Changing of the Guard
Patti Hansen in Vogue: Meet the New York–born supermodel that helped shape the look of the decade
By Condé Nast Archive
By Ivan Shaw
Patti Hansen in Geoffrey Beene, Vogue (1976-01-01) by Arthur ElgortCondé Nast Archive
“She is the most beautiful specimen in the WORLD.… It certainly helps but it’s her mind, her joy of life, and she thinks this battered junkie is the guy she loves.”
These words are from the pen of Keith Richards, legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter, and they were written as he fell in love with supermodel Patti Hansen.
The year was 1979 and the New York–born head-turner was hitting the apex of her modeling career, one that helped shape the look of the decade, on and off the pages of Vogue.
Patti Hansen (1976-06-01) by Arthur ElgortCondé Nast Archive
Hansen’s life was transformed, as she went from hanging out at the seaside to flying around the globe. Soon she was fully immersed in the what was arguably the wildest, most partying decade ever.
The model laughs when talking about her first trips to Paris, the capital of fashion: “Everyone made fun of me all the time because I ate Wonder Bread. I ate my hamburgers. Here I [was] in Paris looking for a hot dog.”
Hansen’s first magazine stories for Condé Nast appeared in Glamour. Never one to miss a budding talent, the company’s editorial director, Alexander Liberman, plucked Hansen from the pages of that title, aimed at a young audience, and placed her in Vogue, where the model soon found herself working with two of the magazine’s top fashion editors, Polly Mellen and Jade Hobson.
Hansen’s arrival at Vogue in 1975 occurred not long after the arrival of a young photographer named Arthur Elgort, who would in many ways influence the aesthetic of Vogue during that decade and leave a lasting legacy in the history of fashion photography.
Working with the A-team at Vogue, Hansen miraculously transformed from the sweet girl-next- door type to a sexually empowered one.
Grace Mirabella, Vogue’s editor in chief at the time, promoted the idea of the modern American woman being liberated and powerful both in the boardroom and in the bedroom, and Elgort and Hansen were the perfect pair to depict that.
From 1975 on the two of them, often with Hobson, would regularly find themselves in an exotic location shooting for days on end. The images produced during this period radiate with an electricity that seems to capture the spirit of the 1970s.
Hansen, Hobson, and Elgort were tasked with shooting a sportswear and swimsuit story in Palm Beach for the January 1976 issue.
Patti Hansen (1976-01-01) by Arthur ElgortCondé Nast Archive
This sitting produced an image that has become an icon of fashion photography and is used on the cover of the recently published Patti Hansen: A Portrait, a chronicle of Hansen’s career produced by the author of this piece.
Shot by Elgort at three quarters length, Hansen stands poolside in a white maillot bathing suit gripping a pool chair, staring across the pool as if surveying her sexual prey. At the time it was published, Hansen’s overtly sexual pose was a shock to social norms. For the June issue of that year, Hansen again found herself in Florida with Elgort and Hobson, and again she was dressed all in white. This time Elgort took Hansen to the streets where he captured her walking by an outdoor parking lot, a simple scenario that has become a time capsule unto itself.
Patti Hansen Striding Through Parking Lot, Vogue (1976-06-01) by Arthur ElgortCondé Nast Archive
In this image Hansen represents the modern woman of the 1970’s bravely striding toward the future. Her minimal, streamlined looks contrasts with the flashy masculinity of the big American muscle cars parked in the lot.
Hansen would soon forge working relationships with some of the buzziest talents in the business at that time, including Bob Richardson, Albert Watson, Helmut Newton, and Chris von Wangenheim, and would also work with the master lensmen Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.
Between 1975 and 1978 Hansen made twelve appearances on the cover of Vogue. In 1981, Hansen decided to duck out of modeling and pursue a career on the big screen.
Despite making an auspicious start—working with director Peter Bogdanovich and screen legends Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazzara in They All Laughed—Hollywood wasn’t the right fit for Hansen and she opted instead to slide into semi-retirement and focus on her personal life. In 1983, Hansen’s marriage to Richards made headlines. Their family expanded with the arrival of daughters Theodora and Alexandra in 1985 and 1986, respectively. Hansen, for the most part, took the rest of the decade off to raise her kids and spend time with Richards, even joining him on the road for the Stones’ tours.
In the 1990s Hansen was rediscovered by a new generation of lensmen including Steven Meisel, Michel Comte, and Nick Knight, and burst back on the scene.
Back in the pages of numerous editions of Vogue, her presence once again had an enormous impact, as the icon of the decadent seventies. As beautiful at 40 as she was at 20, Hansen also disproved the notion that looks fade with time. Now 62, Hansen has decided to once again join the ranks of working models, having signed with DNA Models and in so doing is transformed once more, from icon to legend.
