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At the close of 1966, in my last year of high school, I was spotted by photographer Richard Avedon at Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball in New York. Though I was an insecure, introverted 16-year-old, Avedon and Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland inspired me to come out of my shell. Within months I was modelling for Vogue and other American magazines.

That summer, having graduated from high school, I flew to London to work in a publisher’s office as a reader. I was not a very diligent reader, seeing as I was out every night dancing at Sibylla’s, or queuing for Top of the Pops , where I encountered The Rolling Stones for the first time. In those days, London was a much smaller place; the class system seemed to be dissolving as actors, artists, pop stars, photographers and the fashion crowd mixed freely with establishment figures and aristocrats.



The synergy created by these different worlds intersecting for the first time was intoxicating. Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter When I first met David Bailey, he was sitting cross legged on the floor of a British Vogue office working on layouts. A few days later we were shooting a story for Vogue at his studio.

The energy between us was cartoon-level electric. Nothing happened that day, but nine months later, I was living with Bailey in Primrose Hill. I was 18, he was 30.

What could possibly go wrong? Our first day together in London we .

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