Carole White is a British former

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

, and co-founder of Premier Model Management.

Early life

White was born in

Deal, Kent Deal is a coastal town in Kent, England, which lies where the North Sea and the English Channel meet, north-east of Dover, England, Dover and south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town whose history is closely linked t ...

in 1950 but raised in Ghana. At the age of five she was sent to a boarding-school in England, then later to a convent in Belgium, an experience she described as repressive but one that helped shape her future career and fuel her interest in modelling. She became a model at the Lucy Clayton Modelling Academy, then decided this career was not for her. Instead she became a booker and in 1970 joined London model agency Bobton's, where she stayed for seven years looking after the early modeling careers of

Jo Wood Josephine Wood (née Karslake; born 15 March 1955) is an English model, television personality and entrepreneur. She is the former wife of The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. She accompanied him regularly on tour, looking after his diet. ...

, Andrea Dellal and the

Bond girl A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or (occasionally) an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns, such as Plenty O' ...

Tania Mallet Tania Mallet (19 May 1941 – 30 March 2019)''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' was an English actress and model, best known for playing Tilly Masterson in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'' (1964). Early life an ...

Premier Model Management

In 1981, together with her brother Chris Owen, she founded Premier Model Management. Initially representing 40 girls, they ran the agency from their kitchen table. She was

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British supermodel. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was th ...

's agent when the model became the first black woman to make it on the cover of the French ''Vogue'' in 1988. White is a campaigner against racial discrimination in fashion. In autumn 2010 Premier Model Management allowed television cameras into their offices for the filming of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's ''The Model Agency''. The seven part

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

followed White and her co-workers for two months revealing what life is really like behind the scenes. It aired in the UK in February 2011. Her contract with Naomi Campbell stopped over a dispute regarding a perfume commercial.

Charles Taylor trial

In 2010, White testified at the trial of former

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

n President Charles Taylor, alleging that her former client,

, had accepted

blood diamonds Blood diamonds (also called conflict diamonds, brown diamonds, hot diamonds, or red diamonds) are diamonds Diamond mining, mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity ...

from him. In a statement, White says that she remembers Taylor attending the 1997 dinner in South Africa and saying he would like to give diamonds to Campbell.

Books

References

British businesspeople in fashion People from Deal, Kent British talent agents 1950 births Living people British female models Models from Kent {{fashion-bio-stub