China Machado: a retrospect of the history-making model’s career and impact
China Machado was born in Shanghai in 1929 and was of Chinese, Portuguese, and Indian descent. She pursued a career as a model and with her February 1959 Harper’s Bazaar cover, China became the first model of color to star on the cover of a major American fashion magazine.
But the history-making cover almost didn’t happen. “Listen, we can’t publish these pictures. The girl is not white,” the magazine’s publisher reportedly told Richard Avedon, a famed photographer and China’s friend and mentor.
“It was 1958, and the publishers were saying, "We can't put this girl in the magazine. Everyone in the South will quit subscriptions and no one will want to advertise with us,” China recalled of the Harper’s Bazaar cover. “But they were published in February 1959, because — and I only found this out 20 years later—Dick [Richard Avedon] had threatened to quit [his contract] if they didn't use them!”
China’s modeling career landed her contracts with prestige fashion houses like Givenchy, Balenciaga and Dior and she was photographed by the likes of Andy Warhol, Bruce Weber, and Geoffrey Holder.
"I never thought I was good-looking in any way, shape or form, because Vivian Leigh and Lana Turner and Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth I thought were beautiful," she was once quoted as saying. "I didn't look like them, so I thought I can't be good-looking, right?"
At one point in her career, China became the highest-paid runway model in Europe.
As China got older, she proved that age is just a number when she signed a modeling contract with IMG at the age of 81.
Sadly, the iconic and pioneering model passed away on December 18, 2016 — she was 86-years-old.
