Origins & Early Life

Lisa Fonssagrives (born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone; 17 May 1911 – 4 February 1992) was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been one of the first supermodels. Lisa Fonssagrives was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone on 17 May 1911 in Sweden Uddevalla. As a child, she took up painting, sculpting and dancing.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

She went to Mary Wigman's school in Berlin and studied art and dance. After returning to Sweden, she opened a dance school. She moved from Sweden to Paris to train for ballet (after participating with choreographer Astrid Malmborg in an international competition) and worked as a private dance teacher with Fernand Fonssagrives, which then led to a modeling career. She would say that modeling was "still dancing". While in Paris in 1936, the photographer Willy Maywald saw her in an elevator and asked her to model hats for him.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The photographs were then sent to Vogue, and the photographer Horst P. Horst took some test photographs of her. In July 1939, she appeared in the German illustrated weekly Der Stern and was photographed also by André Steiner. Before Fonssagrives came to the United States in 1939, she was already a top model...

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