Anjali Mendes passes away

 

Modelling world stunned by death of first Indian supermodel and Pierre Cardin muse
The modelling world in Mumbai woke up to depressing news yesterday even as the skies turned dark grey and weepy. Anjali Phyllis Mendes, the first dark-skinned model to grace the Parisian ramp and become Pierre Cardin’s muse, had passed away. She was 64, and India’s first supermodel on the international stage, a tall and dark Goan girl with long legs who opened fashion shows and walked the ramp with models including Shobha Rajadhyaksha — now Shobhaa De, and Zeenat Aman.
On a whim, in June 1971, taking the money she had made on an assignment with Shobhaa, Anjali flew to Paris on a one-way ticket. “She had an extreme sense of adventure,” said Shobhaa yesterday, “and she went at a time when black models didn’t exist and she was considered black. There was no question of her coming back. Dressed in a saree, she staged a dharna at Pierre Cardon’s salon and demanded to see him, sitting eight hours without food and water until the great designer condescended to giving her an audience... and instantly a role as his house model! She had made it. Cardin cut his couture collection on Anjali for 20 years. She was the toast of not just Paris, but all of Europe, but she had her own desiness... she remained a Goan girl who served Goan meals with French champagne at home.”
Anjali, who returned to her roots periodically, was in India (especially Mumbai, where she had friends, and Goa, where she had family), only last month. She had come to recuperate after moving home from Paris to Provence... where she had what she described as a chateau. It was at this chateau that Anjali passed away after falling suddenly ill and being rushed to hospital with a low white blood cell count on Thursday. In an interview to The Times of India in 2004, she had said, “I am an ugly duckling who transformed into a swan on her own. I have proved all that I had to prove to myself and there are no regrets. Focussing on yesterday and tomorrow serves no purpose. I always live for the present.”