hope you like interesting stories like this. Me personally – I am dying to read about fashion from once upon a time… See you tomorrow!

source: capital.bg, picture; google images