A supermodel who worked for Chanel has died aged 89.
Vera Valdez was a huge star of the 1950s and 60s, enjoying a glittery career of catwalks and film premieres.
She became a leading figure in theatre and European fashion.
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And was even jailed and tortured under Brazil’s military dictatorship.
She then fled to Paris, France, where she modelled for Dior and Chanel.
She passed away on Wednesday (14 Jan), according to the theatre company she worked for many years.
The Teatro Oficina in São Paulo said in a brief statement: “Vera left us this afternoon.
“Fly eternal, Vera!”
Born into a family of artists and journalists in Rio de Janeiro in 1936, her career spanned many decades in fashion, film and theatre.
In the 1950s, she was trained by American model and actress Suzy Parker, who introduced her to Chanel.
She said: “Suzy Parker told me ‘I’m going to introduce you to an incredible woman’, and it was Mademoiselle Chanel.
“Chanel loved me like a mother.”
Vera said they would often dine together and the other models would get jealous.
Chanel would also try to keep her favourite muse on the straight and narrow.
Vera explained: “She would often scold me because I would go out at night and come home late.
“She kicked me out three or four times, but I always came back.”
Chanel referred to her as “the sunshine of the House of Chanel”.
Vera took part in Chanel’s final show before her death in 1971.
By the end of the 1950s, Vera was strutting the catwalk for the French designer and filling newspaper columns with her romances with leading showbiz figures.
She married actor Luís Linhares and they had a daughter together, as reported by Need To Know.
She also started her theatre career at this time.
But the brief marriage ended when Luis demanded a divorce because Vera posed nude for a Brazilian magazine.
She was then romantically involved with filmmakers Ruy Guerra and Louis Malle, who gave her a small role in his 1963 film The Fire Within.
During Brazil’s dictatorship, she was jailed and tortured by the regime of dictator Humberto Branco.
Vera was accused of drug possession and spent up to a year behind bars.
She was only released thanks to the intervention of Malle and his friend Bernardo Bertolucci.
She claimed: “The military tortured me, they wanted me to reveal the names of opposition members.
“They gave me electric shocks and put me in a huge room, like a freezer, full of mirrors.
“I was naked and freezing.
“They took turns to beat me in groups, it was never the same ones.”
She also formed a close friendship with playwright Cacilda Becker and ended her days as a stage actor.
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