Rejected in India for being ‘too dark, tall’, Anjali Mendes became Pierre Cardin’s muse - The Indian Express

Rock for one, diamond for another. There is a reason we say, “Johri hi heere ki parakh jaanta hai” (Only a true connoisseur can recognise the worth of a diamond) — and in this story, the heera was Anjali Phyllis Mendes. A dark-skinned Indian model who was rejected in her home country, Anjali found fame and success in Paris when legendary designer Pierre Cardin hired her on the spot for the very reasons she had been rejected in India — she was too tall, too dark-skinned and too skinny.

Born a year before India’s Independence, Anjali’s original name was Phyllis Mendes. “I was born as Phyllis Mendes. I climbed trees, played cricket and did all I could to show off in front of boys”, she told in an interview with Times of India.

While today she is remembered as the first Indian model to make it big in the fashion capital of the world — Paris — her beginnings were remarkably humble. She was the fourth of seven children born to her Goan parents, Cajetan and Flo Mendes.

Phyllis’ father was a representative for Swiss watch brands in India, while her mother was a homemaker. With a large family to support, the Mendes household barely had enough money to educate, feed and clothe all their children.

“We were never rich. I didn’t know money, but didn’t miss it either. We were a loving family where my parents just adored each other.”

The very traits that would eventually make her India’s first supermodel had forced her to become a backbencher in school. “I was a backbencher because if I sat in the front rows, I blocked the vision of students with normal height.”

Never particularly bright as a student, Anjali found solace in books.

Once ashamed of her low ranking in school, she had already predicted her future while speaking to her best friend. “I told her, I will be very famous one day.” Little did she know that life had something extraordinary planned for her.

Anjali Phyllis Mendes started earning at a very young age. When her parents could no longer manage her college and bus fares, she joined a kindergarten school as a teacher to support herself. Her first pay cheque was Rs 65. Things were going well until her father lost his job.

“There was a drain on our funds. I dropped out of college to take up a secretarial course.”

Soon after completing the course, she began working as a secretary to advertising guru Bobby Sista — a move that would change the course of her life.

One day, while travelling on a bus to work, a co-passenger suggested that she apply for an upcoming fashion show. Phyllis, who was struggling financially, decided to give it a shot.

It was a local Indian fashion showcase choreographed by Jeannie Naoroji in 1969, specifically for the Eve’s Weekly Miss India contest.

When she went for the show, Naoroji suggested that she wear contact lenses. Once she did, she was chosen to open the show. The event also featured Shobhaa Rajadhyaksha, now known as Shobhaa De.

The next day, newspapers referred to Phyllis as the “Ethiopian Princess.” This wasn’t in good taste.

That episode helped Phyllis discover her calling in modelling. Her long legs, once considered an oddity, became her greatest asset. “I was called ‘Daddy Long Legs’, but on the ramp, this very feature gave me an edge over others.” Her extraordinary height and long legs soon made her the ultimate choice for opening the shows she was part of.

Speaking to The Times of India, Jeannie Naoroji later recalled, “Those legs, they were made for Paris. Here they treated her as an ugly duckling. There, she became this beautiful swan.”

In 1971, she earned Rs 5,000 from a photo session showcasing the jewels of the Maharaja of Jamnagar.

But her career still wasn’t taking off the way it should have. Her well-wishers, including Jeannie Naoroji and Maureen Wadia, repeatedly encouraged her to try her luck in Paris, where her beauty will be appreciated unlike her home country.

Just as she had listened to the girl on the bus who unknowingly set her on the path to modelling, Phyllis listened to her well-wishers and booked a ticket to Paris. “Armed with a return ticket on Kuwait Airlines and 150 francs, I set off for Paris.”

In June 1971, she reached Paris. The very next day, she decided to meet Pierre Cardin. Draped in a sari, with her hair styled in a chignon and a tika on her forehead, she went to meet the celebrated designer. There, she met Cardin’s assistant and expressed her desire to work for him as a model. Having arrived at 11:30 am, she was asked to wait until 5 pm to meet him. With just 150 francs in her possession, Phyllis eventually went hungry as she waited for Cardin.

When he finally saw her, he asked her to walk and then requested that she show him her legs.

“I had no choice but to hitch up my sari almost till the waist. Fantastique, he said in French and announced that I would be his house model from the next day!”

That one audacious moment transformed her career. She became the house model for one of the most celebrated designers in the world. It was around this time that she chose the name Anjali after the editor of Women’s Wear Daily reportedly called her original name, Phyllis, ridiculous.

She remained Pierre Cardin’s muse for 12 long years. During this period, she also modelled for fashion houses including Ungaro, Givenchy and Schiaparelli. Soon, she became a household name and someone everyone wanted to be associated with.

The Indians who had once dismissed her as too dark-skinned and too skinny suddenly found her attractive.

Following her death in 2010, designer Wendell Rodricks recalled in an interview: “I first saw Anjali Phyllis Mendes with Pierre Cardin in 1989 in Mumbai. The press and Page 3 was fawning over this over-six-feet beauty. In a short mini with a stiff ruffled hem, it seemed like her legs started at her long, slender neck. She eclipsed all the models on ramp. And there was no missing her. That height made her tower like a moving lighthouse over everyone.”

With a successful career, Anjali — who had grown up knowing financial hardship — eventually had almost everything she could have wanted. Except love.

The only man she fell in love with died just before their wedding, and Anjali could never replace him. She remained single for the rest of her life.

“While in Paris, I met an Englishman. A gourmet, he taught me all about food, wine, theatre, opera and made me a Svengali. I fell in love and we decided to get married. When he succumbed to cancer before our wedding, my life lost all meaning.”

Anjali clarified that she did not become a recluse after the tragedy, but she could never marry any man she met afterwards.

Following the loss of her parents in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Anjali eventually quit modelling at the height of her career. She moved behind the ramp, taking care of Pierre Cardin’s India operations and transitioning into a businesswoman. She continued in that role for nearly 18 years, until Cardin and his team decided to shut down their overseas offices in 2000.

Around this time, her favourite hobby became cooking. She devoted herself to putting together a cookbook titled Cuisine Indienne De Mère En Fille. She became people’s favourite host.

Speaking about her life and journey, Anjali once said: “I live for the present. I miss love in my life but accept this as my karma. I am an ugly duckling who transformed into a swan on her own. I have proved all that I had to prove to myself and there are no regrets.”

While the world saw a glamorous and successful model, her close friends often saw the simple Goan girl she remained at heart.

Wendell Rodricks said: “Dinners at her home could mean entertaining the Rothschilds, French nobility and Indian ambassadors. But when they disappeared from her salon in the chic neighbourhood of Montmartre, Phyllis became the simple, hardworking Goan girl she had always been.”

Her friends remembered her as kind-hearted, disciplined, spiritual and intelligent, with a deep knowledge of history, literature, music and culture.

She even cared for AIDS patients at the hospital across the street from her home. She reportedly never gained a gram of weight throughout her life and never believed in Botox.

In 2010, Anjali Phyllis Mendes died from a stomach infection.

From being rejected in India for being too tall, too dark and too skinny, to becoming Pierre Cardin’s muse and one of the most recognisable Indian faces in Paris, her story remains a remarkable reminder that sometimes what one person sees as a flaw is precisely what another recognises as a diamond.