“There’s a lot more to be learned, and I’m going to learn
all the way up to the stairway to the stars.”
– Mimi Weddell
Check out the resume of this model/actress.
Print:
Burberry
Juicy
Louis Vuitton
Nike
Film
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Heartburn
Dracula’s Last Rites (cult film, leading role)
Student Bodies
T.V.
Sex in the City
Law and Order
Other
named one of New York’s 50 Most beautiful people 2008, New Yorker Magazine
photo spreads in Vanity Fair and Vogue
subject of an award winning documentary
This is the curriculum vitae of dreams for any young actress or model. If you envision a gorgeous ingenue, you’re only half right. The accomplishments listed belong to Mimi Weddell, who, while certainly gorgeous, was hardly young when racking up the dream resume. In fact, Mimi, born in 1915, was nearly 70 when she began modeling and acting, a career which she claimed “helped pay for her hats.”
Weddell’s patrician features and whippet thin body, played a large part in her ability to establish such presence in a youth worshipping industry. Genetically speaking, Mimi was dealt some good cards. However, it’s clear that good looks alone don’t account for her appeal, up her sleeve she had two prime wild cards, Style and Moxie.
If I may continue with the card metaphor, Mimi Weddell had style in spades. Style is an elusive quality, hard to copy and harder to define, if Mimi Weddell were to give out any tips on being stylish, I’m sure one of her suggestions would include head wear. Mimi possessed over 150 hats, she was rarely seen without one. Large hats, small ones, sleek or feathered. Drole hats, elegant hats, borerline silly hats. She wore them all and imbued each, even the silly ones, with a touch of her quirky elegance. In her own words,
“Hats give you a frame. However dreary you feel, if you put on a hat, by golly, you’ve changed everything. I keep telling my daughter, my granddaughter, everybody, ‘If you don’t wear a hat, you’re missing it.”
As for moxie, her personal motto sums it up, “Rise above it all”.
“You dance as you walk through life, as you sail through life. And furthermore, it heightens your living as of the moment. If you don’t dance, for heaven’s sake, you can not aspire, you do not lift up from this earth.”
What a fabulous model for younger women who need reminding that beauty is not the province of the young nor style bijoux of the wealthy. Many years ago, it was my good fortune to work with Mimi Weddell. I was a young art director, a Mad Woman, on Mad Ave. She was a character model (a mere 70 something ). For the ad pictured below, I was looking for a forbidding group of people gathered around a conference table, the clients from hell, so to speak. I remember fighting with my account executive for the permission, and the budget, to use Mrs. Weddell, who, even then, was expensive. I wanted an arresting image, and had no doubt her face would add the jolt I had in mind. For once, I won the argument, as was often the case, I was right. The austere features and considerable acting ability of Mimi Weddell turned out to be worth every penny. You see here, hers is the face that draws your eye.
I have little memory of the photo shoot or of working with the venerable Mimi. The only shootings I remember are the ones that were difficult. The ones that made you long to literally shoot the model, the photographer, the guy who delivered the bagels even… At this photo session, Weddell showed up on time. She took direction. She left. The client and I were happy with the shots. In short, it was a professional encounter and she was, in addition to everything else, a professional to her finger tips.
Mimi Weddell died September 24 at her home in Manhatten. She was 94. To learn more about Mimi Weddell, to fall under the spell of her flamboyant charm, I encourage you to see Hats Off, the Movie, a film by Jyll Johnstone.
by Jan Masters Yon
