Simone Micheline Bodin

Simone Micheline Bodin Graziani (1925—), known professionally as Bettina, was a leading French fashion model of the 1950s and an early muse to the fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy. She also has been a designer of knitwear and, later, a poet and composer.

Born in Laval, France, she was given the name Bettina by the designer Pierre Balmain. She was associated with Balmain, Lucien Lelong, Jacques Fath, and Christian Dior, but most importantly with Givenchy, for whom she worked as a model and press agent. Hubert de Givenchy named his first collection, which debuted in 1952, after her; one of its designs, the Bryonesque "Bettina" blouse, became a fashion icon in the early 1950s and inspired the bottle for the best-selling Givenchy parfum "Amarige."

After a short marriage to Beno Graziani, she became the companion of Peter Viertel, the American screenwriter, and then the fiancée of Prince Aly Khan, a playboy who briefly was the United Nations ambassador from Pakistan.

She retired from modeling in 1955, after meeting Aly Khan. In 1960, Bettina, then pregnant with their child, survived the car accident that took the life of the prince; the shock of the accident would later result in a miscarriage. After Aly Khan's death, Bettina wrote her memoir, published as "Bettina par Bettina" (Paris: Flammarion, 1964).

Autobiography

"Bettina by Bettina", London: Michael Joseph, 1965.

References