Sunny Harnett: The 1950s Model Who Became Richard Avedon’s Muse

Sunny Harnett was one of the unforgettable faces of 1950s fashion — a model photographed by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Horst P. Horst, and dressed by some of the defining designers of the postwar era. Yet today, her name is far less familiar than the photographs she helped create. This video explores Sunny Harnett’s remarkable career during the golden age of fashion photography, from her rise as an American fashion model to her work for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. We look at her celebrated collaborations with Richard Avedon, including the famous photograph often known as “Roulette,” as well as her work with Irving Penn and Horst P. Horst. Harnett’s career places her at the center of 1950s fashion history. She modeled the new postwar silhouettes associated with Christian Dior and Balenciaga, appeared in the world of American sportswear and Claire McCardell, and became part of the sophisticated visual language through which magazines sold an entire idea of modern elegance. She also appeared in the 1957 film Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire — a Hollywood fantasy inspired by the very world of fashion magazines, models and photographers that Harnett inhabited in real life. But behind these extraordinary images was a more complicated life. This is also the story of what happened when the golden age ended, and why one of Richard Avedon’s most memorable models gradually disappeared from fashion history. Chapters: 00:00 Sunny Harnett and 1950s Fashion 00: