Polly Mellen will add yet another milestone to a life full of them when she turns 100 years old tomorrow. Of course, she doesn’t have the same level of control over this milestone as she did so many others during her storied career as a fashion stylist extraordinaire. Among the most famous is “The Great Fur Caravan,” a 26-page editorial she did with Richard Avedon for Vogue in 1966, which is still believed to be the most expensive ever undertaken. The photo that dream team did of a snake kissing Nastassja Kinski in 1981 year still raises goosebumps. Mellen was as much of a force in front of the camera as she was on set, having walked for Jean Paul Gaultier and starred in a Gap campaign. She’s also rumored to have been an inspiration for The Incredibles’ outspoken Edna Mode.
While she hails from New England, passion, not Puritanism, is the driving force in Mellen’s life. When she still sat in the front rows, she lived and breathed fashion and designers would monitor whether she clapped or cried, or both, at their shows. On the eve of her big day, 10 colleagues share their best wishes and memories of Mellen, a woman of immense talent and indomitable spirit. Happy Birthday, Polly!
“Polly Mellen was one of the most visionary fashion editors of our time. My dream was always to work with Polly. I remember writing her letters in high school dreaming of the day that I could work with her. That came true. Polly pushed boundaries and had no limitations creating some of the great photographs of our time. Polly’s endless energy and ability to pivot in any direction at any time made her a true co-creator. No has ever topped her strong desire and commitment to fashion.” —Steven Klein
My career at Vogue was a dream come true. I was literally hired while working as a summer temp at YSL. My job consisted of folding blouses and hanging blazers, skirts, and trousers as soon as clients tried them on—definitely not glamorous—but my father insisted I work in fashion before I developed any highfalutin fantasy of pursuing a real future [in it]! I was really hired by then-fashion director Frances Stein whom I had waited on in the Rive Gauche boutique, but my first real boss was Polly Mellen. The legendary Polly Mellen. Little did I know then what awaited me.
The greatness of Polly was her desire to embrace a wide range of artistic visions as long as they were authentic, deliberately conceived, and most of all creative. Her work ethic knew no boundaries, and her passion no limits. She was impossibly demanding to work for, yet to this day, many lessons she taught me hold true. Polly would stand in the middle of a major show in Paris and be the first to applaud in a room of 1,000 people! She was, and is, fashion’s biggest cheerleader!
I have one story that has become a bit of fashion lore—actually there are many—but this one stands out. We were in a Vogue van shooting with Deborah Turbeville and it started to rain. Pour. I had forgotten one hat, and Polly let me have it. I’d ruined the entire sitting. She sent me back to Condé Nast without cash or an umbrella! Luckily the other Condé Nast vans were all parked in front of the Met. I jumped in the Glamour van and Patrick Demarchelier gave me $5. When I attend the Met Gala and climb those stairs, I never forget that day when I learned that sometimes the tiniest mistake is not an option! Thank you Polly for imbuing me with that level of professionalism and passion! —Vera Wang
“On my first day of work at Vogue in the early ’70s, the elevator doors to the offices opened and there was a gray-haired woman in hot pants waiting for the elevator. That was the first time I saw Polly Mellen, the legend who became a mentor and dear friend. Her fearless dedication to creativity was unwavering and inspiring. In fact, it inspired the photographers, hairdressers, makeup artists, and models, and everyone who worked with her. She taught me that you have to want to dare—you have to dare or you don’t go that step further. She championed innovation. Her enthusiasm was contagious. At 100, Polly has lost none of that enthusiasm, nor her critical and avant-garde eye for fashion. She believes: ‘Let’s not talk about what it used to be: Always look forward!’ Thank you, dear Polly. Happy Birthday!” —Phyllis Posnick
“Here are a few things I will say: Polly was born and lives for fashion more than anyone I ever knew. Fashion influences everything for her—not just clothing. To Polly, there’s always a more stylish way of speaking, sleeping, breathing. She never quit, which is what kept her young.
