Janice (Doreen) Dickinson was born on February 17, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. She became one of the first "dark featured" beauties to make it big as a model. She helped to push the industry standards to vary it criteria on beauty. Today, Janice boldly claims to be the world's first supermodel. Though she was not in reality the first of the supermodels, she is one of the most memorable.

Janice is a former supermodel of the 1980s. She is of Polish and Belarusian descent. This gave her a certain exotic look and blessed her with a bankable beauty. By the age of 14, she already measured at 5'10.

Janice launched her career in the 1970s when the scene was dominated the All-American, blond hair and blue eyes look championed by Cheryl Tiegs and Christie Brinkley. When Janice went to Ford Models, which incidentally represented Brinkley, Eileen Ford told her that she would never work because she was too "ethnic". But this was a time of constant breakthroughs.

Janice finally signed with Elite Models. However, her dark features didn't fit the bill of the courant trends as Eileen Ford had indicated. The models agent, Jacques Silverstein, stepped into the picture thanks to a word from his then girlfriend Lorraine Bracco (future star of The Sopranos) who was also a friend of Janice.

With Silverstein at her side, Janice's career took off overnight. She became a hot attraction in Europe and scored magazine cover after cover. Then success came her way too in the USA. Her exotic look was now in demand. However, back home in the US, success for Janice's look was in part made possible by another famed model, Gia Carangi. Wild, untamable and energetic, Gia and Janice were considered to opposite side of the same two-headed coin.

Overall, Janice scored 37 covers on Vogue. Her face frequently graced the covers of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Photo, etc. She posed for Playboy and for the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. ...

1 2 3 4