Susan Bottomly, Andy Warhol's 'International Velvet,' Then And Now

By | December 15, 2019

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Model Susan Bottomly, from Wellesley, Massachusetts, models The London Look with makeup by Yardley; and wears a halo of coq feathers on a white satin cap, by Madcaps; behind her is a bundle of pink balloons. (Photo by David McCabe/Conde Nast via Getty Ima

Among Andy Warhol's muses, the model and actress Susan Bottomly, whom Warhol dubbed International Velvet, stood out for her natural beauty. She was one of the Superstars, as Warhol called them, who appeared in the experimental films Warhol made.

Susan Bottomly Was A Teenaged Model

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Source: (entertainmentcentralpittsburgh.com)

Unless you are familiar with Andy Warhol’s work with cinema in the 1960s, you are probably not familiar with Susan Bottomly, aka International Velvet. Bottomly was born in 1950, the daughter of the Boston district attorney who prosecuted the Boston Strangler. After being thrown out of her boarding school four times, she began modeling. In 1966, at the age of 16, her career took off with a cover on Mademoiselle. Rene Ricard introduced her to Gerard Malanga, a poet and regular at The Factory. Malanga introduced her to Andy Warhol. Warhol was drawn to her beauty and fascinated by the way that she put on makeup, saying that “watching someone like Susan Bottomly, who had such perfect, full, fine features, doing all this on her face was like watching a beautiful statue painting itself."