Short Biography

Linda Morand was a very successful fashion model, cover-girl and haute couture mannequin during the 1960s and 1970s. Known as ‘Superchick” Linda Morand was a modern fashion pioneer, a beacon of revolutionary style, avant-garde beauty trends and a major face in the Mod Sixties. She appeared in national ads, TV commercials and national catalogs.

She was discovered by Eileen Ford in 1966 and appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Teen, Elle and many more international magazines. As was one of Vidal Sassoon’s house models, Christophe created her signature style, a closely cropped assymetric cut which hugged her head elegantly set atop her long slim neck.

Her favorite designer was Betsey Johnson, whose clothes she wore for many fashion layouts. With cut glass cheekbones, a wide-eyed gamine look and a show stopping smile, she was a favorite of Mademoiselle magazine editors and photographers George Barkentin, David McCabe and Gosta Petersen. She was featured on covers of Teen magazines and Hair-do magazines. Eileen Ford said she had a “formula face," a face you just could not get a bad picture of, in any light at any angle. Her ultra-Mod look defined the essence of a certain avant guard style of beauty. As her style matured, face appeared the covers of many magazines including Mademoiselle and Harper`s Bazaar.

At 5` 9.5 inches tall and 120 lbs ,Morand was naturally slender and did not have to diet to maintain her weight. Appearing on the fashion scene at the same time as Twiggy, she was noted for making up very unusual poses and participating in innovative futuristic fashion layouts including light shows, robots, super-heroes, computers and James Bond type spy take-offs.

In late 1966 Francois Lano of Paris Planning, the biggest fashion modeling agency in Europe, made a deal with Ford and Linda was contracted to spirit the Sixties to life on the runways of Paris and in the pages of the European fashion magazines, such as Elle, Marie Claire, Vogue, Vingt Ans and many Italian, Swiss and German fashion magazines. Her modeling career took her on assignments throughout the fashion capitals of Europe, including Paris, Milan, Munich, Zurich and Barcelona.

In 1970, shortly after her marriage to French aristocrat Philippe Forquet de Dorne, Morand spent a year in Los Angeles, represented by William Morris, modeling, doing TV commercials and playing a few small parts in movies and TV. Her husband became a teen idol starring in a popular, albiet short lived, prime time historical mini-series for ABC called The Young Rebels.

She took off four years from 1969-1973 to marry and live the life of a European Countess, whose husband dabbled in acting while running the family affairs in Paris. Later she lived another year in Rome modeling for Valentino, Pucci and Roberto Capucci and playing small parts in a few Italian movies and TV shows, but she missed the runways of Paris.

After the friendly divorce she returned to modeling. In 1973-1974 she was once more cast by the biggest names in fashion. Her modeling assignments included walking the catwalks of the major European haute couture designers including Pierre Cardin, Jean Patou, Karl Lagerfeld, Emanuel Ungaro, Paco Rabanne, Chanel and Valentino. She was a favorite of renowned fashion photographers Helmut Newton, who shot a ten-page spread for Vogue Paris with Linda made up as Jacqueline Onassis. The pictures caused such a stir that Richard Avedon sent a telegr

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