Bettina Graziani: Life story and Glamorous Photos of the First French Supermodel

In the years after World War II, one face came to define Parisian fashion above all others. Bettina Graziani — born Simone Micheline Bodin in 1925 in Normandy — became known as “the most photographed woman in France.” She was one of the world’s first supermodels, and her fame stretched well beyond Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. Her look was unmistakable: a ring of red hair, a tiny hourglass figure, and an expression that landed somewhere between sharp wit and quizzical surprise. She didn’t just wear clothes — she made them legendary.

Bettina grew up in Normandy, raised by her mother, a schoolteacher. After the city was liberated from German occupation in 1944, she moved to Paris with ambitions to work in fashion design. In 1945, she approached designer Jacques Costet looking for a job as a designer. Costet saw something else in her — a natural gift for wearing clothes — and hired her as a model instead. It was a pivot that would change fashion history.

Her real break came when she began working with designer Jacques Fath. He was the one who gave her the name “Bettina” — his studio already had a model named Simone, so a new name was needed. Fath’s clothes suited her perfectly, and she became his most recognizable face. The wasp-waisted, cigarette-smoking, haute-couture sophisticate of postwar Paris — that image belonged to Bettina. She wore Fath’s designs as though they had been built around her, because, in many ways, they had.

In 1952, Bettina played a key role in launching Hubert de Givenchy’s first design house, serving as his publicity director. She had worked as a former assistant to Fath before stepping into that role, and her name and reputation brought immediate attention to Givenchy’s debut collection. The two became closely linked, and Bettina wore his designs in some of the most iconic fashion photographs of the decade.

During her time at Jacques Fath, Bettina modeled some of the designer’s most celebrated pieces. Fath’s structured silhouettes and dramatic flourishes suited her figure and presence perfectly. Photographers sought her out repeatedly, knowing she could make even the most complex garment look effortless.

When she arrived in New York in 1950, Bettina’s reputation had already preceded her. Eileen Ford, who ran one of the most powerful modeling agencies in the world, signed her and quickly arranged a deal with Vogue. Within a week of landing in New York, Bettina was posing exclusively for the magazine. She was one of the highest-paid models of her era, working alongside the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century — Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Horst P. Horst, and Erwin Blumenfeld all photographed her.

Her portfolio spanned the full spectrum of Parisian haute couture. She wore Christian Dior’s structured silhouettes, Coco Chanel’s refined elegance, and Valentino’s dramatic flourishes. Each shoot produced photographs that now serve as primary documents of postwar fashion.

Bettina’s personal life was equally eventful. She married photographer Gilbert Graziani while still working as a model, but the marriage ended after a short time. Following the divorce, she began a relationship with Peter Viertel, the author and screenwriter known for films like The African Queen and The Sun Also Rises. Viertel left his then-pregnant wife to be with her.

In 1955, Bettina met Prince Aly Khan and retired from modeling shortly afterward. Their relationship became one of the most talked-about in European society. The two were together for several years, and Bettina was pregnant with his child when, in 1960, their lives were shattered by a car accident outside Paris. Khan died from his injuries at the Foch hospital. Bettina survived with minor cuts to her forehead, but the trauma of the crash caused her to miscarry.

After Khan’s death, Bettina channeled her grief into writing and published her autobiography, Bettina par Bettina. She later shifted her creative focus to poetry and composing. Her life after modeling was as full and deliberate as her years in front of the camera. She died in 2015 at the age of 89. Below is a gallery of photographs from Bettina Graziani’s remarkable modeling career.