PHOTO: 91-old-year model, Dell’Orefice Carmen, poses nude as she appears on cover of New You

For models Carmen Dell’Orefice and Beverly Johnson, that couldn’t be more true. The two of them appear together on the latest cover of New You magazine — at ages 91 and 69, respectively.

Dell’Orefice — who even posed nude for the photos — has been modeling for decades and previously appeared on the cover of New You nearly a decade ago. When it came to posing nude for the new cover, the model couldn’t have been more comfortable.

“I like to go on the record to say this woman is my idol,” Johnson said. “She is model goals. She’s been a mentor to me and doesn’t even know, and I have the utmost respect for this woman. I know all of her photographs. She has the biggest, most stunning body of work of any model in fashion.”

Both Dell’Orefice and Johnson have appeared in a number of magazines and modeled for countless designers, building careers that are unparalleled in the industry. Johnson made history in 1974 when she became the first Black model to appear on the cover of Vogue, and while that milestone has played a large part in her career, she’s also been vocal about criticizing how the industry treats Black people.

In June 2020, Johnson appeared on an episode of Good Morning America where she told ABC’s Juju Chang that real change has to start at the top, after writing a powerful op-ed about racism for the Washington Post earlier that week.

“There is no diversity in the upper echelon. None. We don’t have a seat at the table. We have no representation in the fashion world,” the author, actress and businesswoman said during the interview. “On the outside now, you’re seeing Black models and you think we’re getting somewhere. But basically, the economics of the business, we are not participating financially.”

Dell’Orefice had her own Vogue milestone when she appeared in the magazine in 1946 at age 15, one of the youngest models to ever appear in the pages of the iconic fashion magazine.

“With [photographer] Irving Penn, I brought my first double page in Vogue to life,” she told New You. “He told me to try to breathe as little as possible and don’t move. Just sit there. Irving was a really good friend to me, and he saved my life physically. He made me go to the Vogue staff doctor to ensure I was healthy enough to work because, in those days, you needed permits due to child labor, especially at my young age.”

Dell’Orefice expanded on her career in her last New You interview in 2015, telling the magazine, “I have had more magazine covers in the last 25 years than I have in my whole elongated career. Today I am in a territory that business considers unmarketable: age and white hair. Slowly, however, I started to own that territory little by little because I stood up for age.”

Part of standing up for her age is embracing her body and her beauty — and taking care of herself. “Men and women should care for themselves and love themselves,” she told the magazine in her new cover story. “One of the secrets to maintaining beauty is doing what you do for a baby, nurturing and feeding the baby with love. That’s what we should do with ourselves: nurture ourselves, love ourselves, and give that kind of energy to ourselves.”