The Replacement Girl: A Life in 24 Frames

By John-Michael O'Sullivan

A biography of Barbara Mullen, one of the twentieth century's great fashion models

Monday, 4 June 2018

One Year On

Yesterday was Barbara Mullen's 91st birthday. Or it would have been, if Barbara hadn't decided (very sensibly, quite some time ago) to stay put at 85. 

It was also the first anniversary of our Unbound campaign; a full year since we started to finally assemble this long-in-the-making project, and a year since we began in-depth interviews with a whole host of Barbaras' contemporaries - fellow models, photographers, agents and editors amongst them, located everywhere from Argentina to Zurich. We've seen never-before-seen photoshoots, read unpublished memoirs and diaries, traced long-forgotten links and unearthed whole new chapters to the story. And yesterday morning, right on cue, our fundraising passed the halfway mark, none of which would have been possible without your generosity and support. As we embark on the next stages of the project, we just wanted to pause to reiterate our thanks - both from the (birthday) Replacement Girl, and from myself.

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FIRST EDITION

A hardback first edition of Barbara Mullen’s biography. At all pledge levels, supporters’ names will be featured in the book’s acknowledgments pages.
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UNSEEN EDITION

A special edition of the biography, featuring an extra 24 images which focus on the behind-the-scenes world of fashion modelling. Drawn from Barbara Mullen’s archive, these include contact sheets, outtakes and unpublished alternates by William Klein, Milton Greene and Richard Avedon, as well as a number of personal photographs.
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