“I first met her when I was 18 working at Perry Ellis and I was a little intimidated. When I graduated from Parsons in 1982 (or ’83?) she came to the gala dinner dressed in a Stephen Sprouse pailletted mini dress, silver tights, and silver shoes. She was in her late 50s then, which was never apparent (I always wondered how old she was, it’s only now I know she’s turning 100 that I realize what her age was at the time), and I remember how great her legs looked, and how chic, how ageless she was in that dress, no makeup, her hair merely scraped back. All those years Polly was as much a part of my process as any other, as essential to design as fabric and fittings. She was a kind of muse that lived in my head. In real time she supplied the enthusiasm, always in the nick of time.” —Isaac Mizrahi
“My first job for Vogue was with Polly and the model Annie Holbrook, shooting at the Carlyle Hotel. Polly and I were setting up the first shot and she said to me, ‘I think we have it.’ I told her that I thought the collar on Annie’s shirt was wrong and needed to be fixed. Polly bluntly replied, ‘No, that’s the way I like it and if you don’t tell me what to do, we are going to get along fine.’ After that we became buddies and worked together all the time. Along with Grace Coddington, she was one of my favorites. She dressed so beautifully. She looked like a Vogue star.” —Arthur Elgort
“Polly Mellen is so beyond a legend I am not sure how to even describe her? Back in the day when I was a fashion editor and had the gift of actually sitting next to Polly at the Isaac Mizrahi show and maybe two Geoffrey Beene shows, I realized that Polly’s passion fueled her fierce talent and love of all aspects of the fashion world. Polly expressed what I felt. She scrutinized every single model’s exit and clapped like a seal and wept when she was overcome with joy and wonder. Polly’s collaboration with Richard Avedon produced some of the most iconic photographs ever produced. Polly is a gift for us all.” —Wendy Goodman
“Polly is one of the true revolutionaries in fashion photography. Her approach to sittings set the bar for what could be achieved in a fashion story. To think that she did both “The Story of Ohhh….” with Helmut Newton and “The Bathhouse” with Deborah Turbeville for the same May 1975 issue of Vogue is astonishing!” —Ivan Shaw
“Polly Mellen has always been a legend, a force of fashion and style since before the bikini and The Pill. In fact, I think her energy and enthusiasm for modernity, channeled in the pages of Vogue, helped beget so many of the decidedly cultural advances we take for granted now. Youthquake? Thank Polly. She forged the idea that fashion was young and not matronly. I have so many memories of her and also Henry Mellen at parties at night, New York life in the gilded 1980s, boom boom boom, and Henry watching and smiling and beaming his love to his ageless soulmate Polly as she held forth, impassioned for everything she cared about from the peonies on the table, to the president at the podium.
There was this wonderful lunch Anna gave for Polly at Mortimer’s restaurant—oh, I don’t remember what year that was. We all got there early to surprise her, and were given Polly Mellen masks drawn by the celebrated humorist artist Robert Risko. A room filled with Polly manqués! Fabulous….
Polly performs in the truest meaning of the word, which means to accomplish an action, a task, creating great work. One of my all-time favorite performances of Polly was when she presented a CFDA award to Helmut Lang in 1998. Back in the day, a very hot topic in fashion was which designers were original in their work, and which were basically just copying others. (Now, in the post-post-modernist factory of ideas, copying is called referencing and it’s as expected as it is forgiven, almost.) Well, Helmut Lang, who ushered in a very cool minimalist aesthetic after a long-lasting period of 1980s excess, bells, whistles, and bows, was the designer to follow. So much so that in her remarks, in a video about Helmut made by filmmaker Douglas Keeve, Polly described Helmut as a monarchal lemming, ‘a little animal that jumps off a cliff, and all the others jump off after it.’ The audience went wild with appreciation. She’d just defined fashion, and she also might have been describing herself. Where Polly goes, we not only have followed, we have rushed. Cliffs and obstacles be damned.” —William Norwich
“She is the Pollyonaire of moments and memories. If I had to pick one of the most personal significance, it would be the video Douglas Keeve made with her for my International Designer of the Year Award in 1997. Iconic Polly. Straightforward. No filter.” —Helmut Lang
Polly is my mentor and a big part of my life—there’s no one like her. Polly honed me, she taught me what fashion is all about. It all began in 1975/76. We worked together for over four decades to create images that will remain in time, they’re iconic. And, it’s not just about the hair, it’s about the whole look. The last shoot we did was for Interview Magazine with Steven Meisel. Polly was the subject, and I got to style her. Not only her hair, but the robe and everything. That day she swam about 20 lengths of the pool so she could be photographed underwater! She was in her 80s at the time. Polly always said to me, ‘We live with our memories and we move forward.’ Take what you’ve learned and what you’ve done, and build on it. —Garren
